Psychedelics Anonymous Mint Recap

Collection of NFTs with real and metaverse benefits

The hottest project of the last week was arguably the Psychedelics Anonymous (PA) mint and frenzied trading that has the genesis collection with the nineth most volume over the last 7 days on OpenSea.

In total, the project has four different collections and sold 38,380 NFTs over three days. Buyers still haven't seen the reveal of the genesis collection but prices are already up more than 10x from their mint price on the secondary market. I think it's worth highlighting this NFT and today and likely again in the future as the project's ecosystem is built out.

The Project

I'll just cover the basics of the mint because it's already happened, but this was definitely a highly anticipated mint with hundreds of thousands of followers across Twitter and Discord. Genesis NFTs sold out in a matter of seconds with three wallets skirting the Voltura Labs system and minting 100 NFTs apiece.

Like many projects, the flashy visuals are striking for the PA mint. It's hard to look at any of the examples that have been shown on social media thus far and not be impressed. But there's also an ecosystem of benefits and games that are being built across the entire collection. Here's what we know about each NFT right now:

• PA Genesis NFT: This is the highest level of PA membership with access to IRL and metaverse events, IRL merchandise, metaverse wearables, mental health support services, access to a Web3 accelerator, and future DAO tokens.

• PA IRL Pass: This pass includes access to all "events, experiences and partnership events".

• PA Metaverse Pass: Access to all "events, spaces and clubhouses", 1x metaverse wearables pack, and access to mint all future metaverse pass wearable drops.

• PA Component #1: Component for a mini game experience with access to staking and rewards like physical items, cryptocurrency, merchandise, and wearables.

Benefits to mental health were mentioned in some documents and seem to be a focus of the team given discussions in Twitter Spaces before mint. But it's not clear exactly what the benefits to NFT holders or the community, in general, will be. On the PA site, it says, "We will financially support an organization providing psychedelic assisted therapy (CPAT)." It also says, "Everyone needs help. We will onboard community support members to deliver mental health support to our holders." This seems like a focus, but it's not clear the mechanics of how Psychedelics Anonymous will help its holders... yet. As with most NFT mints, we're betting on the team and its vision more than the benefits we know of today.

The PA team from Voltura Labs is led by Lewis Gale who if the founder and managing director of marketing firm Voltura.com. The company has worked with large brands like Sony, McDonald's, Ikea, and many more around the world. Gale himself held multiple Twitter Spaces to discuss the project, which is becoming more common ahead of launching NFTs. I found the discussions to be informative and the transparency we've seen so far is impressive.

Adam Sullivan, James Manning, Nick Hughes-Jones, Kate Mahoney, Joshua Connelly, and Matt Lim round out the team.

This would be considered a well doxxed (or publicly identifiable) team but it's worth pointing out that this is a corporation that wasn't previously active in the NFT space. This could be a new focus for them, or it could be a side project. That will be important to keep in mind over the next few months.

The mint

As with a lot of highly anticipated projects, the mint was competitive. In a matter of seconds, it was sold out and thousands of dollars were burned by gas fees (which still amazes me because gas is essentially free on Solana). But the three component NFT were available to mint for hours and in some cases days before selling out, so anyone who wanted into the community did have an opportunity.

Gale did acknowledge that three wallets managed to mint 100 genesis NFTs, which he said would be unlikely in Twitter Spaces discussions before launch. But when there's money to be made in the world of cryptocurrency there are those who find ways around the rules.

As disappointed as many of us were (me included) genesis NFTs were available on the secondary market for around 0.35 ETH, above the 0.08 ETH mint price, for a few days before jumping to nearly 1 ETH as I'm writing.

All in all, there weren't a lot of unexpected outcomes from the mint. It was competitive, as expected, and those who really wanted one could pay for it on the secondary market. That's exactly what I did with the genesis NFT, minting the rest.

Now the fun begins

As exciting as this project has been to watch, there's a lot that we don't know yet.

• Genesis NFT art has yet to be revealed and a date is still unknown

• A token for a DAO has been mentioned but no details are available

• We have no details about the Web3 accelerator

• IRL and metaverse events are still an unknown

This is the challenge buying NFTs today. The complete picture is rarely laid out to buyers before the mint, even if it's known by the team, and the PA NFTs are no different. The information we have available to today is a half baked roadmap and trust in the team. For now, that's enough to keep everyone excited but soon the team will need to deliver on some of these promises. We are starting to get some pieces to the puzzle.

There are apparently future claims to something if you hold all of the original set.

We still don't know what the component NFTs are for, but breadcrumbs are being spread.

Speculation has already begun about future partnerships, led by Gale.

While partnerships could be interesting, the intellectual property rights are not held by NFT owners, so any deals should be seen as exposure to the NFT, not a monetary benefit in any way.

Why I'm in and holding

This was a big mint with over $10 million being distributed to the Voltura team. And there hasn't been a lot delivered, likely in part because of the holidays. So, why was I a buyer and why am I holding on for now?

By NFT standards, I think Gale has been very transparent about this project and the future vision. He also has an incentive to make it successful because in all likelihood Voltura -- NOT NFT HOLDERS -- will be the beneficiary of any marketing partnerships because Voltura holds the intellectual property. In other words, this could put his company on the global map!

I'm interested in the Web3 accelerator concept as other projects like the CPG Club have been successful in building a community of creators who want to help each other.

IRL and metaverse events are also intriguing. If the value of PA mints keeps rising the value of these events would increase as well, as the have for the Bored Ape Yacht Club. It's asking a lot to think the PA community will be as tight and public as BAYC, but if it's anywhere close to that I think it's worth the risk for an NFT that cost less than 1 ETH for the set when I purchased.

As I build my NFT journey, this is a project that checks a lot of boxes for me. There's a lot of optionality that could lead to profit or value for me and it's an asymmetric bet. This could be a 100x project or it could be a 0. There's some of my research, now as we say in NFTs, do your own research.

And have a great day!

Disclaimer: The NFT Project DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The NFT Project is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses. Travis Hoium does own all four Psychedelics Anonymous NFTs mentioned.