A deeper look at CloneX, the first NFT avatar collection by RTFKT Studios and creators of the Littles NFTs
In the New Dapps Report: December Edition we take a look at two strong NFT collections that just hit the market, CloneX and the littlest. Each of them responsible for millions of dollars of trading, even though these are two completely different products.
The following document belongs to the “New dapps series”, a set of executive reports that provides users with high-level insights into new and promising randomly generated NFT collections. The report focuses on financial metrics like sales activity and price analysis, distribution metrics like Unique Holders Ratio or the Whale Concentration Index; whales behavioral patterns, and detailed social and technical overviews.
Please, do not consider this document as financial advice.
Data updated on: Dec 6, 2021
Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- CloneX, RTFKT’s first avatar project, has amassed over $120 million in trading volume in only one week after the public sale.
- The littles NFT project has surpassed 5,600 unique holders already while generating over $25 million in trades.
CloneX
- Blockchain: Ethereum
- Launch date: Nov 27, 2021 – Presale | Nov 29, 2021 – Public Sale
- Edition size: 20,000 – Limited Collection
CloneX is the first NFT avatar collection launched by RTFKT Studios. The project, once known as Akira, became a collection of 20,000 randomly generated 3D avatar NFTs. The presale granted access to 11,133 (55.7%) CloneX pieces, while 8,367 (41.8%) were available to mint at a Dutch auction starting at 3 ETH.
The 3D anime artwork is high quality and is one of the project’s main attractives. Something worth monitoring as the narrative around the metaverse continues to gain steam.
Utility
The utility of CloneX is wholly tied to RTFKT studios. As explained by Benoit Pagotto, one of the co-founders, RTFKTs NFTs act as the portal to different experiences, including physical versions of some of their designs. As a brand that focuses on designs, the project’s utility transcends reality. For instance, MetaPigeon minters received a pair of genuine sneakers designed by Jeff Staple.
On the digital side, holders of any of the nine NFT RTFKT selected collections gained access to the CloneX presale for 0.05 ETH. Being part of the RTFKT community by holding one of their NFT creations can clearly lead to substantial returns.
Even though there is no official roadmap for CloneX, the project will follow RTFKT’s direction. As a result this should put CloneX owners in a good position when it comes to expected utilities. In addition, CloneX is positioned to become one of the most sought after avatars in the metaverse.
Financial Overview
As expected, the demand for the collection is high, leading to high trading volumes. CloneX has generated over $120 million in trading volume just in one week following the public sale.
The floor price for the mintvials, the NFTs to redeem CloneX avatars, has already surpassed 3 ETH and has been traded as high as 5.25 ETH. Although most collections suffer a dropdown after the reveal, in the case of CloneX, it will probably translate into high-end sales.
Also, it’s worth highlighting that CloneX has a floor market cap of over $270 million at the time of writing. The number is probably going to increase once the art is revealed.
- Floor market cap: $270,406,400
- Current Floor Price: 3.3 Ξ
- Average sale price: 2.8467 Ξ
- Highest sale: CloneX Mint Vial for 5.25Ξ / $21,141.80
- Initial revenues: Not disclosed
- Unique holders (ratio): 6,368 (31.84%)
- Total Volume: $120,956,666 / 26,877 Ξ
- 7 day volume: $114,937,661
- Buyers vs Sellers ratio: 5.851 (8,180 / 1,396)
- Traders: 9,048
- Secondary market royalty: 5%
Team Overview
The team behind CloneX is one of the most recognizable names in the NFT space and should be viewed as a brand going forward. Founded at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, RTFKT is a metaverse brand that focuses on fashion collectibles.
The three founding members of RTFKT are public and have extensive experience in both games and luxury fashion industries. RTFKT was co-founded by Chris Le, former Creative Director in charge of skinning popular games like CS:GO, Counter-Strike, and Dota 2; Benoit Pagotto – a premium branding and marketing expert with esports organization FNATIC and other luxury consulting firms; and Steven Vasiler, an entrepreneur with extensive expertise in Gen Z and Millennial demographics.
Besides CloneX, the brand has successfully created different series of NFTs that include collaborations with exclusive artist Takashi Murakami, legendary shoe designer Jeff Staples, NFT artist Fewocious, and blockchain project Meta Key. Overall, the team factor is more than compelling.
Community Overview
- Twitter: 137,000+ followers
- Discord: 81,000+ members
- Tik-Tok: 1M+ followers
RTFKT Studios boasts an extensive community that almost reaches over 150,000 followers on Twitter and over a million on Tik-Tok. The demand for a project with strong teams and utility factors normally reflects on large communities, creating a full synergy on the project overall.
On Discord, there are over 80,000 members, of which 36,000 joined last month. The engagement is impressive. Moderators are quite active and the management of social networks is top class.
Technical Overview
There are no major concerns from a technical standpoint. The original public sale was postponed by one day due to high demand and an overflown attack on the CloneX minting site. The team acted professionally, and the public sale was carried out without further incidents.
Like most of the NFT projects, CloneX metadata is stored using IPFS rather than being fully on-chain. Not ideal as the smart contracts and the metadata are separate, but the IPFS is working properly. A challenge that is common in visually rich metadata projects.
- Audit status: no audits committed yet
- Storage: CloneX NFTs are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and graphical assets hosted on IPFS for immutable ownership.
