The origins, the rumors and what we know so far

Nakamigo’s NFT project is raising eyebrows in the Web3 community. After entering the scene with a public coin on March 23rd, the collection took just four days to surpass the NFT giant Bored Ape Yacht Club in lifetime trades and has done 5,423 ETH (nearly $6 million) in trading volume on the secondary market at the time of writing.

The collection’s success undoubtedly rests on two things, neither of which fail to arouse interest in Web3 spheres: the founder’s proven track record and the wildly speculative intrigue surrounding the project’s origins and associations. Here we take a look at what the Nakamigos project is, who is behind it, and weigh in on the rumors that apparently link it to one of the most prominent players in all of Web3.

What is Nakamigo’s NFT collection?

Nakamigos is a 20K PFP project from HiFo Labs, a little-known company that claims their team has been producing NFT and digital projects for the past five years. The NFTs in the collection are 24×24 pixels in a style reminiscent of CryptoPunks. The collection takes its name from the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto (Nakamigos are “friends of Nakamoto”).

According to a blog post from the project, the artist behind Nakamigo’s is “an OG crypto artist” who may or may not choose to reveal his identity at some point in the future. Some have speculated that this artist is none other than Sartoshi, the NFT influencer and crypto artist behind 2021’s popular mfers collection.

The reason for such speculation comes from the fact that Nakamigos’ emergence is closely related to Sartoshi’s history in space.

Prior to creating mfers, Sartoshi had amassed a significant following on Web3 Twitter, which helped bolster the project’s success when it launched in November 2021. However, in June 2022, Sartoshi decided to leave mfers, claiming that he intended to hand over project management and funding to the community in a display of commitment to the Web3 ethos of decentralization.

The move was controversial; many branded his abdication a rye-pull scam, while others noted that the decision was something many in the community had long called for.

To mark his departure from the project, Sartoshi marked the end of the sartoshi – eos passport collection, which served as a sentimental farewell to his community. Six months later, however, Sartoshi returned, and many in Web3 wondered how he would pick up the pieces of a controversial exit and continue with his community.

IN a tweet from February 16, Sartoshi apparently delivered. He informed his followers that Nakamigos was going to be a 20K PFP project and that holders of the eos pass would be given a free coin from the collection one day before it became available to the public on March 23rd. Sartoshi’s exact role in relation to the project has not yet been officially clarified.

Nakamigo’s Origin: A Larva Labs Connection?

Since the Nakamigos were released, the rumors have swirled on Web3 Twitter about HiFo Labs’ potential connection to Larva Labs, the company originally behind CryptoPunks (CryptoPunks sold to Yuga Labs in 2022).

Proponents of this theory point to the collections’ aesthetic similarities and the fact that Nakamigos’ licensing agreement is explicitly modeled after the one that Yuga Labs created for the collection after they bought the IP from Larva in early 2022. There is currently no evidence to support these claims.

Regardless, the Nakamigos clearly felt it was necessary address the rumours, posts “Not Larva. Not Yuga. Nakamigos.” to Twitter on March 27.

Nakamigos holders shall retain commercial rights

What is clear about the collection is that the Nakamigos team gives holders commercial rights to their NFTs, allowing them to monetize them as they see fit. The license agreement states that holders can even trademark their NFT as long as it is actually being “used in commerce” and not just on the basis of intent to use.

Although not a Creative Commons (CC0) license, this type of IP license is quite powerful. Allowing commercialization rights has enabled holders of blue-chip NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club to capitalize on their digital tokens in significant ways, starting up everything from restaurants to wine companies as a result.

Where to buy and notable sales

All 20,000 Nakamigo’s NFTs have minted. eos pass holders got early access to the collection on March 22, and the public coin was published on March 23 in a Dutch auction that started at 1 ETH and went down to 0.01

ETH. However, interested buyers can find them on the secondary market, with the collection currently floored at 0.18 ETH. Some of the rarer NFTs in the collection change hands for far more than that. Nakamigos #7762, who sports a hoodie and an orange helmet, recently sold for 1,690 ETH, and ghostly Nakamigos #3648 sold for a healthy 16 ETH on March 28.

The Nakamigos team has been promoting the project in classic Web3 fashion, having given 24 Honorable Nakamigo’s NFTs to well-known figures and influencers in the NFT environment. Recipients include Richerd Chan of Manifold, Art Block’s CEO Erick Calderon, Seedphrase, collector and thought leader Cozomo de’ Medici and more.

What’s next for Nakamigos?

The future of Nakamigos is as shrouded as HiFo Labs itself. Without Discord and no other social media channel than its official Twitter handle, Nakamigos has so far communicated relatively little to society and is therefore still an esoteric project. But for those looking to pick up a cult-looking NFT from a collection that seems like it aims to be some kind of spiritual successor to CryptoPunks, Nakamigos could be a good buy.

The team’s emphasis on proprietary commercialization rights is another interesting aspect of the project, one that could indicate a larger, as-yet-undisclosed IP game from HiFo Labs.

A number of Web3 projects have made increasingly frequent efforts to monetize their IP over the past year, and some have been successful in doing so. But that can only happen if the Nakamigos community decides to take advantage of these opportunities, which will be difficult for HiFo Labs to incentivize without first instilling greater trust among its holder base. For that, the company has to step out of the shadows a little. Expect it to do so in the not too distant future.