At midnight on June 28, the new series of works Azuki Elemental Beans by the leading NFT project Azuki officially went on sale.

This sale has reserved a pre-sale window for Azuki and Beanz holders, followed by a Dutch auction for ordinary users, with a starting price of 2 ETH. The final price of the three rounds of sales is the same, all depending on the final price of the public sale. If it is sold out before the public sale, the price will be 2 ETH.

It was going to be another hot night.

However, although many ordinary users have prepared their ETH "ready for battle", just like the hot early morning of January 13 last year, despite the lag and delay of the page, Azuki Elemental Beans were sold out shortly after the pre-sale window for Azuki holders and the pre-sale window for BEANZ holders. The public sale window for ordinary users was closed before it even arrived.

As the sale ended, some users who failed to grab Azuki Elemental Beans tried to buy them at a higher price in the secondary market. From what I observed, the bid wall on Blur was pushed up to around 2.4 ETH shortly after it was sold out.

Originally, the story was still going smoothly up to this point, with a popular community and huge financing (a total of 20,000 ETH), everything seemed to be no different from that night last year. Although the floor prices of Azuki and Beanz have fluctuated to a certain extent, considering that some users purchase Azuki and BEANZ in the short term to ensure their chance to buy Azuki Elemental Beans, and they will most likely sell them again after the sale ends, these fluctuations are not unexpected by the market.

Open the picture, what is revealed is Azuki's underwear?

However, with the official launch of Azuki Elemental Beans, the story began to move in another direction.

Although before the release of Azuki Elemental Beans, the Azuki project did not specifically disclose the effects of the series of works, but only released a promotional video with a very explosive style, as a "big move" after nearly a year of preparation, this lack of disclosure has given Azuki Elemental Beans greater imagination. Many community users are convinced that Azuki will take this opportunity to "do something big."

Odaily Planet Daily Note: The judgment of the well-known Azuki holder "Junzhu" before the release represents the views of many community users, that is, the new series "at least will not be too bad."

But as the content of Azuki Elemental Beans was revealed, even the most loyal community users were "broken down" when they saw the pile of "small pictures" in front of them that were almost completely copied from Azuki's original works (there are actually some new pictures, but they account for a smaller proportion).

The two sets of pictures above, one is Azuki, and the other is Azuki Elementals after opening. For users who are not particularly familiar with the features of Azuki, what is the difference between these two sets of pictures...

In an instant, disappointment, anger, and a sense of being deceived quickly filled the entire community.

Some users denounced Azuki’s “sickle” operation, saying that the project team had never thought about making something new, but just wanted to reap another wave of profits. Shortly after the sale ended, the Azuki team quickly transferred out the 20,000 ETH raised in this sale.

Some loyal users even cried out in disappointment and directly criticized that they made a lot of money but were unwilling to be market makers.

Some users also dug up old stories, claiming that the founder of Azuki, ZAGABOND.ETH, who had two rug histories, “returned to his old business.”

Some people also joked that Azuki can earn nearly 40 million US dollars just by Control C+V. Who in the entire industry can match this revenue capacity?

Some ideal users tried to objectively analyze the reasons behind Azuki's bizarre operation. They speculated that the royalty war between trading platforms may have made it difficult for the original Azuki series of works (Azuki, Beanz) to contribute revenue to the project party in terms of royalties, because users can completely bypass royalties through trading platforms. However, Azuki Elementals, as a new contract, can lock in royalties, and its transaction value is greater than that of Azuki and BEANZ before.

In short, with the collapse of community sentiment, the Azuki series of works fell across the board. As of writing, the floor price of Azuki is 9.87 ETH, down 28.29% during the day; the floor price of Beanz is 0.67 ETH, down 43.06% during the day; Azuki Elementals has also broken, temporarily reported at 1.59 ETH; due to the probability of opening rare models, the floor price of unopened Azuki Elemental Beans is slightly higher, temporarily reported at 1.81 ETH.

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.

As community sentiment exploded, the Azuki team finally responded.

Azuki co-founder location tba tweeted an apology stating that the minting process for Azuki Elementals was flawed and severely underestimated the time required for the first and second phases of the presale for Azuki and Beanz holders, and that the duration should have been extended to more than 10 minutes to allow for enough buffer in the event of any problems (which there were indeed).

However, this apology that missed the point has not been generally understood by the community, and more users are still waiting for explanations from Azuki officials and ZAGABOND.ETH himself.

The NFT market is already in a deep bear market. Azuki’s move not only drained away the only liquidity in the market, but the subsequent crisis of trust dealt a direct blow to the entire market. As the narrative of small pictures comes to an end, the NFT industry is eager to find a new direction for growth. As a leading project that was once expected to be infinitely high, Azuki should have set an example in this regard (the community also expected this), but the move by Azuki Elementals is really hurtful.

With his excellent painting style, Azuki attracted a group of loyal community users in the last era of NFT. It was these users who pushed Azuki to its current height, but now, Azuki has to think about how to comfort these injured "family members".

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. This is not just a question of good or bad development, but also a question of life and death.