NFT…?
Analysis of a Southeast Asian “NFT” project
By now, we’ve all heard about NFT. From $69MM Beeple to the Evolved Ape rug pull, and now the BAYC-Cryptopunk acquisition, NFTs are making headlines since 2021. It’s not hard to understand why millions are wanting to get a slice of the NFT pie, and easier to see without regulation, scams are abundant.
Being the financial center of Southeast Asia, Singapore is not far behind — we have seen a surge of NFT-related projects. With so many of them around, and the NFT market slowing down, how do we identify the next BAYC?
Let’s use a project I have been following since the beginning to illustrate the process I go through when evaluating NFT’s.
(Disclaimer: all views expressed are author’s own. Information contained herein is not intended to be a source of advice or credit analysis with respect to the material presented, and the information and/or documents contained do not constitute investment advice)
Couple months ago, I was invited by someone on LinkedIn to join a Telegram group for a new NFT project. The name of the project is Gendora, and the “mission message” is to empower females via Asian-themed images. I was intrigued and joined the then 30-person Telegram group. Over the past two months, the group has grown to over 400 persons, and have hosted couple in-person events which I attended.
Initially, I chatted with the artist in the Telegram group, found out she is the co-founder in Malaysia; I learnt about her creation process & thoughts behind the artworks. The other co-founder, Rebecca, is the artist’s sister based in Singapore. Rebecca has worked for Axie Infinity for a few months, and says she is a crypto investor herself; she also hosts virtual crypto talks. Nothing stood out nor did anything strike me as odd.
Below is my thought process as I followed this project:
1.Mission statement
Female empowerment. The founders claim there are few females in crypto and they are generating NFTs to empower females. Sure, it’s a nice message that hits close to heart. However, the superficial statements are just that. The founders offered no other insights into the problem nor how their NFTs help with the situation. I usually find such statements by projects who are just trying to ride the hype — they go along with whatever is “in.” But given the project was so new, and their Telegram only had 30 persons when I joined, I’d give it benefit of doubt, judge less, and listen more.
2. Marketing
Art is all about the artist and his agent’s ability to market. When asked, the artist did not introduce her background and how she got into art. However, she did showcase her Instagram account and showed a video of her art creation in Telegram. In addition, her sister/co-founder, found the right message (female empowerment) to garner a certain group’s attention. This gives me the impression that this will be a mediocre project with some initial sales. It wouldn’t have been a good investment, in my opinion, but I wouldn’t had minded purchasing such an NFT to show support.
3. AMA
Gendora hosted two in-person events in Singapore this month. I was there both times. The founder rambled on and on during the first session of why Gendora is such a great project, without getting to the point. In her attempt to educate the market, she made the project mission extremely unclear. This is the result of not having a clear vision, and only an empty statement.
Then came the part where the founder wanted to explain “what is NFT.” She called her husband to go on the stage to define NFT, and he explained it wrongly. He defined NFT as a picture; he further explained when the NFT (the picture) is stolen, then the buyer is left with nothing but random codes. I wasn’t the only one in the audience shaking his head, and I was appalled. A founder who didn’t even bother to understand the product is not one I trust. Gendora’s founder would not have deep understanding of the impact of this technology, nor would she have any vision of where the product could lead — because she doesn’t know what it is!
4. Roadmap
During the in-person events, Gendora NFT was pitched as a utility product. A utility NFT, by definition, needs to have utility — even if the utility isn’t available at the time of launch, the project should have a clear roadmap describing what the utility would be and the steps it would take to realize such utility (how many times have I used the word “utility” in this sentence?).
After speaking with the co-founder, I learnt that Gendora doesn’t have a roadmap, and it doesn’t have any idea of what the actual utility of the NFT would be. It is still just a “nice thought” as of now.
On March 8, Gendora announced a collaboration with MIRL on MIRL providing 10 whitelist slots to the Gendora community. That’s not utility of the Gendora NFT, but it’s a step forward.
Launch and then think is what many NFT projects are doing. This is not how projects should be founded, and I avoid such projects at all cost, because they show lack of thoughtfulness in the product & customers.
