Last year, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) made headlines and came to the spotlight when the prices of CryptoPunks by Larva Labs, a pixelated collection of digital art referring to the pop-cultural tradition of Cyberpunk, skyrocketed in prices. CryptoPunks was one of the first, experimental NFT collections deployed on the Ethereum blockchain back in 2017. Today, they are classic and serve as a living manifesto of the NFT revolution.
However, now, the times when NFTs nostalgia alone was enough to carry the project, are long gone. The space evolved, developed, and has become highly competitive. Therefore, new collections not only offer art and access to exclusive online communities but also, incorporate increasingly complex and creative utilities.
From perks on the new and upcoming metaverse platforms, through airdrops of future gen collections, exclusive meetups in real life, to passive income via staking NFTs — hundreds of business models are developing around NFT collections.
No need to mention that with multiple collections coming out every day, the only way to survive in this market is to be original and stand out. One collection worth attention is Hape (@HAPEsocial), created and led by Matt Sypien also known as Digimental.
Matt is an experienced British designer. In the past, he worked with brands such as Nike Sportswear, Air Jordan, OWSLA — Kill The Noise/Skrillex, Bacardi, MTV, Lacoste, Reebok, Sizeer, and many others. Now, he combines his two passions, graphic design and fashion, to create an “ape multiverse:” a 3D collection of 8,192 artworks that are about to become a fashion playground for designers.
What is the potential of this project? Huge. Clothing brands constantly look for new ways to build an appeal for young audiences. Burberry recently dropped an NFT collection in the multiplayer blockchain game Blankos Block Party. Adidas has just released an NFT collection in collaboration with the giants of the NFT industry, Bored Ape Yacht Club, on Opensea.
This trend will likely continue — brands desire and need to be present in the metaverse, otherwise, they can fall into oblivion. The fashion industry is worth 3 trillion dollars, the metaverse industry — 500 billion as of 2020. No wonder that the sweet spot on the edge of the two attracts thousands of game- and fashion- designers.
But this is not all. HAPE has much more going on under the hood than just good market positioning. The well-thought-of community-building strategy and the associated tokenomics make it extremely valuable as well. After all, what decides about the long-term success of the project is the eagerness of the token holders to HODL, plus the demand-to-supply ratio. The HAPE team decided to sell the whole collection through a closed private sale, only available to those who consistently contribute to the community.
They also launched a number of channels dedicated to a broad range of topics, from wellness through LGBTQ to career advisory and business development. The inclusiveness attracted hundreds of thousands of members to the project’s Discord group. In just a few weeks time, HAPE has become the most populated NFT community Discord server in the world.
This allowed the community mods to cherry-pick the most engaged users and the brightest personalities for the project whitelist, also known as the “Hapelist.” Only ~1,000 group members received the OG status that allows them to mint two tokens, while the whole rest can only mint one. This strategy makes the project decentralized and prevents it from the domination of “whales.”
In these circumstances, the chances are that the vast majority of tokens will get HODLed indeed — instead of getting flipped at the grand premiere coming up on Digimental’s birthday, 19th January 2022. Is this going to be the best or the worst birthday in Matt’s life? That’s what we are about to see. What is the team occupied with at the moment?
So far, they keep the upcoming partnerships highly confidential, and there are no leaks in the press. However, the Hape promo offers a clear premise, and if the HAPE team delivers on that premise, they are the roadway straight to become the next blue-chip project.
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If you would like to read more about careers (for PhDs and other white-collar professionals) and effective strategies to self-navigate in the job market, please also take a look at the blog of my company, Ontology of Value where I write posts dedicated to these topics.
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