Street Machine Pumped Tenfold in 11 Days. Here’s What We Know About the Latest NFT Phenomenon
Street Machine saw its NFTs prices multiply by 10 since October 7, even though the collection’s items themselves have yet to be revealed.
Taking the Streets by Storm
The bear market isn’t keeping all NFT collections from generating hype.
Street Machine, an NFT collection that launched on October 7 on OpenSea, has seen the average price of its items (which have yet to be revealed) rise from a low of 0.04 ETH on its mint day to 0.41 ETH at the time of writing—an impressive 1,125% increase considering the adverse market conditions in which the collection debuted.
Built on Ethereum, Street Machine aims to be a story-driven NFT project that allows holders of Street Machine NFTs to have a say in developing an online graphic novel. According to the project’s website, the NFTs themselves—all 8,000 of them—represent characters in the Street Machine universe, some of which could have a major impact on the story. Contrary to previous Story NFT collections, Street Machine claims to offer a well-plotted and easily graspable narrative, told in three parts, that invites holder participation while remaining fun and surprising.
One of the collection’s main selling points is its spectacular art, which combines anime, cyberpunk, and sci-fi aesthetics into highly distinguishable characters reminiscent of Azuki. Each NFT is hand-drawn by PUBG artist SpenzerG, whose avowed inspirations include Metal Gear franchise lead designer Yoji Shinkawa’s own creations. The collection promises 500 different traits and several “1-of-1” unique characters. Reveal is scheduled for the next few days, though no firm date has been announced as of yet.
The economic dynamics of the collection are also worth noting. The team claims that its core products are its brand and graphic novel. The stated purpose of the NFTs, then, is to raise funds for the project and make the IP available for others to co-own, as commercial rights will be given to holders of Street Machine NFTs—similarly to how the Bored Ape Yacht Club functions. Future merchandise, games, and physical collectibles have also been alluded to. The Street Machine team stated it wouldn’t have a “whale role status,” meaning that it’s not planning on keeping an outsized portion of the collection’s NFTs for itself.
So far, their actions seem to align with their words. The mint price for the NFT collection was set between 0.01 ETH and 0.03 ETH, meaning that the team raised between $108,000 and $324,000—a rather modest sum in comparison to other launches in the space. On the other hand, creator fees have been set at 7.5% on OpenSea, which is relatively high. Subsequent upgrades, mints, and airdrops have also been alluded to.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.