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Goblintown NFT migration underway amid carpet rumors
Goblintown sparked major controversy in the NFT space last week. The project changed the metadata of the collection without any warning, angering the holders and drawing sharp criticism from the wider Web3 community. Why did Goblintown change its metadata?
Image credit: Truth Labs
Why did Goblintown change its metadata?
Truth Labs, the company behind Goblintown, decided to replace every Goblintown NFT with the same animated image of a middle finger holding up multiple middle fingers. Above the middle finger, the team included a message that read: “Damn royalties. Damn supporting developers and creatives. Flipping is the heart of the web3 special. Honor flippers, screw society. Long live the slow carpet.”
Truth Labs also clarified the situation with an additional message under the middle finger that said: “Goblintown, Illuminate, The187 and Grumpls will migrate to new contracts before Monday, April 17th. All holders will be airdropped identical replacement NFTs. Please wait until after the migration for to buy. This NFT will have no value after Thursday, April 13.”
Goblintown took the initiative to update their contract to enforce royalties on Blur and OpenSea. The team felt it wasn’t fair that sellers were bypassing Goblintown’s 5% royalties. They decided to announce the contract migration with the project’s trademark communication style, hence the middle finger character.
Image credit: Truth Labs
It backfired. Many holders immediately sold their Goblintown NFTs to WETH offerings. Some assumed the worst and believed Truth Labs effectively burned the entire collection. These people took to Twitter to lash out at Truth Labs, complaining that they were paying premiums for unique assets that had now become tradable.
Other people just didn’t appreciate the tone of the announcement, especially considering that the project is down more than 95% since hitting a record floor price of over 9 ETH last year. This group criticized the project for blaming flippers for the negative price action. Instead, they felt that Truth Labs was responsible for not creating value for the holders and should not be pointing fingers at all (middle or otherwise).
The team followed the metadata change by freezing trading on OpenSea and Blur. However, holders can still trade on Truth Labs’ original marketplace. On Sunday evening, the project sent new matching Goblintown NFTs to holders of the new contract.
What is Goblintown?
Goblintown came out in May 2022 during Ethereum’s big crash from over $3000 to under $1000. Major Twitter accounts warned their followers to sell their crypto holdings as the space entered a maximum pain zone dubbed “Goblintown”. Truth Labs seized the meta by launching the 10k project that poked fun at the crypto space’s collective angst.
The Goblins were playful characters who mocked influencers and the space in general. The team hired artists to conduct huge Twitter rooms where they spoke a goblin language and welcomed listeners to their new home, Goblintown. Floor prices skyrocketed as the project provided a much-needed laugh for Web3.
The Goblintown contract migration, while unpopular and poorly executed, will provide Truth Labs with the necessary funding to support the project going forward. Whether they can remain relevant in the NFT area remains to be seen.
