Goblintown NFT: How it REKT the Bear Market

The current bear market in the NFT space has many pondering the future of NFTs. As if current market conditions weren’t enough, a new NFT project called Goblintown appeared out of thin air. They have experienced more than $41 million in secondary sales since its release. But what is Goblintown and why is everyone talking about it?

Goblintown is a CC0 NFT collection consisting of 10,000 unique Goblin characters. Released on May 19, 2022, the project has no roadmap, Discord, or utility. The NFTs were free. Ever since they have rocketed in price.

Since the launch of Goblintown NFTs, the project has been all the hype in the NFT space. Some people think the extraordinary price tag associated with the project is undeserving. Many believe the price is the result of genius marketing. Though much is still unknown about Goblintown, this article aims to explain everything known up to this point.

The Goblintown NFT project released on May 19, 2022, as a free mint. Those who wanted to mint only had to pay gas fees. The collection consists of 10,000 unique NFTs and boasts 193 different traits, all with varying rarities.

A quick look at the official website reveals that the project has “No roadmap. No Discord. No Utility. CC0.” Furthermore, the team is undoxxed—meaning no one knows who is behind the creation of the Goblintown NFTs. Normally, this is considered a huge red flag in the NFT space. However, it seems that the mysterious nature of this project has people even more bullish.

Upon visiting the website, you will also notice a kindergarten-like literacy with misspelled words, a unique text, and pottymouth language—literally. This intentional speech, we’ll just call it Goblin speech, has ignited a level of curiosity and excitement within the NFT community, which up until this project, has recently vanished from the space.

Before you read any of the Goblin text you have to de-code it, and even then, it’s really just a bunch of gibberish. Here is an example of their unique Goblin code I got from one of their Twitter posts: 

“ₕₑaₕ wₐₜ dₒ dₐ ₛₑᵣᵢᵤₛ ₑₙᵥₑₛₜᵤᵣₛ dₒ fᵤᵣ wᵤᵣₖ?”

Translation: Hey what do the serious investors do for work?

As if the text isn’t difficult enough to understand, the Goblintown Twitter account held a three-hour-long Spaces where over 80,000 listeners tuned in to hear the anonymous team behind Goblintown speak. Throughout the entire three-hour session, the Goblins didn’t speak one coherent sentence.

Rather, they spoke in a Goblin voice chanting “monkey burgers” and “rat degens”, along with other random expressions. Speakers from the audience attempted to harness information from the Goblins but failed. 

Still, the Spaces was a huge success in helping the Goblintown Twitter page foster over 50,000 followers and drove an insane amount of engagement all across Twitter. Moreover, within 12 days since the launch of the Goblintown NFTs, the entry price on the NFT marketplace OpenSea has gone from $0 to more than $11,500 (about 6 ETH).

So you’re telling me that a new NFT project with no future plans, no value, and an undoxxed team that speaks in a Goblin voice is selling for thousands of dollars in a bear market? That’s exactly right! The real question is, why?

At the time of publication, the floor price of Goblintown is holding steady at around 6.69 ETH and has transacted more than $41 million in secondary sales. As a result, the project has quickly jumped to the number one Ranking spot on Opensea, where it has remained there for over a week.

Considering there is a 7.5 percent royalty fee on all secondary sales of Goblin NFTs, the creators have already collected an astonishing $3.1 million worth of fees in less than a month. Cha-ching!

Along with this incredible sales volume comes a lot of talk about the project amongst the NFT community. Netflix’s director of product design, Kristy Tillman, even posted a tweet about the project saying:

Her tweet is in reference to what many believe to be a marketing genesis behind the Goblintown NFT. However, no one knows the intent of the project at this point.

The NFT space is full of curious individuals. And of course, there has been a lot of chat about who’s behind this mysterious project. Many believe that the Bored Ape Yacht Club creators, Yuga Labs, are behind the project.

This speculation is due to a leaked Yuga Labs pitch deck from March 2022. The image depicts a pie chart breaking down the company’s Revenue Channel. Allegedly, 1% of their estimated revenue for 2022 comes from “Goblins (S)”.

Obviously, there’s no way to know for sure if Goblintown falls under the umbrella of Yuga Labs without them coming right out and saying it themselves. But, many people in the NFT community believe this to be the case.

Other subtle signs that Goblintown is something much greater than just another NFT project is that reputable individuals in the NFT space have commented on the project.

Serial entrepreneur and the creator of the VeeFriends NFT brand, Gary Vaynerchuk, even commented on a Twitter post saying:

Gary's involvement with the Goblintown NFT project is still unconfirmed. The fact that he took time to write that comment might be an indicator that he knows something we don’t. Knowing Gary though, he’s more than likely just being nice. He’d rather see others win and build them up rather than tear them down and spew negativity.

To be fair, other respected figures in the space have made comments questioning the legitimacy of the project. One example comes from NFT artist Michael “Beeple” Winkelmann, who was rumored to be part of the Goblintown team. He denied any association with the project saying:

He followed his tweet up with a comment stating, “already lying about team sure seems like top signal to me.”

It’s difficult to say for sure who’s behind Goblintown NFT or if the project is even legit. With no roadmap, no Discord channel, and no utility, there’s definitely a concern for being a potential rug pull. On the flip side, the innovative marketing behind the project and the free mint price leaves a lot of room, not only for speculation but for growth.

After all, Goblintown never promised anything to anyone. Members of the community are the ones who are bullish on the future of this project. And with the CC0, holders of Goblin NFTs have the ability to create something of their own using their Goblin. Perhaps that’s the beauty of this project?

Goblintown has brought a lot of excitement into the space along with a splash of some much-needed color on a slate of gray, known as today’s NFT market. 

What do you think? Is Goblintown the next Bored Ape Yacht Club? Or is it just another Mekaverse? Only time will tell.