The Hyped Anime NFT Project of 2022

Valhalla is a collection of 10,000 anime-inspired NFT avatars. The collection is created by Stacked Studios and runs on the Ethereum blockchain. According to its official OpenSea page “Valhalla represents more than a collection of digital avatars. It represents decades of gaming culture: the clutch plays, the ELO grind, the OT wins.” The Valhalla NFT project aims to redefine web3 gaming in a major way. There are five core character types in the collections, namely – Human, Toxic, Mech, God, and Demon.

8,510 NFTs are Humans (the most common) in the collection. Furthermore, there are 645 Toxic and 647 Mech-type Valhalla NFTs. The collection is rounded out with 99 God-type and 99 Demon-type Valhalla NFTs. Valhalla holders get exclusive access to Stacked Studio offerings. Valhalla is also a utility-enabled PFP project for gaming and streetwear enthusiasts. NFT holders have access to an exclusive community, events, and digital drops.

What Is Valhalla NFT?

Valhalla is a crypto-native brand for gamers. According to the project’s discord, VALHALLA is “an NFT project building a community for gamers around the world.” They are building a tailor-made experience for their members who are passionate about gaming and culture.

In the last 30 days (as of the time of writing), Valhalla has accumulated over $15 million in total volume. According to DappRadar, it is also the 6th best-performing collection in the last month on the Ethereum network. With over 12K ETH total sales and 3K unique holders, the project still mints with a floor price of 1.13 ETH. Valhalla has 38% unique owners with 17% of its collection re-listed.

Their official launch video follows two characters going through a futuristic Cyberpunk meets The Matrix-type world. The pair navigate through multiple timelines and dimensions along the way. Some of these include Blade Runner-Esque futuristic cities, to castle lairs with a huge dragon. The video then ends with the two protagonists in a snow-washed forest.

A new era will rise from the ashes.

Together, we will build until Valhalla. pic.twitter.com/WVmMNMIqa5

— VALHALLA (@valhalla) November 14, 2022

Who Created Valhalla?

Valhalla is a top-tier NFT gaming project founded by Alex Lin, who also founded Stacked Studios. Stacked Studios is a Los Angeles-based Web3 startup studio building a decentralized live-streaming platform. The NFT project is built by a team of 11 full-time employees at Stacked Studios. The group has immense web2 and web3 experience, coming from prestigious institutes including MIT. Some of the team also come from the world’s top companies – Microsoft, Uber and Goldman Sachs, etc.

The fully doxxed team is as below:

• Alex Lin – CEO
• Ryan Wen – Chief of Staff
• Victor Cheng – SR Software Engineer
• Samantha Chow – Product Manager
• Terry Kang – Software Engineer
• Roberto Berwa – Software Engineer
• Ding Zhang – Lead Software Engineer
• Matt Henderson – Software Engineer

Some of Valhalla’s gaming partners are as follows:

• Wardell – Pro Valorant player
• JD Gaming – The #1 League of Legends team in China
• Talon esports – Premier Esports team in Asia-Pacific
• Sentinels – Esports team (Valorant, Fortnite, Halo, Wild Rift, and Apex Legends
• T1 Esports – 3x World Champions (League of Legends)

The Valhalla NFT project positions itself to become the number one gaming NFT community in the world. Valhalla ran a unique application process for their mint. Existing members sent out referral codes to friends, so the application pool grew purely by word of mouth. This unique model saw the project generate over 11,000 applications, making it a huge web3 success story!

Currently, the project has over 24,000 members on their active Discord server. Valhalla NFT holders also gain access to certain Discord channels that non-holders can not enter. Users without a Valhalla NFT can only access the basic Discord server.

Moreover, according to Valhalla’s official NFT  Twitter, the project has over 48,000 followers since May 2022. But beware, a lot of fake accounts of the project are already on social media. Collectors must follow their official accounts to avoid scams and fraud.

Valhalla vs Azuki NFT: What Happened?

The web3 brand has also faced its fair share of conspiracy. And this one is up against another well-known Anime-themed project – none other than the top NFT collection Azuki. The whole thing started out when crypto detectives NFT Ethics wrote a detailed thesis on both these projects. Apparently, both the projects have the same founders and Valhalla would be nothing more than a scam. Of course, both the projects’ communities got dragged into this and spiraled into controversy.

For those unfamiliar, Azuki is a digital brand associated with 10,000 avatars. It is the first of its kind, top Anime-themed avatar collection to ever exist. Since its release, the project has constantly innovated in the space, bringing new and improved technologies to further its expansion into web3. Many consider Azuki to be at the forefront of web3 innovation still. The founder of Azuki is Zagabond alongside co-founder HoshiBoy. And this, as NFT Ethics points out, is the source of the controversy.

Valhalla NFT Founder Alex Lin also founded Stacked Studios. In their original thread, NFT Ethics claims that Alex Lin and HoshiBoy are the same people. This is because both have similar biographies on their official websites. The official Azuki website displays Hoshiboy as a design lead who “did Y-Combinator twice”. Whereas, on Alex Lin’s official Twitter, it states that he’s a 2x Y-Combinator founder. Alex Lin’s profile previously also showed him as the design lead.

But things took a turn when the community responded to NFT Ethics. In fact, they debunked this theory themselves in the next thread they put out. They state that Alex Lin and Hoshiboy are not the same people but rather “long-term business partners”.

However, the response from various community members and the majority of people was disagreement.  They called NFT Ethics out saying that all of this is an overthought conspiracy theory. Some even claim that NFT Ethics has a personal agenda against both collections. Moreover, they also said someone paid NFT ethics to stir the drama to negatively impact both Valhalla and Azuki NFT collections.

Although, it is undeniable that both collections do share similarities in their art style. The characters of both collections are anime-theme avatars. Each NFT in both their collections only has side profiles shown. Additionally, both projects cater to web3 gaming as well. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone to compare and contrast both these projects. But there are no limits to web3 and having one Anime themed collection does not mean someone cannot make another successful one in this space.

The Future Of Valhalla

Valhalla has built a tight-knit community on both Twitter and Discord since its launch. With over 11,000 applications for early access, the gaming partnerships they’ve already formed, the team’s background, and the overall quality of the brand, it’s safe to say this is a long-term-minded project. The NFT team builds for the far future and caters to one of the most profitable sectors on the blockchain – web3 gaming.

Additionally, Valhalla is already funded with years of runway and will predictably integrate well into the Stacked Studios ecosystem. In September, Pantera Capital led a $12.9 million Series A funding for Stacked Studios. The innovations and future prospects of Valhalla are a promising path for its web3 community.