Twitter Declares ‘Death’ of Azuki NFT Collection Following 45% Price Drop

NFTs can have unpredictable price changes, and the Azuki collection on the Ethereum blockchain is no exception. “Azuki is dead,” said the host of the “The Death of Azuki” Twitter Space on Monday evening. 

The bold claim follows the publication of a blog post by pseudonymous Azuki creator Zagabond, who revealed that he was previously involved in a few lackluster NFT initiatives dubbed as “rugpulls” by some.

Within hours after Zagabond’s publication, the Azuki collection’s beginning price dropped from around 19 ETH ($41,800) to about 10.9 ETH ($24,000).

However, Azuki hasn’t exactly had the best month in terms of floor pricing. According to NFT Price Floor statistics, the collection’s beginning price has dropped 56% in the last month and nearly 63% in the last week. To some extent, this higher drop is attributable to the crypto and NFT markets collapsing across the board.

ZachXBT, a self-described “on-chain detective,” voiced alarm over Azuki’s blog post and accused Zagabond of “rugging” on past ventures. A rugpull occurs when the founder of an NFT project announces a project with a grandiose plan, only to depart such project after the initial sale.

So does Web 3.0 = rugging three projects in less than a year ? https://t.co/CzoPiz1Z6G

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) May 9, 2022

But Zagabond denied the rugpull accusations levied against the Tendies, the CryptoPhunks, and the CryptoZunks.

“Do I wish they were more successful? Of course. There was no product-market fit at the end of the day, but that doesn’t mean it’s a rug,” Zagabond said.

In the blog post, Zagabond referred to the CryptoPhunks as a “parody project,” claimed that the Tendies NFTs “wound down” after only minting roughly 15% of the meme collection, and claimed that the CryptoZunks project has “limitations due to gas costs on Ethereum killing the product experience.”

However, some NFT enthusiasts appear to be profiting from Azuki’s falling pricing. The collection had a significant increase in sales, with over 300 sold on secondary marketplaces in a single day.