Morning Minute | Anime Is Coming On-Chain

Anime On-Chain

Shortly after publishing yesterday's Morning Minute, AnimeCoin (which appears to be the rebranded Weeb3 X account) dropped a bombshell announcement that it would be building AnimeChain, an Arbitrum Orbit blockchain with a native gas token ($ANIME), built in collaboration with Azuki and Arbitrum. 

From the announcement..."AnimeChain’s mission is to provide the infrastructure that enables the global anime network to live onchain, governed by creators and participants. The result? An anime experience with deepened fan engagement at every touchpoint with shared upside in the ecosystem." 

I love the sound of aligning incentives between creators and consumers. 

Why AnimeChain? 

Aside from the idealogical aspirations of empowering creators and allowing their consumers to share in the upside, AnimeChain merges two very powerful and growing sectors - blockchain/tokenization and Anime. 

The announcement cited the potential growth for Anime to grow into a $60 billion industry by 2030 and other data I found from Future Market Insights suggests a similar range (or higher) by 2034. 

And while those who are perhaps more technically or tokenomically (that can't be a word) inclined could provide an argument for or against creating your own blockchain, the more that I have sat with AnimeChain being its own thing, the more I've leaned into it as an onboarding tool. 

Improved Onboarding Via AnimeChain

Consider trying to onboard someone close to you to the NFT collection closest to your heart at present time. Likely that involves, creating a new wallet, buying some ETH, sending that ETH to the wallet, finding a deal on one of a handful of NFT marketplaces and purchasing an NFT. 

Few, if any of those touchpoints are personalized in any way. Most are merely robotic, technical actions that are detached from the end state of owning a cute, colorful NFT. 

Where I think things like AnimeChain or PudgyToys can really thrive is not only the ease of getting people on-chain, but also the comfortable manner in which it's possible to put those people on-chain. If your interest is anime, and you're onboarded via anime, to a place that surrounds you with more anime (the thing you like!)...I think you're much more likely to stick around. And hell, you might not even know you're on chain. 

Zagabond, the creator of Azuki, spelled this out a bit in his response to the announcement... 

"So what's possible in the future? Imagine web2 fans captivated by the Azuki anime or our socials, signing up on our site with their email to instantly get an AnimeChain wallet. Imagine them buying collectibles and merch with PBT. Now picture them co-creating the Azuki universe and further strengthening the underlying network." 

While the technical barriers and security concerns persist, in the above example you're never asking the individual to stray from their interests...and you're getting them on-chain. 

Anime hasn't broken into my consumption habits yet, but I'm aware of the potential behemoth the genre is. I want exposure.

Getting Started With AnimeChain

CAUTION: AnimeChain is not live, please do not fall for any posts asking you to take action that do not come from the official AnimeCoin account. Always proceed with extreme caution. 

Although launch details haven't been spelled out explicitly, given the fact that Azuki is the premier launch partner, I fully expect Azuki ecosystem holders and participants to get first access. 

However, the launch announcement clearly states that Azuki is the "first" launch partner. Allow me to speculate here, that likely means that there will be another group of launch partners....perhaps other Anime projects from web3?

Perhaps you'll recall a frenzy other notable anime projects that dropped during late 2021 and throughout 2022. There were so many at one point that we actually considered building an Anime Power Rankings here at Lucky Trader. 

At this point, many have faded from the spotlight, but might those that are still building have a place on AnimeChain in the future? I don't know. I just like speculating. 

I will leave you with one thing that AnimeCoin buried at the bottom of its thread. 

"The anime takeover is starting soon. Get ready at points.anime.xyz." 

🚚 What Else Is Happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $11.45 million in volume on the day ; Bitcoin was next with $10.25 million (-10%) and then Solana with $7.5 million (+3%)
• ETH NFT leaders were red yesterday; Pudgy -1.78% to 12.90 ETH and BAYC -3.75% to 12.75 , and Azuki -6.5% to 4.91 ETH. 
• Runestone led trading of Bitcoin Ordinals, tallying 23.93 BTC in secondary volume. The floor held steady around 0.038 BTC. 
• Mad Lads were the top mover on Solana, but down 6.5%  to 139 SOL. 
• KILLABEARS announced staking of its KILLACUBS will begin on Solana on Friday. 
• NBA Top Shot is immortalizing recent a dunk of the year candidate from Anthony Edwards as an expert challenge reward. 
• RTFKT is postponing the incubation start for its Animus Eggs. 

💰 Token, Airdrop & Points Tracker

Highlighting the major token or airdrop news from the day.

• Machi Big Brother opened up a preseale for a token representing one of his dogs, ultimately bringing in more than $35 million. 
• Well3 opened the public sale for its $WELL token. 
• Pop Punk shared some details about what went wrong with $HOWDY launch, and things he's doing for the longevity of $HOWDY. 
• Ethena Labs announced its airdrop of $ENA, sending a pair of hyper-niche NFT collections that will receive an allocation. 
• AnimeCoin announced it will build its own chain, AnimeChain in collaboration with Azuki and Arbitrum. 
• Juice Finance officially opened claiming for $JUICE. 

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are mixed this morning; BTC +0.3% to $70,430, ETH -0.2% at $3,575; SOL -0.3% at $186. 
• $WIF stablizied around $3.10, but leading Solana cat-coin $POPCAT jumped 11% to a $344 million market cap. 
• The courts wouldn't let Coinbase dismiss the SEC case on all claims, but did dismiss claims against Coinbase Wallet. 
• Zora is letting creators accept payment in the ERC-20 of their choice, opening the door for payment in memecoins and more. 
• Floor App opened up the waitlist for its Floor Wallet Beta. 

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another slower day of drops without major highlights.

With memecoin energy slowing down, it could be a good weekend for any NFTs that catch momentum - so be on the lookout.

It's also a nice setup for a quality stealth drop.

See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor. 

• Nestled - Harmony Wren (1:00 p.m. ET)
• Miragenesi X FingerprintsDAO - The Queue mint (1:10 p.m. ET)
• Cult of Tales, Petra Voice curated by Claire Silver/Transient Labs (1:00 p.m. ET)

Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @lhitch09 or reach out via email logan@luckytrader.com.