21 ETH NFT sacrificed in Game Of Thrones-like fire ceremony
We are All Going to Die became the topic of conversation this week after it paid someone to burn a Mutant Ape. The Ape was worth 21 ETH ($36,597 at the time) and the stunt caused confusion, laughter and anger as people tried to figure out why it happened. As with other new collections that seem to have no purpose, the story behind the burn may just be that: a good story to tell.
Summary
- On June 6th, We are All Going to Die offered to repay people who burned their NFTs.
- One member of the community burned a Mutant Ape to a burn wallet and the story gained a lot of traction online.
- Using the NFT Explorer, we can see that We are All Going to Die is performing well for a collection that came quickly, from nowhere.
A sense of nihilism has set into the NFT world. Ever since Terra collapsed and the Goblins turned up, there’s been an end-of-days vibe across many web3 communities. Perhaps seeing that the old ways no longer work, new projects are ignoring the rules and hoping that people will find value in careless anarchy.
Gone are roadmaps, visibility, transparency and a well-planned minting process. Now, new collections take pride in their lack of clear communication and the people behind them are making a virtue out of remaining hidden. Teams are distributing their NFTs for free and the idea of utility has gone out of the window completely.
Against this backdrop of recklessness, it was surprisingly unsurprising to hear that a member of We are All Going to Die’s community burned a Mutant Ape NFT worth 21 ETH. The first question that comes to mind is, Why?
The Mutant Ape sacrificial bonfire
The outline of the story is simple. We are All Going to Die is a collection of 6,666 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. The team distributed the tokens for free on June 3rd and since then, one has sold for 69.42 ETH and floor price has reached a height of 1.39 ETH. Rumors are circulating that the project’s been in the works for ten months. Other people think it launched hastily, on the back of Goblin Town’s success.
Story-telling, lore and myth are a big part of We are All Going to Die’s appeal. There’s a fan wiki and a strong, dedicated community. The aesthetics are based on blood and glory and birth through fire; think Games of Thrones in pixels. And the idea of burning an NFT (especially one of another collection) fits in with the whole ethos of the project.
On June 6th, We are All Going to Die announced that it wanted a bonfire to ‘make their mark on this world’. They also said ‘their sacrifice will be honored with a grand demonstration of equivalent exchange’. The community worked on the presumption that the value of the burned NFT would be repaid fully to an equal value.
A day later, on June 7th, Mutant Ape #20438 was sent to a burn wallet. A burn wallet is a normal crypto wallet that no one is able to access. This means the Ape is locked away and lost forever. The burn wallet can be found here and you can see the NFT here.
Behind the obviously absurd narrative of burning a Mutant Ape, the stunt did achieve its underlying and completely rational goal: publicity. People online discussed it, journalists wrote about it, web3 Twitter lambasted and celebrated it in equal measure. And for a project built entirely on its own story, We are All Going to Die needs to be talked about in order to exist.
We are All Going to Die’s performance
We are All Going to Die is a week old now. And for a collection minted for free, without fanfare and only a Twitter account for communication, its success has been impressive. Looking at its performance on the NFT Explorer, we can see that it’s dropped across important metrics over the past 24 hours.
Despite these dips, the average sale price is still a healthy 1.16 ETH and if we look at the recent sales, there has been enough recent trading activity to suggest that the NFTs are still in demand. Sales are up 5.62% over the last day and more stunts like burning Mutant Apes might help maintain interest in the project in the weeks to come.
What next for the narrative-based NFTs?
Whether a constant string of attention-grabbing performances will be enough to keep this collection going strong remains to be seen. Rumors are circulating quietly online that We are All Going to Die has lots more lined up to offer its holders and genuine utility might be revealed over the coming days and weeks.
Stay tuned to our blog and Twitter feed to keep up to date with this story as it unfolds. And keep an eye on We are All Going to Die’s performance with our NFT Explorer and NFT Overview tools. It will be intriguing to see how the team behind the project navigates the upcoming period when the crowd moves onto a new story and the narrative is no longer enough to hold their attention.
