goblintown.wtf is a collection of mostly 10,000 ugly goblins NFTs but also includes dragons, trolls, wizards, mosquitoes, and even Kevin from Pixelmon. Exactly the kind of creatures you’d expect to find in Goblintown.
But First WTF is Goblin Town?
Goblin Town is a crypto term which means the market is going down significantly and liquidity, buy volume and speculation have dried up. Going Down to Goblin Town is a journey to the center of the earth and the opposite of going to the moon. The origins are more fully explored in this article.
With crypto markets in Goblin Town at the time of the mint date, the Goblintown.wtf NFT project could not come at a better time.
goblintown.wtf Project
The oh-so ugly Goblin-themed NFTs was a free-to-mint NFT project (one per wallet) + gas mint per wallet and the project states that it has no roadmap, no utility and no Discord. The Goblintown NFTs are even CC0 (creative common zeros) – effectively “no copyright reserved” and all rights are dedicated to the public domain. Pretty much how a Goblin would run an NFT project.
In a way, goblintown.wtf is the anti-NFT project that has found its way into Web3 popularity just as the NFT market appeared to be in Goblin Town.
| Mint Date | May 19, 2022 | ||
| Mint Price | Free plus gas | ||
| Mint Release | 9,000 | ||
| Founder Reserves | 1,000 | ||
| Total Supply | 10,000 | ||
| Rarity Traits | 2,234 | ||
| Creator Royalty | 7.5% |
The NFTs have 2,234 combined rarity traits. Types of traits include Boddee, Eers, Egg, Eye on dat side, Eye on dis side, Hedz, MUNCHYHOLE, Collrzes and Stankfinder.
There are also 12 1 of 1 NFTs:
- FAIWEEE
- Angwy grey dwark
- Bill da nasty draggin
- Crustybutt da gobblin king
- Gaaahhh! OGUR! RUNN!
- Glarbl da totally-a-goblin
- Hoo let dat ord in hear?
- Is goblin? is orc? IS KEVVIN! (Kevin from Pixelmon)
- knee on foocher (Steve Aoki)
- Queenie da goblinn queen
- Ranebo buttpony
- Stoopid wizzrd
goblintown.wtf Art
From the marketing to the art, the undoxxed team appears to understand you need to understand the “rules” to break them. Everyone says that “tHe ArT iS UgLy” which is lost on some while others understand that is exactly the point. Goblins are supposed to be ugly and ‘gross’ and it’s incredibly difficult to make “ugly” or “grotesque” appealing which is what these NFTs achieve.
A deeper look into the NFT artwork shows a consistency of style and artistic tone. The proportions vary while keeping consistent volumes and line weights. The anatomies are beautifully exaggerated and distorted without “breaking” any of the “rules”. The NFTs drive the tone with the earth tone color pallet and the silhouettes are so unique that the characters all have such personality. Great examples of this are how they adapted Kevin, Steve Aoki and the Unicorn.
Whether you personally like the art, objectively it’s actually extremely well executed as an overall art style.
Who are the Founders of goblintown.wtf NFTs?
Good question. For now, the founder(s) are all undoxxed. Possibly this collection was created by Goblins. We only know that the King of The Goblin is the one that created the NFT collection and published it on OpenSea. Many have noted that whoever the founders are, they probably have NFT experience, given the safe and contract, clean execution, on point theme and timing and quality of art work (both the NFTs and additional art work). The project’s crypto-savvy dadaist approach to social media also suggests the creators are NFT veterans rather than novices.
Some NFT sleuths have speculated that Yuga Labs is involved, however moderators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord have denied the connection.
Here are reasons why people don’t think the Goblins are from Yuga Labs:
- It Azuki on one of the t shirts of an NFT and possibly no way Yuga would reference an NFT they don’t own
- The BAYC mod said no affiliation
- Yuga uses Google Domains for domain registration, Goblins are registered at Namecheap
- goblintown.wtf was registered a week ago, the leaked Yuga Labs pitch deck was created over five months ago, the launch was smooth
Here are some other guesses the CT community has made:
- My wild guess: @goblintownwtf part of the @jackassworld launch of the new movie along with @MTV and @netflix
- The McDonald’s marketing team is behind this project since there is a McGoblinBurger seemingly associated with this account.
- But what if @goblintownwtf is rather a Burger King project which is trolling McDonalds?
- Another rumor is that the artist Beeple was on the project’s creative team, an assertion the artist has denied.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see who is behind this project.
Goblintown Twitter Spaces & The Rise of Goblish
On May 25th goblintown.wtf hosted a three hour long Twitter Spaces literally named “aaaaaaauuuuuGGGhhhh” where everyone spoke in Goblish or what one would assume are goblin sounds. Many people were extremely confused but that didn’t stop over 2,000 people from listening in.
What’s Next?
Given this is a free-mint project with no promotion, undoxxed founders and a website that states “No roadmap. No Discord. No utility.” one might conclude nothing is next. So far the project has been amazingly on point by doing exactly the opposite of what everyone else does, especially when most projects overpromise and underdeliver. Combined with flawless execution, on point Twitter engagement and a flurry of new artwork, it’s hard to believe that nothing is next.
There is also the egg that’s been teased for a project that supposedly has no roadmap or utility.
On June 1 the official goblintown.wtf posted this message in goblish which is believed to say “They say they are building, goblins are building the burger, free claim for goblins on the official site Friday night”.
Possibly nothing is next but maybe the team understands the NFT community loves hype, not utility and true value that will last long term. An element of deception combined with speculation that results in FOMO.
Official goblintown.wtf Links
Website: https://goblintown.wtf/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/goblintownwtf
Twitter McGoblinBurger: https://twitter.com/McGoblinBurger (goblintownwtf follows 4 accounts and this is one, this profile list themselves “Gen mngr”)
Discord: No Discord
Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/goblintownwtf
Looksrare: https://looksrare.org/collections/0xbCe3781ae7Ca1a5e050Bd9C4c77369867eBc307e
Ethereum Contract: 0xbce3781ae7ca1a5e050bd9c4c77369867ebc307e
Official goblintown.wtf Spinoffs
In just a few week goblintown.wtf has produced many new derivative projects:
- Bored Goblin Yacht Club
- boogeymentown.wtf
- Elftown.wtf
- GoblinBirds
- goblintown.poly
- goblintown.wtf punks
- Goblinvillage.wtf
- HumansTown
- OgreTown
- Pixel goblintown
- True Plebs in Goblin Town
- Zen Goblin
Free-to-mint Strategy for Upstart NFT Projects
The sudden success of this free-to-mint strategy has cemented this strategy going forward. Many new NFT projects have already adopted the approach.
Joe Wallace has covered real estate and financial topics, including crypto and NFTs since 1995. His work has appeared on Veteran.com, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and many print and online publications. Joe is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News.
