Midway through 2022, we find ourselves in the grip of a full-blown bear market.
Leading cryptocurrencies are down 20%, whereas other altcoins have lost more than 90% of their value. So, we’re not joking when we say there hasn’t been much faith in the market as of late!
Investor uncertainty is at an all-time low, as evidenced by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Similarly, blockchain activity is declining. DeFi’s TVL has decreased by more than 50% as money has moved off-chain and back to traditional resources.
What About the NFTs?
Despite this, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have remained relatively normal and undisturbed. The bear market has had minor impact on NFTs. Some NFT projects have raised floor prices to keep up with rising demand. As a result, there’s a mighty good chance that the next NFT Summer might be on the horizon.
But for now, ladies and gents… this is the time for free mints and degen bets, some of which will definitely be shooting the lights out!
WHAT ARE FREE MINTS?
People often assume that free means worthless. Yeah, perhaps that was the case previously, but not anymore! With free mints, NFTs have once again broken the mold. This approach allows you to mint NFTs for free, simply paying the gas fees. But it differs from airdrops (where NFTs are directly placed into your wallet!)
The wonderful thing about free mints is that they can help you make tons of ETH. Let’s look at a recent example from goblintown.wtf collection.
Goblin Town NFTs launched as free mints on OpenSea. People first overlooked the initiative (typical!), which didn’t get much attention. Nevertheless, things changed quickly when the bear markets hit, and the team established unique Twitter Spaces events.
By making weird noises, the gibberish-speaking subculture gained popularity. Goblin Town took Twitter by storm and quickly became hugely popular (we’ll discuss this and other super cool free-to-mint collections below!)
Of course, those who previously took full advantage of the free mints benefited the most. As a result, the industry has become more aware of the possibilities of free mints. People are now swarming to grab every last free mint available to create their ETH fortune.
DO FREE-TO-MINT NFTS ACTUALLY WORK?
The Short answer: yes.
Free-to-mint NFT launches appear to be performing perfectly. And why should they not? After all, free-claim NFTs have existed for a long time, with some even providing the basis for other prominent projects established in recent years.
Free-to-mint NFTs may be traced back to the early days of NFTs. Even the introduction of CryptoPunks, one of the most popular NFT projects ever, was focused on free-to-claim principles.
‘Punks’ was released in June 2017 and was first given away for free to anyone who wanted them. However, because you needed an Ethereum wallet to obtain one, supply was restricted to people already interested or involved in the crypto space.
However, while the CryptoPunks claim remains a shining example of early NFT success, others have taken up the free-to-mint cause.
Notably, Loot, the brainchild of Dom Hofmann, was released on August 27, 2021, without warning, as a free-to-claim NFT on a first-come, first-served basis. This initiative triggered a cascade of succeeding projects that spread the free-mint idea.
Of course, things have changed dramatically since CryptoPunks was initially released into the world. Free-to-mint NFTs work, and they function rather well as a vehicle to launch a new NFT project.
Although, when it comes to the secondary market for free mints, things become a little more complicated, leaving many to doubt if they’re viable in the long term.
WHO STANDS TO GAIN THE MOST FROM FREE MINTS?
At the moment, it appears that free-to-mint NFTs are only booming for large-scale projects. In general, free-to-mine NFTs reinforce the idea of exclusivity and almost always generate a lot of attention.
Like, who wouldn’t want a free NFT from a project with tens of thousands of followers on Twitter? Total no-brainer… it’s an NFT flipper’s heaven!
While public sales and Dutch auctions require collectors to plan and time their purchases, free-to-mint NFTs create a free-for-all, causing widespread FOMO (fear of missing out) and frequently resulting in those nasty gas wars. Finally, paying 0.1 or even 0.4 ETH in gas to mint a single free-to-mint NFT isn’t really free.
These sorts of NFT drops are undeniably fun for those who participate and benefit—and they generate excitement in the larger NFT community—but they aren’t suitable for everyone. While the teams behind the large-scale free-to-mint NFT collections will profit by collecting an (often unexpectedly high) proportion of every secondary market sale, independent artists are unlikely to make much from a free-to-mint drop.
Given that many artists, even ones with a large fanbase and big 1/1 sales in the past, still struggle to sell their NFTs independently, minting their pieces for free is unlikely to produce much cash.
