The much-awaited Azuki Elementals NFT collection has sold out in a record 15 minutes and has raked in a whopping $38 million. Elementals Rakes In $38M In Presale The fervor around Azuki Elementals has resulted in the collection being whisked off just 15 minutes after its drop. The third iteration of the highly popular Azuki universe, the Elementals collection, covers four different domains - Lightning, Earth, Water, and Fire. Although there were 20,000 NFTs in the collection, they did not even make it to the public sale market. The first 10,000 NFTs were directly airdropped to Azuki holders during the recent Vegas event. The remaining 10,000 NFTs were put up for presale, first for Azuki holders and ten minutes later for Beanz holders. The initial plan was to follow the presale up with a public auction. However, the entire collection got sold out within 15 minutes of minting for 20,000 ETH, which is around $38 million. Frustration And Disappointment? The minting process evoked diverse responses, with numerous individuals, primarily Azuki holders, expressing joy and satisfaction over their successful minting experience. However, there was an overwhelming sense of frustration from those who were unable to secure a mint and disappointment from those who were not happy with the NFTs themselves. Since there was no minting cap imposed on the presale, many Azuki holders took the opportunity to mint more than 10 NFTs, with one user minting a total of 332 Elementals. As a result, even many Beanz holders were unable to participate. Plus, many users commented on the Elementals collection, claiming that the anime art bore a striking resemblance to the original Azuki collection. Azuki’s Response The Azuki team has taken the negative feedback in its stride and responded to it on Twitter, claiming that the goal was to create characters that felt consistent with the Azuki aesthetic while offering something new by introducing the domains and the unique traits and features tied to the specific domains. The team wrote, “It's always both challenging & exciting opening up the gate to the Garden. This time, we missed the mark. We hear you - the mint process was hectic, the PFPs feel similar and, even worse, dilutive to Azuki…However, our ambitious goals led to a new collection which confused the community on the tangible differences with the original Azuki collection…Azuki’s vision is to build a decentralized brand. Doing so requires great communication and execution, both of which were lacking with the Elementals sale. We know that we lost a piece of trust today, but nothing gets us more motivated to make things right.” Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
