Revenue breakdown (2022)
Chiru Labs managed to capitalize on the NFT bull run in the first half of 2022 to generate more than 90 million USD across multiple revenue streams throughout 2022.
The majority of the revenue came from the NFT mint and royalty earnings of the main collection Azuki with $30 million and $44 million respectively, followed by $12.5 million in royalty earnings from its second collection Beanz. While mints are one-off events, royalties are earned each time an NFT item is sold on a secondary market like OpenSea. Chiru Labs earns 5% on sales from its Azuki, Beanz, and Bobu collections. The Azuki and Beanz collections had $887 million and $250 million in trading volume respectively in 2022.
Additional income in 2022 included the Skateboard auction and the Ambush Merch Drop. The team auctioned off 8 gold-plated skateboards using for an average price of $309,000 utilizing their newest technology – the “Physical Backed Token” (PBT). Demonstrating the same technology, Chiru Labs partnered with fashion brand AMBUSH® to sell exclusive hoodies and pendants to the community for another $1 million.
Note:
This analysis assumes that the 5% royalty fees were always enforced on the secondary market. One important shift the NFT market witnessed at the beginning of 2023 is that new marketplaces like Blur have made royalty payments optional for users. It is yet to be seen how this affects Chiru Labs’ products and business model.