Reddit just dropped thousands more NFTs on Polygon from over 100 artists

The major online message board platform Reddit launched its third-generation (Gen 3) NFT collection today, significantly expanding the number of artistic collaborators while shifting its focus to the theme of future realities.

Earlier gatherings began let go on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon in June 2022, depicting the platform’s alien mascot Snoo in various styles and themes. Over the following months, Reddit released Halloween-themed avatars and Super Bowl affiliationgenerating considerable buzz and attractive over 7.3 million unique wallets to date.

The latest compilation looks to expand on that start with a much wider range of artistic output, stretching from 32 artists across the first two compilations to over 100 artists in the Gen 3 release alone, with an obvious aim to attract a wider base of collectors.

Ahead of today’s fall, Decrypt spoke with three of Reddit’s Gen3 artists—one new to the project and two returning from previous releases—about taking part in the internet giant’s NFT initiative, as well as what inspired their avatars.

Alicia Freemanan Australian-based visual artist and children’s author, told Decrypt that Reddit initially approached her to participate in last year’s original collection. She was contacted by Reddit via DMs on the platform and didn’t expect how far-reaching it would eventually become.

“I didn’t even realize I’d get paid for my work,” she exclaimed. “Obviously, I was pleasantly surprised at how big the project turned out to be.”

Freeman’s style embraces mythical and fantastical creatures. With Gen 3’s theme of future realities and the expectation that her fellow artists would lean toward a sci-fi, robotic aesthetic, she decided to create three visually organic avatars.

“I decided to create avatars that reflect the rising sea levels, the struggling bee populations and the inevitable future for us all – back to our original stardust form,” she said.

Artists were given full creative license by Reddit to pursue their creative ambitions, Freeman revealed, as long as their artwork fit within the template of the Snoo character.

Romanian-based digital illustrator Laura Dumitriutold Decrypt that she used the template “to create a new world of colorful and cute characters” – a style that she has become synonymous with across social media platforms.

Bigger… and better?

Reddit’s move into the NFT space has been widely praised over the past year for its artist-centric approach and for reaching new Web3 users. That’s a potentially significant move for mainstream audiences who may never have handled NFTs before, given the millions of avatars offered for free to Reddit users.

The original Gen 1 launch fell under the radar, garnering just enough social awareness to outsell premium (paid) avatars after a month of trading. By the time the Gen 2 launch followed, enough buzz and speculative frenzy had built up around the collection to sell out the paid NFTs within 24 hours.

According to public blockchain data curated by Dune, more than 10.6 million Reddit avatars have been minted to date with a total market value of $74.5 million.

Since entering the space, Reddit has notably avoided the term “NFT” across marketing campaigns, prioritizing a simplified user experience on its platform to attract a native consumer audience that may not be familiar with blockchain technology.

For the Gen 3 release, all artists were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) stating that they would not discuss specific details of the release prior to launch. Despite this, the alleged leak Pictures of the art has circulated over the internet.

With an expanded list of artists, the Gen 3 supply mechanic will use a tiered system based on artists’ popularity. Chris Torres, the creator of popular Nyan Cat memetold Decrypt that he chose to create an avatar style with a supply of 1000 NFTs, while some other artists created up to three characters each with varying supply levels of 75 or 100 NFTs.

“You can’t look at it and think, ‘There are 97 artists, here’s the floor for all of them,'” Torres said Decrypt. “Each artist has their own lore and their own communities behind them, so each piece will go differently depending on who it is.”

Some members of the NFT community have proposed that Reddit’s decision to expand the number of artists will lead to an oversaturation of quantity, potentially diluting the commercial value of the upcoming compilation.

Freeman and Torres shared a more optimistic view Decryptwhich advocates greater accessibility and distribution for art rather than focusing on supply dynamics and potential speculative influence.

“No one really knows what to expect,” Freeman said. “There is speculation at either end of the spectrum ranging from ‘too many artists’ to ‘the more the merrier’ and I can understand both sides of the argument.”

“I feel that with the growth of the avatar community, it was necessary to make avatar purchases more accessible to everyone,” she added.

Internet icons unite

Torres debuts Reddit Collectible Avatars with the Gen 3 release, and his Nyan Cat avatar carries the weight of a world-renowned meme that has amassed over 205 million views on YouTube since April 2011. He previously turned his creation into an NFT collection which has since generated nearly 2000 ETH in trading volume to date.

For the Reddit avatar, Torres wanted to emulate the original Nyan Cat design, as well as give a creative nod to New balloon—a character he created back in 2011 that was recently turned into a separate NFT collection.

“The goal of it was to take the original Nyan Cat – using the original file with all the original parts – and reconstruct it so that it could fit as Reddit’s Snoo character,” Torres told Decrypt. He added that working with existing pixel art is “much more difficult than traditional art” due to having to resize it to fit the avatar template.

Both Reddit and the Nyan Cat are longtime internet icons, and Reddit has even used the Nyan Cat design in the past for medal rewards on its cryptocurrency subreddit. The NFT avatars mark the latest collaboration between the two, with Torres praising the platform for expanding the Web3 user base.

“I’m always hesitant to join new collaborations, but I’ve been on Reddit for 12 years and trust the system,” he said. “It’s really cool to see them create a whole new audience for NFTs and crypto.”