Amid Market Downturn, ‘Goblintown’ NFTs Have Their Moment

As the non-fungible token (NFT) market continues its slide down, down to Goblin Town, an NFT collection of a similar theme has caught fire.

The collection, Goblintown.wtf, clocked 3,800 ETH (around $7 million) in sales volume over the weekend, the most of any project during that time.

The “Goblin Town” theme is a crypto colloquialism for the bear market, with both the NFT sector and crypto market at large being hit hard in recent weeks.

Part of the collection’s popularity stems from its unconventional genesis. With little marketing hype or anticipation, the entire collection was free to mint, and doesn’t yet have a Discord.

“No roadmap. No Discord. No utility,” the project’s website reads. “Contract wasn’t actually written by goblins.”

Perhaps casting doubt on the website’s claim, when reached via Twitter DM, the team behind the project replied only in goblin: “ₜₕᵤᵣ ₐᵣ ₘₐₙₑₑ gₒₒbₗᵢₙₛ ₐₗₗ ₐᵣₒᵤₙd ᵤₛ wₑ ₐᵣ ₐₗₗ dₒwₙ dₒwₙ.”

The collection’s floor peaked yesterday at 0.75 ETH (around $1,500), though prices have since cooled off to 0.51 ETH ($1,060) for the cheapest editions.

The project also received a boost from a Sunday Bud Light tweet using its goblin-native language.

More than meets the eye?

With the collection’s success being so immediate and seemingly well coordinated, many speculate a more established team may be behind the scenes.

Some NFT sleuths have even floated the idea of Yuga Labs being involved, though moderators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Discord have denied the connection. Yuga Labs did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

The project’s success could be reflective of the NFT market still having some juice left in it, despite overall sales volumes trending down.

Another popular release this weekend was Oddities, a Moonbirds airdrop that saw similar volume numbers to goblintown.wtf and now boasts a 3 ETH (around $6,000) price floor.