Mad Lads gave Solana NFTs a “new heartbeat” after losing DeGods: Coral CEO

Mad Lads is the biggest thing in NFTs right now, like Solana profile picture (PFP) project overcome alleged blackmail threats and DDOS attacks to make out last week—and has generated worth over 15 million dollars of trading volume since.

There is a bright spot for Solana the world after a few tough months. Solana’s token and vibes were shaken by the collapse of the stock exchange FTX and downfall of close allies Sam Bankman-Fried in November. And then in December, the creator of Solana’s prominent NFT projects DeGods and y00ts announced that both would be leaving for other chains, which finally happened in March.

Armani Ferrante, a longtime Solana developer and co-founder and CEO of Mad Lads creator Coraltold Decrypt this week that the chain’s community had “been in this very dark, very crazy place” since the FTX collapse, and that it “had its soul-forging moment” during that time.

Ferrante added that “NFTs are super important to the network,” describing the departure of DeLabs’ DeGods to Ethereum and y00ts to Polygon as creating a gap in society.

“There was this void,” he explained, “where the heart and soul of the NFT space needed to kind of get a new heartbeat, basically.”

In that sense, he chalked up some of the busy Mad Lads response to fortuitous timing, as the project was ready to start just weeks after those projects actually left Solana. But Ferrante also credited the reputation and community goodwill that he and fellow Coral co-founder Tristan Yver had built in the space over the years.

“I think a lot of people saw us — and I’m just speculating here — as a credible team that can execute and who are good people, fundamentally, who care a lot about the ecosystem,” he said.

Mad Lads also marked the first major drop associated with Backpack, an all-in-one wallet app from Coral built around the Solana xNFT standard, or “executable NFT”. Essentially, instead of using NFTs as an access pass to token-gated content on other platforms or websites, they can hold experiences and exclusive content available through Backpack.

The Mad Lads coin was the first major launch for Backpack, which was announced last June. For Mad Lads, Coral developed an in-app story experience that resembled “a collective boss fight” against the Mad King, almost like a raid in the popular online game World of Warcraft. It was part game, part social mission, and altogether a shared experience for NFT holders.

“You don’t have to worry about creating new sites for your user experience,” Ferrante said of xNFTs. “You just use NFT and this is an incredible opportunity for creators to build new stories and create a new meta where the artwork is no longer just artwork.”

“It’s also a living, breathing piece of computer code that can do anything,” he added.

In addition to standalone games and other types of token-gated experiences for holders, Ferrante also sees potential for NFT project creators to “gain leverage in marketplaces,” such as trading potentially valuable screen “real estate” in their apps and targeting collectors to certain trading platforms.

The backpack is available in a public beta on mobile and web right now, and while xNFTs are currently permissioned due to ongoing security audits, Ferrante said, the long-term goal is to open it up to the community for everyone to build on.

“The intention is: when we are confident about the safety,” he said, “we will remove the permit.”

Ferrante promised a flurry of planned announcements ahead around Backpack, including Mad Lads-related content and experiences. And in the longer term, Coral wants to go broad with more chains. Currently, Ethereum is supported through Wormhole cross chain bridgebut Ferrante would like to see community developers help add more protocols – including Bitcoin and Ordinals.

“One of the big ambitions for Backpack is to have every protocol and every blockchain inside a single user interface,” he said.

In Ferrante’s view, Mad Lads’ ascent in not only the Solana NFT space, but also its dominance atop market-wide sales charts in recent days, points to a rebirth for the Solana community. It undoes the damage from the FTX associations and the narratives that formed as a result, in his view, along with the impact of DeGods and y00ts.

“It has a super organic NFT community that hasn’t gone anywhere. I think DeGods and y00ts kind of sucked the life out of the NFT space, but I think it’s completely back now,” Ferrante said. “And it’s not going anywhere . It’s honestly more exciting than ever.”