Nov 15, 2021
First tweet
Start of Twitter and Discord communication.
Jan 06, 2022
Saving transaction fees for the NFT space
Chiru Labs created ERC721A – a more cost-effective smart contract for minting NFTs. This happened when Ethereum transaction fees (gas) in the market soared, causing minting costs to reach up to hundreds of dollars.
ERC721A has since then become a standard contract for any NFT project that seeks to save gas, with over 2K Github stars and adoption from major projects in the space like @doodles and @RTFKT
Jan 12, 2022
Azuki $31 million sale
Azuki sold out $29 million within 3 minutes of their public sale. The next day, the private whitelist sale generated another $2 million. This brought the total mint revenue to around $31 million for the team.
The public sale was priced at 1 ETH (around $3,400 at the time) with 8,700 NFTs up for sale. The private sale was priced at 0.5 ETH where another 1,100 NFTs were up for grab.
The remaining 200 of the 10,000 collection is held by the team for developing the IP, marketing, and partnerships.
Mar 06, 2022
Democratizing governance of Bobu
Bobu, one of the main characters in the Azuki universe, was fractionalized into 50,000 single NFTs. Each Bobu NFT fraction represents one vote.
This distributes the decision power of ‘transfer, sell, and governance’ of Bobu into the hands of the community – a demonstration of decentralized IP in the web3 philosophy.
Mar 30, 2022
LA Garden Party
The Azuki team hosts a “garden party” in Los Angeles, accessible only to Azuki holders (+1 guest).
Free food, free drinks, and Wiz Khalifa performed as a guest.
Mar 31, 2022
BEANZ Airdrop
Zagabond announced during the LA party that every Azuki holder was airdropped two “mystery boxes”.
These boxes later turned out to be “BEANZ“, the new Azuki companion collection.
Apr 16, 2022
Bobu is the first NFT to go to space
Chiru Labs sends 2,000 Bobu Tokens (~$1M) into the International Space Station via a Ledger wallet for 31 days.
This marketing initiative came from a partnership with a student-run research project from the Grand Canyon University.
May 9, 2022
Zagabond’s controversial past of abandoning NFT projects
After rumours spring up that one of the Azuki founders, Zagabond, abandoned multiple NFT projects, he posts a long-form blogpost providing background on his past ventures. Many community members see this as a non-apology.
Find more details here.
May 21, 2022
Tiger Jacket Airdrop
Every Azuki holder receives a digital jacket token – redeemable for a physical, reversible bomber-jacket.
Jul 22, 2022
“Enter the Alley” Experience In NYC and Zagabond doxxing event
Azuki hosts a two-night and day event in Chelsea Market, celebrating Street-Art, -Fashion, -Food, and Music.
American Rapper Lupe Fiasco performed on the second night in New York City.
Zagabond revealed his true identity in public for the first time.
Oct 17, 2022
$2.5 Million “Physical Backed Token” Skateboard Auction
Chiru Labs introduces their newest technology – the “Physical Backed Token” (short PBT). 8 gold-plated skateboards using the token are auctioned off for an average price of $309,000.
Nov 7, 2022
$1 Million Azuki x AMBUSH® Merch Drop
Merch collaboration with Streetwear brand AMBUSH® further utilizing the PBT technology. Hoodies cost $575, Necklaces $425. A total of 720 tokens were redeemed.
Nov 17, 2022
RedBull Racing And Bybit Partnership
Azuki partners with Red Bull Racing and Bybit to put the first-ever NFT character on a Formula 1 car.
According to Bybit, putting the Azuki on the race car was for free.
Jan 18, 2023
Bilibili Partnership
The team partnered up with major media platform Bilibili – the YouTube equivalent in China.
Jan 27, 2023
Azuki Twitter Hackers Stole $758K
Two weeks after Azuki announced their mysterious metaverse city Hilumia, a hacker group took advantage of the hype and broke into the Azuki Twitter account.
The scammers deployed a malicious smart contract via a tweet about a fake land sale – baiting victims and stealing $758.576.68 USD worth of assets. The Azuki team regained control of their accounts after 4 hours.
Find more details here.
June 23, 2023
Follow the Rabbit
Azuki hosts an IRL event in Hakkasan, Las Vegas with 20 other events organized by its community giving an emphatic experience for its holders.
The team shows a masterful performance and a riveting trailer for the Azuki Elementals.
A Soulbound Token (SBT) was airdropped to each Azuki and Beanz holder to commemorate their attendance in the Garden.
The SBT gave access to the presale of the Azuki Elementals mint.
June 27, 2023
Azuki Elementals
Azuki introduces the Azuki Elementals: Four Domains. One Garden.
20,000 Elementals join the garden as each Azuki was airdropped an unrevealed and locked Elemental and the remaining were sold for presale and public.