The NFT project MekaVerse has exploded in popularity with the "Gundam" concept, with a trading volume exceeding $46 million in the past 24 hours
MekaVerse is actually not authorized for release by the Gundam production team, but community operation has become the key to the project's explosive popularity.Author: Richard Lee
Recently, the NFT project MekaVerse has gone viral in domestic and international NFT communities under the name of the famous 1980s Japanese mecha anime "Mobile Suit Gundam" (hereinafter referred to as "Gundam"). Currently, its Opensea floor price has reached 5.6 ETH, with a trading volume of nearly 13,000 ETH in the last 24 hours, equivalent to about 46.65 million USD, making it the top-ranked series of NFT works on Opensea in terms of trading volume over the past 24 hours.
Image source: MekaVerse official website
According to the project's official website, MekaVerse is a collection of NFT works inspired by elements of Japanese mecha anime (Mecha, a genre of Japanese animation), with a total of 8,888 pieces issued. Each piece is personally modified by the team and sold through a blind box lottery system. The official stated that over 120,000 addresses participated in the lottery, with a cost price of 0.2 ETH per NFT. Winners can mint their own Meka, but the actual appearance of the works will be revealed on October 10.
According to the MekaVerse team in an interview with Forbes, the project plans to create a metaverse platform similar to Loot, asking, "What if your Meka could evolve into a Super-Meka? What if you could combine your Mekas? What if you could battle with your Mekas? Imagine if your Meka could wield swords and other weapons and fight each other."
In the Chinese community, there are rumors that the project is an NFT work released by the Gundam team, often referred to as Gundam NFTs. However, according to MekaVerse's official description and recent official information from Gundam, this is not the case. MekaVerse was created by two European 3D artists, Mattey and Matt, who claim that each NFT is an "original" work. Additionally, the reporter verified that the official accounts of Gundam and its production studio Sunrise have not mentioned any authorization regarding MekaVerse and NFTs recently.
How did this grassroots project become popular? According to Forbes, after MekaVerse launched on August 31, it was shared by Twitter NFT influencers like Julien van Dorland and Loopify. Subsequently, within 48 hours, MekaVerse's Discord community gathered 100,000 members. As of now, the total number of members in this Discord community is 240,000, which is at least three times the number of users in the Discord of mainstream DeFi applications like Uniswap.
The MekaVerse official website also states that the project has great potential in physical creation and is in discussions with renowned art toy manufacturers to bring our concepts to life using high-quality materials through 3D printing, but it still needs to maintain a "sense of mystery" for now.
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