Article originally published in MVHQ Magazine's January Issue on February 2, 2023 by Silvaserger. Some information may be outdated.

 

Ahoy Mateys! After 7 short (or long depending on who you ask) months, Memeland’s main collection: "The Captainz" finally minted! The Memeland Captainz were a hot topic on the tip of everyone’s tongues as they employed novel minting mechanics to help mitigate gas wars and botting. 

 

To refresh your memory, Captainz came with multiple ways to guarantee a mint. The first method was by securing a Memelist, the Memeland version of an allowlist. There were around 4300 individuals with a Memelist eligible to mint. Next, anyone holding The Real MVP collection would be airdropped two Captainz for free. The third, most common method for obtaining Memelist, was by holding three Potatoz NFTs - which was the first collection launched by Memeland. Every three Potatoz held guaranteed one Captainz mint. 

 

With these numbers, it left just under 1000 mints available to first-come-first-served (FCFS) that were not already guaranteed to holders in one way or another. Despite the extremely slim odds for this, mint day saw a flurry of reservations in a considerable gas war. Gwei spiked to a number reminiscent of the TIME drop or the Doodles mint back in 2021. 

 

Captainz did not have a  traditional mint in any way, considering the unique requirements for Memelist, or the process as mint day rolled around. Mint day saw users place reservations for a mint that would be calculated with airdrops, welcoming aboard those who successfully reserved. 

The reservation price was a pre-announced 1.069 ETH because, ya know, memes. Considering the floor price of a single Potatoz NFT, the easiest entry into the Memeland ecosystem with a floor over 3 ETH pre-mint, even a mint at 1.069 ETH seemed cheap, all things considered. 

 

Despite the limited odds and wide knowledge of bot use, gas soared and Memeland received over 15,000 reservations within just a few short minutes! This level of activity was a bit of a shock even to the team. Alas, reservation day came and went and the airdrop occurred without a hitch just a few short days later. 

 

Now-holders then quickly flocked to the Open Seas to fetch a fair price for their shiny, new, eye-patch-themed NFTs. Unrevealed Captainz began selling around 8 ETH but the trend was down only at first bottoming between 5-6 ETH as it traded in that range for most of the day. 

Many traders were disappointed by the lower-than-expected floor price and volume, in no small part thanks to the enormous 9.5% royalty tacked on by the Memeland team, which certainly drew the ire of traders everywhere. However, looking at it now almost three weeks removed, you can see a healthy floor, with organic volume not being propped up by narrative or antics like the team sweeping the floor. 

 

The Captainz have, since mint, undergone their first of a multi-stage reveal, showing holders which of the six “Species” their Captainz will be with options ranging from Human, Shark, Kraken, Kong, Kaiju, or Alien. Clear premiums have been assigned to the higher rarities such as Aliens, Kongs, and Kaijus as they command a far larger share of booty compared to the 4.1 ETH floor you see for Human Captainz. 

 

Even in a bear, Captainz have managed to trade nearly 16K ETH, or roughly $21 million. And this is all in the span of fewer than 30 days in existence as a collection, proving their ability to make waves even in a less than ideal market. Memeland has already launched Questing V1, which went live in order to reveal the Captainz first stage, showing the team's dedication to sticking to a schedule and running a tight ship. 

 

Captainz are questing and their trusty crew of Potatoz are with them sailing the high seas. Eight months later, the vision for Memeland is slowly but surely coming together. Memeland has kept all of their promises to date and guarantees this is only the beginning of the web 3 empire they are looking to build. With deliverables like the final Captainz art reveal, $MEME, and Treasure Island all coming down the pipeline, it’s hard not to be bullish about what 9GAG CEO and co. are venturing toward creating here in the high seas of web 3.