- Contract address: 0x348fc118bcc65a92dc033a951af153d14d945312
Whale Analysis
Whale analysis shows that CloneX is less concentrated than expected. RTFKT backs the collection, and the risk of market manipulation was low, still, it is positive to see a low whale concentration.
Also, CloneX whales hold a distributed NFT portfolio with holdings in CryptoPunks, Meebits, Mutant Apes, and Art Blocks. Also, it is interesting to see that luggis.eth and another CloneX whale have significant positions in their DeFi portfolio, not a common picture in NFT whales.
- Whale concentration ratio: 1.39% – 277 pieces
the littles
- Blockchain: Ethereum
- Launch date: Nov 26, 2021
- Edition size: 10,000 – Limited Collection
- Traits: 7
- Attributes: 135
the littles is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated NFTs living on Ethereum. Even though most of the project’s details remain a mystery, the littles have generated interest around the NFT community. Furthermore, despite having a relatively high mint price of 0.125 ETH, the littles sold out in less than two hours.
Utility
At the time of writing, there are no immediate utilities surrounding the littles. The project’s roadmap does not point towards any particular direction. This might raise red flags, however, it seems that the project is building around its community. Also, due to the collection’s nature, there are plenty of options to enhance the utility factor such as cartoons, merchandise, a game, and even a virtual world.
Financial Overview
Despite not being as hyped as other collections, the littles have generated over $25 million in less than two weeks. Also, even though the project had a higher than average mint price, the collection sold out in a matter of hours, and early investors are at least 178% in profit territory.
Another positive sign of the collection is good distribution. Surpassing a 50% in the unique holder’s ratio is a feat that even some well established NFT projects haven’t achieved. As a reference, CryptoPunks has a 32.58 unique holders ratio while the SupDucks have a 32.57%.
The demand for the project is nice as well.
- Mint Price: 0.125 Ξ
- Floor market cap: $14,087,040
- Current Floor Price: 0.348 Ξ (178.4% up from mint price)
- Average sale price: 0.5569 Ξ (345.5% up from mint price)
- Highest sale: little #2565 for 29.99 Ξ / $121,687.12
- Initial revenues: 1,250 Ξ
- Unique holders (ratio): 5,604 (56.04%)
- Total Volume: $25,080,649 / 5,948 Ξ
- 7 day volume: $4,025,047
- Buyers vs Sellers ratio: 2.003 (10,401 / 5,191)
- Traders: 12,996
- Secondary market royalty: 2.5%
Team Overview
The littles team operates under pseudonyms which might raise concerns in any new NFT project. However, the project’s founder is public, which brings trust in the collection to a higher level.
Wilson Lee, aka Wil, is the littles’ founder. He is a Canadian entrepreneur recognized for his business skills. In addition, he is an NFT expert and member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
Overall, the team seems serious and diverse. It appears like a very complete group, especially when compared to other recently launched NFT collections.
- Creator(s): Wil
- Team: Lurvi, Juju, Michael, et al.
Community Overview
- Twitter: 31,000+ followers
- Discord: 26,000+ members
The littles community is already significant. Despite the Discord channel not accepting any new members around the mint phase, the community remained active and kept growing once they unlocked the channel. On Twitter, the social reach is considerable and the project seems to generate a good amount of interest during the important minting dates.
Since the project looks to be built around the community concept, this factor will probably grow even further.
Technical Overview
The littles metadata is stored using IPFS rather than being fully on-chain. Discerning from the best practice, but a rule commonly followed in the NFT space.
- Audit status: no audits committed yet
- Storage: the littles NFTs are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and graphical assets hosted on IPFS for immutable ownership.
- Contract address: 0xc6ec80029cd2aa4b0021ceb11248c07b25d2de34
Whale Analysis
The whale analysis shows very positive signs for the littles. The top 5 whales hold 287 of the NFTs, showing once again that the collection is very well distributed despite being so nascent (2.87%).
Four of the five littles whales have positions in important NFT projects. For instance, keung.eth holds several pieces of the BAYC family, CyberKongz, Kaijuz, Mike Tyson NFTs among several others. Sighduck.eth, owner of 49 littles, also owns 4 Art Blocks and a whopping 93 CyberKongz, and 96 Cool Cats. While jaft.eth holds 41 BAYC, 1 CryptoPunk, 6 Meebits, and more than 200 pieces from Art Blocks.
Overall, it has one of the strongest whale groups in recently analyzed projects.
- Whale concentration ratio: 2.87% – 287 pieces
Summary
CloneX was one of the most hyped NFT collections ever, so it’s not a surprise to see the collection excel in every single factor in scope. Furthermore, the launch could not come with better timing, as the interest for the metaverse in space is as high as ever. RTFKT excels at combining fashion with entertainment, art, culture, and sports. The team will certainly be one of the most important players in the future.
The littles also show potential. Despite not carrying an immediate utility factor, the team seems experienced and complete, while the community seems engaged in the project. A very positive sign for the littles was analyzing whales. Attracting investors of top NFT projects like CryptoPunks, BAYC, CyberKongz, among others, is definitely a good sign.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your own research. The writer holds positions in +40 cryptocurrencies and owns NFTs from collections like NBA Top Shot, CyberKongz VX, Ghxsts, Cool Cats, SupDucks, Pixel Vault, Avastars, CryptoKitties, VeVe NFTs, Solana NFTs, and 1/1 art pieces.