Japanese NFT News: 2022/09/03

Japanese NFTs

What’s the secret behind WAFUKU GEN’s success?

This week, we had a wave of new collection releases in the Japanese NFT space. However, many of them struggled due to the current tough market environment. In fact, some even failed to sell out and ended up trading below their mint prices.

Among those disappointments, WAFUKU GEN achieved exceptional success, currently trading at 0.03ETH which is 300 times its mint price of 0.001ETH.

In this article, I would like to give you an overview of the strategy that WAFUKU GEN employed. I think it will give you some idea of the current Japanese NFT environment, and a better understanding of the unique anime subculture in Japan.

Yoko

This knowledge may help you to navigate through the Japanese NFT space and choose projects with good potential.

WAFUKU GEN is a collection of 11,111 generative NFTs featuring kawaii girls wearing Kimonos. You can find out more about the project here.

I think there were two main points that contributed to the success of the WAFUKU GEN’s launch.

  • Low mint price
  • Marketing strategy using Japanese fan art culture

The WAFUKU GEN’s mint price was at 0.001ETH – distinctly lower compared to the other projects released this week.

The Japanese NFT market is still in its infancy, and it is estimated that there are only about 10,000 or fewer NFT investors there. However, there has been a rush of new collection releases over the summer. Considering the current size of the market, there doesn’t seem to be enough purchasing power to cover the supply. In addition, many investors haven’t made much profit recently due to the global market’s slowdown.

Yoko

With drained wallets, it is natural that people look for less risky and more reasonably-priced collections.

WAFUKU GEN responded to this market trend and set the mint price at a very low level. This pricing strategy was one of the strong elements of their success.

Also, WAFUKU GEN managed to carry out a powerful marketing campaign called “Summer Emo Festival,” which effectively deployed the unique anime and fan art subculture of Japan. This campaign encouraged creators to draw girls wearing kimonos in the WAFUKU GEN style and post them on Twitter in order to get the whitelist for the mint.


In Japan, the fan art culture is much more established compared to other countries, thus even famous creators are happy to create fan art of IPs other than their own. WAFUKU GEN’s kawaii anime style and an authentic theme of Japanese summer appealed to creators.  As a result, many established NFT artists participated in the campaign.

Yoko
Coming up to the release day, I saw a lot of WAFUKU GEN fan art on my Twitter thread. It was a cost-effective and powerful way to market a project!

I think the analysis of the WAFUKU GEN’s launch explains how a project can do well even in the current weak market. That being said, the NFT space is fast-moving and I expect this environment to change in the near future (if you want to find out details, you can read my last week’s article here).

But for now, if you want to enter the Japanese NFT market, here are my beginner’s tips for choosing generative projects, especially for overseas investors who can’t understand the language:

  • Look for low mint price
  • Check to see if there is any fan art of the collection on Twitter

As you spend more time following the Japanese space, I’m sure you will start to get a feel for the unique anime subculture, memes, and people’s preferences, which should help you make decisions in the future.

More updates to follow next week!

Full disclosure: I own WAFUKU GEN NFTs at the time of writing.

Upcoming Mint Schedule

OKCAT FRIENDS

  • Pre-sale: 03 September
  • Public sale: 04 September
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/OkCat_NFT
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/7nHCQxsxQp

AMATO

  • Pre-sale: 10 September
  • Public sale: 11 September
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/amatonft
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/japandao

EIEN

  • Pre-sale: 17 September
  • Public sale: 18 September
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/EIEN__official
  • Discord: N/A

さぬQN!

  • Pre-sale: 17 September
  • Public sale: 17 September
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/kei31
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/S4gCsxcaTZ

The content is for informational purposes only. Investment/financial opinions expressed by Web3 Zen.com are not recommendations. As always, please do your own research prior to making any investment decisions.

 

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