"The Three No's" project Goblintown stirs up a whirlwind in the NFT market

Author: Kyle, Hive Tech

The cryptocurrency asset market has been sluggish for several consecutive days, and the NFT sector is also struggling. According to NFTGO data, the daily trading volume of the NFT market has dropped from a peak of $3.25 billion to around $235 million, a decline of over 92%.

In this quiet market, a "demonic" wind has risen, with an NFT series called "Goblintown" gaining popularity. The pointed-eared goblin avatars evoke images of the goblin guards at Gringotts Bank in "Harry Potter," but with a more grotesque and even somewhat ugly style.

This NFT series consists of 9,999 goblin avatars. Unlike long-term operational NFT projects like BAYC's "Bored Ape," Goblintown's official website directly "gives up": no roadmap, no Discord, no utility.

Despite its challenging aesthetic, Goblintown has become one of the top three projects in terms of trading volume in the recent NFT market. As of June 6, the floor price of this series reached 6.13 ETH, increasing by hundreds of times compared to its initial secondary market floor price.

Following this, a wave of imitators emerged. GoblinGrlz, BabyGoblintown, Gtburgers, and even GoblinPiss NFTs appeared in clusters, creating a goblin family, with cheaper imitators attracting a group of players to buy.

These imitators follow Goblintown's "three-no" approach, reminiscent of the "meme coin" craze that swept the cryptocurrency asset market in May 2021. They have distinct meme attributes, sweeping the investor market with low prices and grassroots culture.

The difference is that NFTs are attached to images, allowing certain consensus and concepts to be more concretely spread through pictures and videos. Goblintown NFTs have been dubbed "satirical reality" by collectors; while NFT avatars typically pursue beautiful aesthetics, Goblintown presents itself as "ugly," attracting players' attention from another extreme. However, one must consider: "the first" will always be remembered, but how long can the mindless followers remain lively? When various ugly goblins flood the market, will it lead to "ugly fatigue"?

The collapse of "meme coins" has already shown that the enthusiasm of the speculative market comes quickly and leaves even faster.

"Pavement-style" Marketing Makes Goblintown Popular

The cryptocurrency asset market has been hovering at low levels for several weeks, filled with a gloomy atmosphere. As a result, the hype surrounding NFTs has also declined. According to NFTGO data, the total market value of NFTs has dropped from a peak of $35.7 billion in January to $26.6 billion, a decline of 25.49%; the daily trading volume of the NFT market has fallen from $3.25 billion to around $235 million, a decline of over 92%.

In this quiet market environment, a group of ugly, absurdly styled "goblin" avatars has unexpectedly gained popularity. This is an NFT project called "Goblintown," which began minting on May 21, distributing 9,999 pointed-eared goblin avatars for free to NFT players, with users only needing to pay the on-chain gas fees.

When Goblintown's official minting information was disclosed, not many people paid attention to it. Its official website has a domain suffix of "wtf," and upon entering, one finds a desolate scene with a background of a goblin-filled town, where two goblins are conversing, and the page clearly states the project's "three-no statement"—no roadmap, no Discord, no utility.

If the issuer of BAYC "Bored Ape," Yuga Labs, follows a high-end commercial operation route for NFTs, Goblintown's "three-no statement" seems to be a form of giving up. The anonymous team behind it designed each goblin avatar without considering the future of these NFTs, almost abandoning the copyright attributes of NFTs and implementing a "no copyright reserved (CC0)" policy.

Soon, NFT players discovered that things were not so simple.

In the following days, Goblintown continuously engaged in "pavement-style" marketing on its official Twitter, first revealing "Yuga" information through goblin dialogues, sparking speculation about whether it was a hidden project of Yuga Labs; then, Goblintown claimed, "We are Steve Aoki," referring to the well-known DJ, with a long-haired goblin avatar resembling the musician; later, the project found a goblin avatar resembling crypto artist Beeple, claiming to be Beeple.

This wave of tantalizing marketing quickly raised Goblintown's profile, and many influential KOLs in the NFT space began to pay attention to and promote the project, leading to the goblin avatars becoming popular.

In the first week of June, the trading volume of the Goblintown series NFTs firmly occupied the top three spots on the NFT market leaderboard. By June 5, the market value of Goblintown NFTs exceeded $100 million, and as of June 6, the floor price of this series reached 6.13 ETH, increasing by hundreds of times compared to its initial secondary market floor price.

