This 29-year-old crypto biz from S’porean sold 3K zodiac NFT in 90 minutes, earning S $ 1.4 million – Wired PR Lifestyle Story

Singaporeans probably know what their zodiac signs are, or at least searched Google for Chinese New Year conversations.

It’s something that some follow religion, and they pour over predictions in an attempt to take a look at their fortunes in the new year.

Some believe that some zodiac signs have better characteristics than others (e.g., more industrious or lucky) and many collect and display items that represent their zodiac signs at home (like a golden tiger statue as an ornament) to symbolize good luck.

That’s why 29-year-old Alan Seng, founder and CEO of Darkmeta, Dark Zodiac’s parent company, decided to create a series of zodiac art collections when the products caught the attention of investors.

The only selling point of these artworks is that they are in a blockchain.

He previously worked as a product marketer and manager for technology companies, and together with his team, created a collection of 3,876 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of zodiac characters. The characters follow 12 creatures of the Chinese zodiac, such as the Ox, the Goat, and the Tiger.

“I started Dark Zodiac in May 2021 because I wanted to create an NFT project that is part of Asian culture. I thought the story of the Chinese zodiac was popular among Asians, so it makes sense to have a collection on that concept,” Alan shared Vulcan Post. in an interview with i.

Alan and his team seem to have come up with the right formula – when Dark Zodiac was released in September 2021, it sold the first full three-thousand-minute series of three thousand NFTs, grossing almost S $ 1.4 million.

What are NFTs

NFTs are cryptographic tokens that cannot be repeated. They are digital assets that are bought and sold online and are used to represent different types of assets, namely digital works of art as well as real estate. Other NFT assets that can be created are game avatars, domain names, and event cards.

Many young people are joining the collection of such digital assets as they believe that they are the future of art and investment. International artists have also traveled to the NFT space to sell their artwork and creations, as has Chinese singer Jay Chou.

The combination of art and technology, in addition to giving consumers an original copy of a digital file, and being able to access it at any time, is one of the reasons why NFT is gaining popularity in the face of physical artwork.

Dark Zodiac sold its collection at a time when NFT was gaining a lot of interest from newcomers and NFT investors. Alan said many Dark Zodiac tickets have risen in the resale market since their launch in September last year, with some valued at more than S $ 4,000.

Dark Zodiac launched a collection of his artwork in the NFT space to better understand why Alan’s first investment in the cryptography industry can be better understood. The founder knows about crypto-space – he has been investing in crypto-space since April 2017, and when the NFT arena started to grow in December 2019, he jumped in and even invested.

This knowledge and knowledge of the nascent crypto-space gave him the confidence to launch and develop his NFT collection.

What is the Dark Zodiac

Dark Zodiac is a non-creative project from the 3D art-NFT collection, based on Chinese Zodiac folklore. 344.4 ETH was raised to sell NFTs when it was launched last year and the funds raised were used as Darkmeta’s start-up funds.

“We are building Darkmeta, an NFT studio and software company. At Darkmeta, we are launching an NFT studio featuring prominent brands with iconic products to launch their NFT projects. We are currently partnering with regional brands to provide marketing, creative and engineering advice, ”he shared.

The CEO added that NFTs can be purchased on OpenSea, the peer-to-peer market for NFT and cryptographic collections. “Ordinary Dark Zodiac NFTs are very cheap, and the rarest ones will probably be in the hundreds of dollars range.”

“We are an NFT company in the first place. It just so happens that our NFTs are trading cards and collectors, ”he said.

Without worrying about the intricacies of cryptography

But as usual, the crypto market is volatile. It is now in bear territory, and altcoins have dropped by 50 percent in the last month. In January, Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies in terms of trading volume, sank by 23 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

Whether the current snowfall in prices is causing concern in the Dark Zodiac, Alan said the group is “not too worried.” “We are here to build for the long term and for the future. The cryptocurrency industry has gone through three or four hype cycles and with each cycle we are seeing more and more talent and capital flow, with more consumer and business adoption and more well-designed software products being launched.

“With more adoption and investment by consumers and businesses in cryptocurrencies, the narrative of cryptocurrency and its role as a emerging technology and asset class in the global economy is stronger than ever,” Alan said.

Although prices remain volatile, he believes Bitcoin and Ethereum still have plenty of opportunities to grow. “Bitcoin, after 13 years, is still the market leader and new technological improvements are being introduced into the protocol. Ethereum, on the other hand, has the largest ecosystem of developers, users and applications.”

Future plans

The team has nine employees, including designers, software engineers and marketers, and is currently hiring more.

“We are looking for people with a passion for building special gamification and usability mechanisms with NFT technology or building software solutions for NFT industry pain management.”

Dark Zodiac is also talking to potential angels and institutional investors to invest in the company. “But we are in no hurry to raise funds because we have positive and profitable cash flows,” Alan said.

As for personal investments in crypto, Alan has shared that he has not spent any money earned on crypto. “I’m still HODLing and investing,” he said with a smile.

Whether the business intends to create other NFTs in other blockchains, Alan said there is no particular priority for blockchains.

“These two accounts are NFT if there is a relatively large consumer market (e.g. trading volume) and we have engineers to build a new blockchain stack. Right now, Ethereum is the most popular choice for NFT.

Featured Image Credit: Dark Zodiac, Alan Seng