NFT Lab Report: Nakamigos

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How does pixel art turn into the people's PFP?

This was an answer I sought to find out in today's NFT report.

For far too long, I've faded the Nakamigos as yet another pixel art project that was bound to have only a short-lived success.

Seems like I was wrong.

Here's my deep dive into the project, and why they are all over NFT Twitter these days.

Where it started

The project first traced back to Sartoshi, original founder of mfers, tweeting about Nakamigos and how holders of the eos pass would be granted a free mint.

Nakamigos was launched to the public on March 23, 2023, where holders of the end of sartoshi pass had an early access free mint, and the rest were released to the public.

Who is behind Nakamigos?

Given Sartoshi's connections to the project, you might probably guess that he was the founder behind Nakamigos.

But the team came out to clearly reject that notion.

There were also early rumours of the team being Larva Labs (creators of CryptoPunks), but the team has similarly dismissed this.

The founding team, also known as HiFo Labs, has been rather mysterious about their identity.

The only thing we know is that they have been in the space and created NFT projects for the past 5 years, so they are already pretty experienced in this space.

Nakamigos in the news

Nakamigos has been on a tear since, with its Floor price skyrocketing to a high of 0.45 ETH in less than a week.

To put things into perspective, it even had the number of lifetime trades surpassing Bored Ape Yacht Club, just within a couple of days.

There has also been many consistent big sales for rares above floor. There were some notable ones in recent days as well, with the biggest sale so far at 20 ETH.

This is also a positive sign, given the Blur farming trends in recent months that have seemed to relegate NFTs to simply tokens first, JPEGs second.

This was a positive sign, as users were taking the time to purchase NFTs that resonated with them at a premium.

So, why the huge price surge?

Art

Let's start with something a little more tangible: the art and JPEG itself.

The art for Nakamigos is meticulous and ridiculously detailed for a 20,000 supply PFP collection.

This essentially means that there are so many possible combinations of traits, and there is probably 1 or more out of the 20k that you will relate to as a profile picture.

Check out the number of attributes and traits they have!

They have also created an immaculate set of honoraries, consisting of the whos-who in the space.

The list includes folks from different walks of NFTs and crypto, including Snowfro, Punk 6529, Garyvee, Tim Ferriss and the like.

Here's what Bharat Krymo has to say about their art. He put it eloquently:

Culture

When I was doing my research behind the project, the term 'cultural phenomenon' came up a lot.

Most evidently, with no official Discord, the community has self-assembled in many ways.

This includes self-created Twitter Spaces, chat groups, unofficial Discord channels and more.

There has also been many subcommunities spawning out of the community, representing their various traits (e.g. Ghost, Ninjas, Frogs, etc.)

It is interesting to see how these groups form organically, an ode to the decentralisation that crypto offers.

Some examples here:

The many memes:

This has also led to an immense reach and attention on Twitter, where most NFT degens like ourselves reside.

Within just a span of 1 week, the Nakamigos Twitter profile has risen to number 2 of global reach rankings.

There is much more to Nakamigos as a cultural phenomenon that I am unable to describe well.

Here's someone who can, check this out if you are interested in NFTs, culture and the ecosystem in general:

What's next?

To be fair, who knows?

We've seen the rise and fall of numerous NFT projects despite early successes.

The attention span in the NFT space is also known to be absurdly short.

One thing's for sure: The Nakamigos holders do seem to truly enjoy being part of the community, and representing the different types of Migos they hold.

The rise of Nakamigos has also represented a breath of fresh air and excitement, away from the typical pump and dumps and Blur farming in recent months.

Will this become another NFT that simply represented a bright spark in the 2023 bear market?

Or will this grow into a widely recognisable, culturally significant movement that truly turns into a 'People's PFP'?

We'll find out, but we also have a part to play in shaping the future we want to see.

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