Goblintown's rise to fame has attracted the attention of many crypto enthusiasts and even outsiders, who are trying to find answers to its explosive popularity amidst surprise and confusion. Some lament that perhaps being extremely ugly is beautiful; others believe that the goblin's ugly and messy appearance satirizes the pursuit of exquisite aesthetics and commercial operations in NFT projects; still, others feel it reflects the current chaotic and cold crypto market. Interpretations vary, and there is always a perspective that resonates with NFT collectors' psychology.

Imitators Emerge as the NFT Market is Swept by "Demonic" Winds

After Goblintown became a hit, it attracted numerous followers. In recent days, several new NFT projects based on goblin prototypes have emerged, such as GoblinGrlz, BabyGoblintown, Gtburgers, and even GoblinPiss, as well as Zombiestown, which imitates Goblintown's style.

Among them, GoblinGrlz was created by someone using the pseudonym Jen. This series features female goblins and claims that 15% of initial NFT sales will be donated to the nonprofit organization "Girls Who Code," and 50% of secondary sales will support the careers of women and non-binary artists in the NFT space. GoblinGrlz states that they have no connection to Goblintown, but they "like Goblintown and want to help expand its ecosystem."

BabyGoblintown consists of a collection of juvenile goblin NFTs; GoblinPiss features various actions of goblins urinating; Zombiestown adopts a zombie art style, with the project stating on its website that "they have risen from the cursed land to support the spirit of resistance in the great war against the ancient race of Kharis (dirty elves)."

Among these projects, except for Zombiestown, which has a Discord community, the rest all follow the "no roadmap, no Discord, no utility" approach like Goblintown. Led by Goblintown, the "goblin family" has transformed ugliness into artistic expression, rapidly sweeping through the NFT market like a virus.

Statistical websites show that several goblin imitation series have made it into the top ten of the recent Smart Money inflow rankings. Although the floor prices of these projects are not high, mostly ranging from 0.01 ETH to 0.2 ETH, they still demonstrate strong liquidity and trading volume. This indicates that the market's enthusiasm for NFTs is revolving around goblin elements.

It is well-known that NFT avatar series like BAYC "Bored Ape" and CryptoPunks have been embraced by the community due to their well-known issuing teams and long-term development plans, gradually becoming top brands with high prices, almost becoming luxury items in the NFT market. In contrast, most goblin NFTs have anonymous teams, adopting the "three-no" principle, with lower prices, directly opposing high-end NFT series.

Does this remind you of DogeCoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) in the cryptocurrency asset market? In May 2021, these two old and new crypto assets sparked a "meme coin" craze in the market, with various crypto assets named after cats and dogs attracting investors with super low prices. They either rallied investors to play the "消零" game under the banner of grassroots culture or created marketing topics in the market under the guise of "no grand ambitions." The popular internet meme culture was thus introduced into the crypto space, even forming a "meme coin" sector.

Now, this meme culture has re-entered the NFT market with more concrete visual expressions.

Some NFT players have commented that Goblintown has brought an absurd, comical, and nonsensical performance to the crypto art circle, interpreting the value of "ugly art." "They look messy, dirty, and foolish, but if you savor them, you'll find that these NFTs are full of irony, either mocking laziness and self-righteousness or ridiculing the volatile market." He believes that the goblins present a form of dark humor, which is why they have gained market recognition.

Undeniably, Goblintown has indeed brought more diverse expressions to NFT content creation, along with aesthetic shocks. Although current NFT avatars vary in form, pixel art, simple drawings, ape series, and anime can also lead to aesthetic fatigue for avatar collectors. Exquisite art styles sometimes resemble mass-produced items, losing the individuality that avatars as social expressions should convey. For example, a sea of ape avatars or laser eyes on Twitter seems to offer little more than a display of identity as crypto enthusiasts.

In contrast, Goblintown's rebelliousness brought by differentiation and reinterpretation carries a hint of artistry.

However, the same issue arises: when a large number of goblins flood in, the uniqueness will disappear, leading to aesthetic fatigue as well as "ugly fatigue."

With pioneers like CryptoPunks in the pixel avatar category, people will remember the rebellious first demon Goblintown. If followers do not bring new creations, they are likely to become second or third tier, or even disappear from the market altogether. Thus, collectors and investors of goblin imitators may very well become cannon fodder in the speculative market, and the drama of "meme coin" collapse may play out once again.