Paradigm-backed NFT project Art Gobblers has recently become the center of attention within the NFT space. The project’s 2,000 free mint Gobblers sold for as much as 15 ETH minutes after the launch. In total, the collection has already generated over $50 million worth of secondary sales. In this article, we explore the hype and the story behind this NFT project.

What is Art Gobblers NFT Project?

Launched on Monday, Art Gobblers is an Ethereum-based NFT project from “Rick & Morty” co-creator Justin Roiland and crypto investment firm Paradigm. Paradigm calls the project a “decentralized art factory owned by aliens.”

The project is called Art Gobblers because they gobble art. More specifically, they eat the creator’s artworks and turn them into 1/1 NFTs using in-game resources. The artworks are then displayed in the belly gallery of Gobblers forever.

However, what makes the project stand out is its attempt to create a self-sustaining NFT ecosystem, and Goo tokens are an essential part of that. Goo tokens are produced by Art Gobblers, and are used to produce the blank pages needed to make art. Paradigm detailed:

“The supply of Goo grows faster every day, starting at hundreds and eventually reaching billions and beyond. So, the game can’t be balanced by giving items fixed prices in Goo. Instead, a mechanism called VRGDA automatically adjusts prices over time to target a desired issuance schedule, adjusting prices up when sales are ahead of schedule, and down when sales are behind schedule.”

As of now, Art Gobblers’ GOO token is trading at $224.61, down by 72.4% over the past 24 hours, according to data by CoinGecko. The coin has been trading in the range between $189.81 and $814.33 over the past day, showing extreme volatility.

Initially, the project intends to issue Blank Page VRGDA at a rate of 69 per day. However, it will eventually slow down to a constant 10 per day “to ensure a high bar and focused attention from the community.”

The Controversy Around Art Gobblers Allow List

Art Gobblers had a free mint that consisted of 2,000 fully animated Gobblers. Given that players will be able to mint 8,000 more Gobblers over the next 10 years, the number of free mints was pretty significant. It also explains why some Gobblers sold out for as much as 15 ETH just after their free mints.

However, the project’s unprecedented success has been overshadowed by controversy surrounding how its community discovered, promoted, and financially benefited from the project. That is because many notable NFT influencers on social media, content creators, and famous personalities had successfully minted one of the NFTs.

This led to speculations that some of these high-profile collectors might have been compensated with free and valuable NFTs in a bid to create hype around the project. One Twitter user said:

“Last Tweet (I hope) on Art Gobblers. This image is flying all over NFT Twitter. I am not accusing anyone of impropriety. But many people (including me) think the NFT game is rigged. People won’t continue to play a game they think is rigged. Expect more folks to quit.”

While the controversy around Art Gobblers is yet to resolve, the project is certainly an innovative attempt to inject creativity and activity into the NFT space. However, it remains to be seen if the project manages to maintain its popularity and significance in Web3 in the long run.

Meanwhile, according to data by major NFT marketplace OpenSea, Art Gobblers currently has a floor price of 8.8 ETH, or around $14,000, down by almost 50% over the past day.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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