Of course, this depends on the artists and supply vs demand since we doubt Beeple will struggle to sell a small number of limited-edition pieces anytime soon!
Yet, this mismatch may be more indicative of an unspoken lesson of the NFT market than of free-to-mint NFTs: just because something works for one person/group (i.e. free-mints, utility tokens, companion collections, airdrops, etc.) does not indicate it will work for everyone!
FREE TO MINT NFT COLLECTIONS TIPS
Scams are becoming a massive worry as the popularity of Free-to-mint NFTs grows. Typically, these schemes leverage malicious smart contracts to deceive investors into parting with their NFTs. So, to avoid free mint NFT scams, it’s essential to be careful.
Here are a few things to remember:
- Mint the NFTs with a burner wallet. A burner wallet is separate from your primary, permanent wallet and holds limited funds. Even if the project turns out to be a scam, your valuable assets will be protected and safe.
- Don’t ever mint with your hardware wallet.
- Understand the fundamentals of NFT smart contracts so that you can detect fraudulent activities within a contract.
- Avoid clicking on any questionable or unverified links. Finally, before linking your wallet to any site, always double-check.
Overall, like with other NFT initiatives, it is free to mint. NFTs offer both upsides and downsides. While some legitimate projects can get you into the NFT ecosystem for free, others could be a scam or fail to pick up. Finally, before making any investment decisions, DYOR.
TOP FREE TO MINT NFT COLLECTIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
GOBLINTOWN.WTF
The Goblintown NFT collection features 10,000 hideous-looking Goblins in the collection. Despite their weird art and lack of a clear roadmap or utility, the NFTs quickly climbed sales rankings, perplexing many observers!
Goblintown now leads the OpenSea standings in terms of trading volume over the previous 30 days. Already, the project has a 5 ETH floor and a total sales volume of almost 35,400 ETH.
Few people know how this free-to-mint NFT initiative attained such phenomenal popularity, but there are many guesses circulating!
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE (WAGDIE)
WAGDIE is another free-to-mint NFT effort-making waves in the NFT arena. WAGDIE, like Goblintown, rose to prominence after posting a creepy clip on Twitter.
Not to add how the WAGDIE crew purchased a MAYC NFT and then burned it. The stunt achieved precisely what they hoped for: a major PR lift.
WAGDIE has 6,666 NFTs portraying pixelated, gloomy humanoids dressed in medieval garb. WAGDIE also provides no roadmap or utility—it even lacks a webpage!
However, the project is being criticized for allegedly taking artwork from the popular video game Magic: The Gathering. Despite this, its floor price is 0.29 ETH, which is more than the bulk of NFT collections during this bear market.
FOR THE CULTURE
For the Culture NFT project not only made it free to mint, but also paid the minters 0.01 ETH. The project’s official Twitter page states, “No roadmap, no website.” Just for the sake of culture.” Further, its OpenSea bio adds, “If you are reading this sh*t you came for the meme and stayed for the culture. Never underestimate the power of memes fcker.”
NFT Influencer, Artchick, first mentioned the idea of an NFT project that would pay miners 0.01 ETH in a tweet about the project. Sibel, the proposal’s creator, took note and went on to launch the For The Culture project. So far, the collection of 5,000 NFTs has generated 2,100 ETH in sales.
MOONRUNNERS
Moonrunners, a free-to-mint NFT collection, follows in the footsteps of the projects described above and comprises a set of 10,000 PFP NFTs.
A team of six artists, developers, writers, and advisers produced this collection. The creators come from around the world and have worked on projects before. It also lacks a roadmap and Discord.
Moonrunners is also a story driven NFT project. The legend goes as follows, according to the project’s website:
“For the longest time, this Wolfpack lived in harmony and peace on Primordia among humankind, but one month would change the course of history forever, and now the Crimson full moon is coming once again…”
Collectors and fans can track the project’s progress on Twitter, where it already has over 14,000 followers. The idea is to “enjoy the ride.”
If you’re keen to learn more about NFTs and how you can launch an NFT project, get in touch! We offer a range of NFT marketing-related services such as community building, content creation, promotion, and strategy.
Let us take care of the complexities while you do what you do best—building your project!