Author: Greg Oakford, Cointelegraph

Translated by: Felix, PANews

Wale, a researcher for the NFT project Azuki, reminisced about his past involvement in NFTs during an interview and shared his views on the recent revival of the NFT market, believing that the interest of new participants is key to the NFT market returning to its peak, and that Bored Apes have begun to attain true collectible status.

Wale minted his first NFT in early 2021 and flipped it for a few hundred dollars, subsequently becoming "immediately fascinated."

"Before getting into NFTs, I had bought some BTC and ETH, but I didn't pay much attention and wasn't really following what was happening in the crypto space until I discovered NFTs. Friends and family in real life weren't interested, but I started paying attention, minting new NFTs on exchanges and buying from the secondary market."

At that time, Wale was studying at a university in Germany and had not yet graduated. Despite making significant profits from NFT trading, he hesitated about fully committing to Web3 because he was working for a German car manufacturer.

Wale Azuki PFP

"Even though I made a lot of money through NFTs at that time, more than any previous job, I also felt that the whole field felt very unreal. I didn't have enough confidence to give up everything else in 2021. So I continued working in marketing for the car company in Germany. I fully committed in late 2022, when the market not only had crashed, but I also started to think more seriously from a creator's perspective, and I was slow to commit fully to NFTs."

Has the NFT Market Recovered?

In the past month, there has been a significant recovery in NFTs. Prices for many NFTs, including CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins (which just launched the PENGU token), and Doodles, have risen.

But has the NFT market really recovered? Wale believes these phenomena are positive, but there is still a long way to go before reaching the frenzy of 2021-22, which was led by the cultural phenomenon of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

The price of CryptoPunks was recently around $50,000 or slightly higher, and it has now surpassed $150,000. With the announcement of the PENGU airdrop, other traditional projects and Pudgy Penguins have also seen significant increases. The NFT rebound has spread throughout the ecosystem, even for collectibles that have ceased operations, which have rebounded by 50% or more.

Wale believes, "For a true recovery, the market needs to generate excitement not only for mature projects but also for the emergence of new projects. We haven't seen that yet. This is similar to how memecoins operate. Many of the best-performing memecoins in this cycle are not the same as those from four years ago."

"From a broader perspective, many of the best-performing memecoins have actually attracted a lot of newcomers and new funds. If a collectible minted for 0.01 ETH or 0.05 ETH can rise to 4 ETH, that would be a true recovery, but we haven't reached that level of excitement yet. The good news is that we are seeing early signs of excitement and interest in NFTs returning."

Bored Apes Achieving True Collectible Status

In the recent NFT surge over the past four to six weeks, CryptoPunks have shown strong momentum for the first time, but many collectors (including Wale) were surprised that, despite no catalysts, the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) doubled. Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins announced the launch of the PENGU token, with Pudgy holders receiving a certain allocation, similar to the APE allocation for BAYC holders in March 2022.

Derek Edwards, a member of Flamingo DAO, coined the term "minimal external dependency." This is a framework for thinking about certain types of NFTs, many of which belong to this category, including many art collectibles and punks. Aside from the NFTs themselves, there are usually no commitments, no catalysts, no airdrops, and no roadmaps. Speculation still exists, but it is not based on the external dependencies that strong IP or game-focused NFT projects might have.

During the last bull market, there was discussion about whether BAYC would fall into this category of minimal external dependency and become a collectible that people simply wanted to own, rather than because they expected future returns. Wale believes that Apes may have shown early signs of moving in that direction.

Wale pointed out two main reasons: first, the launch of the ApeChain ecosystem, where they found something that truly attracts the core community and NFT traders, collectors, and enthusiasts.

The second reason is that Apes are indeed becoming more of a status symbol; they may not have reached punk-level status in Web3 yet, but when talking about mainstream NFTs, 90% of people know the Bored Apes brand, rather than Pudgy Penguins or Doodles. This is closely related to the mainstream attention NFTs received during their boom in 2021 and 2022.

Projects That Continued Building During the Bear Market

Despite a significant portion of NFT projects making many hollow promises and failing their roadmaps during 2021-22, those that persevered and continued to build are starting to gain attention again.

Doodles' recent major collaboration with McDonald's is an example, with 110 million coffee cups featuring Doodles IP. Pudgy Penguins is similar; they launched PENGU this week, collaborating with Walmart and other major retailers selling plush toys, and they have garnered billions of impressions across all major social media platforms.

"From Pudgy's collaboration with Walmart to Azuki's partnership with anime.com, many projects are starting to achieve some results. Even though we have been in a bear market for NFTs for most of 2024, memecoins and the broader cryptocurrency market have performed quite well. From the perspective of projects delivered this year, I think we are doing well, and perhaps we are now seeing the market starting to value it in a way that it hasn't in the past few months."

Quick Q&A

Which NFT projects do you think are currently undervalued?

Wale: I would give a slightly different answer rather than naming a specific NFT project. I think the entire Ordinals space is still undervalued. Among the top five PFP market caps, there are no top Ordinals projects. I think some projects are undervalued, such as Bitcoin Puppets, NodeMonkes, and Quantum Cats.

I am surprised, especially during this Bitcoin rebound, that they haven't performed better in terms of floor price, but I would say that relative to NFTs on ETH or Solana, the Ordinals ecosystem is still undervalued.

Which project do you think will achieve long-term success in 10 years? Doodles, VeeFriends, or Pudgy Penguins?

Wale: I think from the perspective of attention, Pudgy Penguins will have an advantage over VeeFriends and Doodles. Doodles are great too, but the understanding among Gen Z might be a bit less. As for VeeFriends, I wouldn't focus too much on them. They seem a bit disconnected from the daily conversations on NFT Twitter, so I really don't know what they are doing in terms of content.

If I were to rank them, I would choose Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, and then VeeFriends.

Related articles: NFT Market Warms Up: Multiple Leading Projects Announce Token Plans, Blue-Chip Projects Become Recovery Mainstays

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