The correct way to open the NFT+ blind box: icing on the cake instead of a straw

Do you know what is the hottest   way to sell NFT ? From the initial price sale, British auction, and Dutch auction, to the well-known open version sale and silent auction as Nifty Gateway entered people's vision, every fresh sale method can ignite people's interest.

On January 30th, Boss Logic adopted a new way of selling Nifty Gateway's works, that is, blind boxes.

These 8 pieces of encrypted artwork are based on well-known characters in Marvel, DC, Star Wars and other IPs. The probability of each painting is 12.5%. Each card pack is priced at $300, a total of 504 packs. Now Sold out, the total transaction volume reached 151,200 US dollars.

In addition, NBA Top Shot, NFTBox, and Hashmasks, which have recently ignited the market's FOMO sentiment, have also adopted the form of NFT+ blind box, and they all seem to have achieved good results.

In fact, in the early days, there were discussions on the form of NFT+blind box, and many projects have been benchmarking Bubble Mart, hoping to replicate the blind box trend led by Bubble Mart into the NFT field.

However, the question to be considered is what is the reason for the popularity of Bubble Mart, and how big is the factor of "blind box". Are the success of the above projects all due to the "blind box" gameplay? What is the real reason for the fire?

Blind box is not the only

First of all, let's take a look at how Bubble Mart has developed to its current scale.

In an exclusive interview with the founder and CEO of Bubble Mart by Chen Gei, the founder of Hecheng Animation, Wang Ning mentioned that the success of Bubble Mart can be attributed to four correct decisions.

The first is to help artists to industrialize and commercialize Chaowan to make it more suitable for promotion to the public; secondly, the main audience of Bubble Mart is clearly defined as a group of girls. It is important to know that the target audience of Chaowan at that time was mostly boys; The third is to establish channel advantages and bring the tide of play subculture into the mainstream culture. The fourth is to grasp the timing, thanks to the growth of a new generation of young people and the rapid development of the national economy, so that people can pursue what they love With the ability to fill their spiritual world.

Bubble Mart actually leads a "new retail" trend. The so-called new retail is retail entertainment, turning sales of goods into sales emotions, which coincides with the feelings brought by blind boxes. At the moment of the box, people gain not only toys, but also joy or frustration, and various emotions.

When Chen Gei asked whether the "blind box" played a big role in "new retail", Wang Ning replied, "I think the blind box is just a tool.

The spark hidden behind the "blind box"

If the blind box is just a "tool", then what is the spark that really ignites it? What is the correct way to open the NFT+ blind box? Let us explore one or two through the analysis of CryptoPunk, NBA Top Shot, NFTBox, and Hashmasks that have caused huge discussions.

CryptoPunk: Enduring OG

This project, which was born in 2017, is the OG of the NFT project. At the beginning, it was given to community members for free, and the “blind box” gameplay was adopted as early as four years ago. Users did not know they would receive I don’t know the specific attributes of the CryptoPunk I received. They only know what their CryptoPunk looks like when they receive it. There are actually so many types of CryptoPunk: male, female, ape, zombie, 0 attribute, alien ...Different attributes have different rarities.

With the passage of time, more and more people began to pay attention to the NFT field, and this OG project slowly gained value recognition, and the price of each CryptoPunk began to rise. At present, the historical record of CryptoPunk's highest transaction volume is 605 ETH , which is approximately US$747,000.

What is the reason why CryptoPunk can sell at such a high price? First, because of its historical status, it can also be called intrinsic value. This epoch-making and pioneering project itself carries heavier value; but because of its scarcity, the total number of CryptoPunk is only 10,000, and You know, there are many CryptoPunks that have not been moved since they were born, and most likely they have been lost. This makes them more scarce and the price should be higher.

The spark behind CryptoPunk's "blind box" is historical status and scarcity.

NBA Top Shot: A new dark horse

NBA Top Shot is the hottest project in the NFT field today. Since its launch in the summer of 2020, the closed beta has been launched. In just over half a year, the turnover has reached 42.7 million U.S. dollars, surpassing another veteran NFT project "CryptoKitties". Ranked first.

