Reddit captured the attention of the Web3 space yesterday with the release of its third-generation NFTs. The social media giant quickly sold out the release to mostly positive reviews. What do we know about the newest Reddit NFT drop?
What do we know about the third-generation Reddit NFTs?
The third generation of Collectible Avatars features artwork from 100 different artists, over 3x the number of artists from the first two generations combined. Reddit gave the artists creative control over their pieces, only stipulating that the artwork had to involve Snoo, Reddit’s alien-looking mascot, and involve a theme of “future realities”. The results are impressive.
Australia-based artist Alicia Freeman created three different characters. She based her Collectible Avatars on environmental themes. She stated, “I decided to create avatars reflecting the rising ocean levels, the struggling bee populations, and the inevitable future of us all—returning to our original stardust form.”
Chris Torres, the artist behind the iconic internet meme “Nyan Cat“, took a different approach. He decided to create just one character with a higher edition size instead of creating multiple avatars with smaller edition sizes. Torres explained, “You can’t look at it and think, ‘There’s 97 artists, here’s the floor for all of them. Each artist has their own lore and their own communities behind them, so each piece will go differently depending on who it is.”
Did the drop go well?
The demand for the Reddit NFTs overwhelmed Reddit’s online store. The site crashed during the mint process and some people criticized the release’s lack of anti-bot measures. Apparently, there was no CAPTCHA involved in the minting process and bots were able to purchase 300,000 assets in approximately three seconds.
Regardless, demand for the Collectible Avatars was strong. The collection has already generated $585,000 in sales volume since mint. Floors have held up well and Reddit fans have taken to social media to flaunt their newly purchased digital identities.
What were the previous two Reddit NFT drops?
Reddit announced its intention to release NFTs in July 2022. The sprawling messageboard site then partnered with Polygon to build its own NFT marketplace. Since then, over 7.4m unique wallets have collected pieces from the Collectible Avatars collection.
The first release consisted of 40,000 mostly-free unique digital assets. For many, this was the first time they had ever owned an NFT or interacted with a Web3 wallet. To that end, many people credit Reddit for helping to nurture the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
The second Collective Avatars drop was a paid drop. Reddit smartly allowed non-crypto natives to purchase the assets with credit cards, helping to smooth out some of the pain points required to buy NFTs. The Gen 2 sold launch sold out within 24 hours.
As the insane demand for the most recent Reddit NFT release indicates, there is still plenty of demand for digital assets even during a down year for NFTs. Companies like Reddit joining the Web3 space helps to foster the adoption of blockchain technology, and it never hurts to have a character as cute as Snoo around to help soften crypto’s sometimes edgy image.
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