A few days after the controversial sale of Azuki’s new collection of NFTs, a DAO has emerged as a matter of urgency within the community. The single ballot proposal to “hire a lawyer and help the community recover the 20,000 ETH” received 88% positive support.
Azuki misses the launch of its collection
The members of ‘Azuki DAO’, a newly created community, have proposed a governance vote to decide whether to take legal action against the founder of the NFT Azuki collection. At issue was the catastrophic launch of their long-awaited latest collection, Elementals.
In short, 10,000 ‘Elemental Beans’ could be consumed to reveal an Azuki Elementals that could control air, fire, earth or water. In less than a quarter of an hour, the collection was completely sold out, leaving no time for the public auction to get underway. And this despite a hefty price tag of ETH 2 each. The project raised ETH 20,000 (almost $37.5 million) in the space of a few minutes.
On paper, the community seemed won over. In reality, it was much more complicated. While the mint process was strongly questioned at first, it was above all the design of the collection that caused people to cringe: the Elementals are very similar to the basic Azuki
Comparison of the Azuki (top) and Elementals (bottom) collection designs
A costly miss for Azuki’s team. The gain of almost $40 million was quickly eclipsed by the loss of $140 million in capitalisation for their main collection. Azuki’s floor price fell from ETH 14.44 the day before the mint to ETH 7.1 a week later, a drop of more than 50%.
What is the ambition of Azuki’s DAO?
The title of the governance proposal issued by the Azuki DAO is straightforward: “Hire a lawyer and help the community recover the 20,000 ETH from Zagabond”. In a few words, it is explained that the community has always helped the project to develop and yet the return has been “nothing more than a profile picture similar to that of the original Azuki holders”, even adding that the team is “blatantly ripping them off with promises of empathy”.
If adopted, Azuki DAO’s recent proposal would see a lawyer take legal action against Azuki’s founder. Known only as Zagabod, he would also be accused of “scamming via several projects”, although no further details have been provided.
The proposal would also seek a refund for the sale. The Azuki DAO community would then use it to promote the growth of the Azuki community as a whole and provide rewards and incentives to artists, content creators and anyone else who contributes directly to this project.
Note, however, that the Azuki DAO is by no means an official organisation. The group was formed over the weekend in response to the failed launch of the collection. The BEAN token, used for the governance vote, was sent via an airdrop to all Azuki collection NFT holders.
At the time of writing, the vote had closed with 88% in favour. It will be interesting to follow the outcome of this case, especially as this is the first time that a community of NFT owners has taken its founder to court via a DAO.