In NBA Top Shot, players can obtain Moment through the card opening package, each moment has different value. This "blind box" form of gameplay has also been loved by players. Every time a new card pack is released, it will be sold out instantly, and even the server will be down. However, it should be noted here that NBA Top Shot is currently only a beta version, so the server will continue to be upgraded to improve the problem of frequent downtime.

Have you ever wondered why people rush to buy card bags? Because there is a huge wealth effect.

A Zion Williamson and a LeBron James Moment both sold for a high price of up to $100,000. What does this mean? This means that you only need to spend a minimum of 9 US dollars and a maximum of 230 US dollars to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in income, and the rate of return is thousands of times.

The existence of the wealth effect is due to the famous NBA IP. With the official blessing of the NBA, Moment is as valuable as a star card in the traditional collection field. Stars like James, Tsai, and Doncic already have a huge fan base, and naturally there will be fans willing to help themselves. Idol pays the bill.

The spark behind the NBA Top Shot "Blind Box" is the blessing of wealth effect and strong IP.

NFTBox: Artwork endorsed by Pranksy

The name NFTBox may be unfamiliar, but you must be familiar with its founder: Pranksy.

This "crazy" collector earned $9 million through trading NFTs with a principal of $600, and his  OpenSea  account has a large number of NFTs from different NFT projects, which can be called a "NFT Encyclopedia" , Pranksy may be the person who currently trades the most NFTs.

NFTBox is an NFT blind box project initiated by Pranksy. It will be issued in limited quantities every month. The NFTs in the blind box are carefully selected by Pranksy, and collectors will buy it with confidence because of their trust in Pranksy's experience. At present, the transaction price of an NFTBox blind box on OpenSea is around 3 ETH, while the price of NFTBox in the primary market is only 0.5 ETH, which is a full 6 times.

To sum up, NFTBox relies on Pranksy's personal reputation and experience. People are convinced that NFTBox's works are valuable when they recognize Pranksy. On the other hand, Pranksy is also giving value to the works in NFTBox through his own influence, and the two complement each other.

The spark behind the "blind box" of NFTBox is celebrity effect and quality control.

Hashmasks: CryptoPunk+ENS

Hashmasks is a newly born NFT project, similar to CryptoPunk, except that it needs to be purchased. You don't know what this NFT looks like before you buy it. Each Hashmasks is also composed of multiple elements, such as characters, mask types, eye colors, skin colors, etc. Different elements also have different rarities.

In addition, Hashmasks sale also unique manner, using a combined profile (Bonding  the Curve form), with the remaining amount of NFT fewer, the number of unsold NFT will be more expensive, from the initial 0.1 ETH reaches the highest 100 ETH in the future. This price increase drives the FOMO sentiment in the market.

What’s more interesting is that holders of Hashmasks can personally name the NFT. This time, the creation of an artwork is not only done by the artist alone, but also by collectors. The naming requires the cost of token NCT accumulated by the NFT held The total amount is limited, and the final form of the artwork can be determined after the NCT is completely destroyed. This allows collectors and artists to form a closer connection, and the inability to repeat the naming means that the scarcity of these NFTs has once again reached a level, and as the final NFT name is determined, these non-repeated names are also very useful. May be given more uses. It can be said that this project is a bold attempt to combine CryptoPunk with ENS.

Maybe in the future there will be more projects to let collectors participate in the creation of artworks in a better way, but every first attempt is memorable.

The spark behind Hashmasks "blind box" is bold innovation and scarcity.

to sum up

Looking at the more popular NFT+ blind box projects on the market, we can find that the "blind box" gameplay is only the icing on the cake in the entire project. What collectors really pay attention to is the historical status, scarcity, and Intrinsic value, IP blessing, wealth effect, innovation and other characteristics, it is these characteristics that make these NFT projects into people's vision.

First create a high-quality NFT project, then use the blind box gameplay to add to the icing on the cake, instead of creating an NFT project for the purpose of using the blind box gameplay, this is the correct way to open "NFT + blind box".