NFT blue-chip Azuki’s new virtual city Hilumia touches physical and digital worlds

The blue-chip NFT project Azuki has launched a virtual city called Hilumia.

Hilumia boasts a toy store, arcade center, gym and even a romance competition called «Love Island.» The virtual city launched earlier this week to celebrate Azuki’s one-year anniversary, and the project’s trading volume spiked 86% on the day of the announcement, according to the NFT data tracker CryptoSlam.

«Hilumia is an interactive virtual city that is shaped by the community and will expand over time,» the firm told The Block, adding that its native Physical Backed Token (PBT) threads its ecosystem together. «PBT will also play a part in how Azuki bridges digital and physical. For example, the owners of the physical golden skateboard, upon scanning the PBT, will be enshrined in the Ruins.»

The Ruins are another area in the Azuki universe, connected to Hilumia and the bustling marketplace called Alley.

Launched by Chiru Labs on Jan. 12, 2022, Azuki is a Japanese-inspired anime universe, complete with its titular collection of 10,000 avatar NFTs as well as its sister NFT project Beanz, which contains nearly 20,000 cartoon beans to act as sidekicks to Azuki characters. Azuki brought in $120.99 million at its peak trading volume during the week of May 8, 2022, The Block’s Data Dashboard shows.

Chiru Labs was closing in on a $30 million Series A raise in September, bringing the firm’s valuation between $300 million and $400 million, The Block previously reported.

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