Neo Samurai Monkeys are the perfect examples of vibrant anime-style NFTs from Japan. These eye-catching monkeys have attracted many collectors, and they have become one of the most well-known projects in the Japanese NFT space.
So what are Neo Samurai Monkeys?
This article explains everything you need to know about the project!
- Neo Samurai Monkeys is a 3,600 PFP collection released in May 2022
- It was created with the themes of “evolution” and “fusion” providing a unique holder experience
- The founder, Big Hat Moneky, is a Japanese entrepreneur managing a PR company – his identity hasn’t been disclosed
- It has innovative strategies like the introduction of SAL Tokens and the Fusion Mint Mechanism
Full disclosure: I own Neo Samurai Monkeys NFTs at the time of writing.
What are Neo Samurai Monkeys NFTs?
Neo Samurai Monkeys (NSM) is a collection of 3,600 profile picture NFTs (PFP) launched in May 2022. At the time, it was one of the most anticipated generative collections in Japan, and the whole collection was sold out within a minute after the public sale started.
Neo Samurai Monkeys: OpenSea (As of Oct 13, 2022)
| Items | 3,600 |
| Owners | 1,067 |
| Floor Price | 0.13 |
| Volume Traded | 360 ETH |
| Market Cap | 539.49 ETH |
| Unique owners | 30% |
| Listed | 5% |
NSM was created with the themes of “evolution” and “fusion”. The idea is that these sleeping monkeys evolve into powerful samurai monkeys, and they may eventually fuse to produce another character. The collection provides a unique experience to its holders based on these themes.
NSM consists of hundreds of unique traits such as weapons, backgrounds, and accessories with different degrees of frequency. Although there is no official rarity catalog available, you can find unofficial rankings by Trait Sniper here.
The Team Behind Neo Samurai Monkeys
There are three core members behind the project:
- Big Hat Monkey: Founder & Creative Director
- Tomo: Community Manager
- OxSumo: System Support
Big Hat Monkey, the founder, is an entrepreneur who owns a PR company in Japan. His expertise in marketing and event promotion played a key role in the success of NSM.
Prior to launching NSM, he had produced two NFT collections, Big Hat Monkeys and Samurai Monkeys By BHM. Although on smaller scales, both collections had been successful and had helped him to build a strong community before launching NSM.
Tomo is a well-known community manager in the Japanese NFT space. He also manages a famous Japanese collection, Neo Tokyo Punks.
OxSumo is an established Web3 engineer.
So far, none of the members have revealed their identities.
Neo Samurai Monkeys: Roadmap
The team has announced the following roadmap so far:
- Introduction of SAL Token
- Fusion free mint
- NSM x CYBER TRIBE airdrops
- Development of Play-to-Earn game
Introduction of SAL Token
The team is in a process of introducing the SAL Token. The details are:
- SAL Tokens can be used for various activities within the NSM community
- It doesn’t have any monetary value
- NFT holders receive 5 SAL Tokens per day
The tokes have been implemented since September 2022.
Fusion mint mechanism
This mechanism will be available for holders who own more than 2 NFTs. Holders will need to spend 630 SAL Tokens to mint a new Fusion NFT.
WIP（ラフ）
フューーーーーージョン！！ pic.twitter.com/kgy3Ay0nO1— Big Hat Monkey（大帽子猿）SAL Token & Fusion (@BigHatMonkeys) June 29, 2022
Fusion is scheduled to go live about one month after the introduction of SAL Tokens.
NSM x CYPER TRIBE airdrops
This is a collaboration with CYBER TRIBE, a 3D gallery platform developer. Together, they have created a 3D gallery, which will be airdropped to NSM holders in late July.
CyberTribeからNSMコラボのギャラリー『NSM Dojo』のプレビュー動画が公開されました🔥🔥🔥
かっこいい〜‼️🤩✨ https://t.co/biB96jU1ai— Big Hat Monkey（大帽子猿）SAL Token & Fusion (@BigHatMonkeys) July 10, 2022
Development of Play-to-Earn (P2E) game
This is a collaboration with CryptoGames Inc, a Japanese blockchain game developer. The owners of NSM will be able to play NFT Wars, the P2E game being developed by CryptoGames. More details will be announced in due course.
Neo Samurai Monkeys Price Chart & Analysis
Price Chart
NSM’s initial mint took place in May 2022 at the prices of 0.03ETH (pre-sale) and 0.05ETH (public). Unlike most other NFT collections, NSM’s price didn’t drop after its reveal (when the NFT designs become available).
The price has always been relatively stable, and the recent support level has been around 1.2ETH.
Holders’ Characteristics
The tables below show the characteristics of the NSM owners.
The chart indicates that the majority of the holders (75%) have owned the NFT since around the time of the initial mint.
Also, NSM’s holdings are well-distributed with about 65% of the owners having less than 3 pieces. It also has a low proportion of whale owners.
The percentage of listings on OpenSea is around 5%, which is lower than average for collections this size.
Analysis
In this section, I want to dig a little deeper into the project. As a holder of NSM, I will share some of my thoughts and analysis with you.
Looking at the NSM community and its strategy, these points have stood out so far.
- The founder’s commitment to the community
- Innovative strategy
As I joined the NSM Discord group, what stood out to me the most was the founder’s active involvement and commitment to the community.
Unlike many other NFT projects, which claim to be “community-based” but founders are hardly around, the NSM’s founder, Big Hat Monkey, is often available on Discord communicating with the members. He is extremely attentive and often takes the members’ ideas on the development of the project.
Big Hat Monkey is innovative and often comes up with exciting utilities and collaborations.
Because of Japan’s tight tax regulations on cryptocurrencies, Japanese NFT collections have not been able to introduce utilities as freely. However, NSM has come up with the idea of the SAL token and become the first Japanese NFT collection to introduce the token system.
Big Hat Monkey’s progressive strategy should continue to benefit the project especially when the Japanese cryptocurrency regulations change next year.
Although NSM is an exciting project with much potential, the fact that the founder’s identity hasn’t been disclosed could influence the future growth of the collection. Although Big Hat Monkey is a well-respected Web3 figure in Japan, that may not be enough to convince overseas investors in the future. Considering that most team members of global blue-chip collections have been identified, Big Hat Monkey may need to consider disclosing his identity to gain more trust from the investors.
Summary
- NSM is a 3,600 PFP collection released in May 2022
- It was created with the themes of “evolution” and “fusion” providing a unique holder experience
- The founder, Big Hat Moneky, is a Japanese entrepreneur managing a PR company, but his identity hasn’t been disclosed
- It has innovative strategies like the introduction of SAL Tokens and the Fusion Mint Mechanism
You can check out more about the project using the following links:
