Thoughts on Azuki:
It’s hard to build in Web3.
Especially in NFTs.
This sector only truly experienced one era of euphoria in 2021/2022.
Since then, even with greater real adoption of PFPs, we’ve been living through a long liquidity drought. The speculation that fueled the first wave is gone, and yet people still expect projects to deliver like it’s 2021.
The truth is: the NFTs we fell in love with, CryptoPunks, early art, cultural tokens, didn’t need “roadmaps” or “utilities.”
They were the utility.
The art, the identity, the belonging, the club: that was enough.
But once projects decided to scale their IP, they had to build companies.
Companies need people.
People need salaries.
Salaries require revenue.
And revenue in NFTs is… complicated... especially in a market where liquidity and hype have evaporated.
To sustain operations, teams had to find ways to keep attention high: bigger roadmaps, partnerships, new drops, and endless expectations.
And when speculation fades, the only lever left is incentives, systems that reward participation and usage.
That’s what we’re trying to solve with Spaace: creating sustainable incentives that drive real engagement even when the market is quiet.
People also wildly underestimate how much it costs to keep a Web3 project alive.
They think it's super easy to build a lasting brand or product from scratch with a few million dollars.
Unless you’re a genius or extremely lucky, you’ll make mistakes. You’ll test, you’ll iterate, you’ll face obstacles, especially in tech.
Every experiment or errors costs money. Every delay costs momentum.
There’s a massive survivorship bias in Web3.
We see the few who made it.
We forget the thousands who gave everything, built for years, and never got the attention, the liquidity, or the revenue to survive.
At the end of the day, most of us are just passionate builders trying to push the industry forward.
We want to create products that matter, that delight users, that change how people experience ownership and community online.
Sure, there are scammers and bad actors, but the market usually takes care of them. Most of us are just here trying to make something that lasts and make a living of it.
👏 So, props to
@Zagabond and the
@Azuki team.
You for sure made mistakes (communication, spending, the Elementals drop) we all know that.
But anyone criticizing from the sidelines should try to build something that survives this long in such a brutal market.
I’m confident you’ll succeed in turning Azuki into the IP it was always meant to be, one that truly belongs in the incredible universe of anime. Wishing you strength and success on that journey. 💪
Not forgetting that you also had the merit of shaping digital identity in Web3, giving birth to recognizable personas and aesthetics that became part of the culture itself.
Some people’s entire digital story is forever tied to Azuki (s/o
@waleswoosh,
@MINHxDYNASTY,
@Sanza, and many others who helped define what Web3 identity looks like.)
Building in Web3 is not for the weak.
And despite the noise, we’re all part of the same story, the one where we try, fail, learn, and rebuild this industry from the ground up.
Let's Make NFTs Great Again 🔥