After just three months, the CEO of the collection left. The average price of the collection is now down 96% from its peak despite it being signed with Hollywood mega-agency CAA.
The Cool Cats NFT collection was the hottest last October. The average price for a cartoon cat avatar back then was $92,000.
Six months later, Cool Cats CEO was fired. He had been in the job for three months. Cool Cats seemed to suddenly have run out of steam, despite Cool Cats’ NFT collection signing with one Hollywood’s most prestigious talent agencies.
The price of one Cool Cats NFT dropped to 2.85ETH per month or $3,556, numbers that have not been seen since August 2021.
What happens when a NFT collection explodes in popularity, creates large communities, and releases a play-to-earn-game that works? And then signs with a major Hollywood talent agent.
It would be easy to believe that the floor price for this collection would rise. Cool Cats saw the opposite happen.
Crypto enthusiasts often disagree on what makes an NFT worth it. Some “right-click-savers”, believe NFTs are of no value, while others believe they can have immense artistic, financial and entertainment value for holders.
However, as the market matures some of the most popular NFT collections are now seeing their floor prices–the minimum price– fluctuate wildly.
Many hype cycles are based on community interest or memes on social media. For example, the Goblintown NFTs cost minimum 7.85ETH ($14,000.00) two weeks ago. Despite an OpenSea description of nothing but gibberish, and a community obsessed urine and gargling their mics (yes actually), The floor price dropped to 3.15ETH ($3,900) since then. This is a sign that the feces/urine NFT frenzy wasn’t lasting.
The fecal matter trend was not just for Cool Cats. The ill pee it Ethereum NFT collection was created May 31 and took aim at Cool Cats for “going shit”. A NFT was created of a Cool Cat in a pile of shit with phrases such as “Blue chip?” It was more like two blue cats and I thought doodle meant to be the last collection of pussycats.”
The wider crypto market crash and Terra’s crash caused NFT floor price fluctuations across the board. Cool Cats were the hardest hit, with their average price plummeting 96% from its peak.
What went wrong? Interest seems to have fallen dramatically because of uncertainty surrounding a quiet CEO and possible Otherside-related salesoffs.
The origin story
Cool Cats was created by Colin Egan (“Clon”) as a character. He also sold his drawings to The Catoonist and branded himself “The Catoonist”.
Cool Cats NFT was launched in July 2021 at a mint price (or primary sale price) of 0.02 Ethereum. This was approximately $44 when Ethereum was around $2,200.
According to topshotkief.eth (longtime Cool Cat NFT holder), the low entry price made it feel “really good” in its early days. He was also the first to mint ten Cats NFTs. He had eight Cool Cats and 12 companions when he first spoke to Decrypt. But he lost all his Cool Cats after a ” Goblintown hamburger” phishing scam.
Cool Cats’ average price per NFT was nearly 26ETH by October 2021. That is roughly $93,000 per Cool Cat. Even Times Square was used to advertise the collection.
The NFT community referred to the Cats as a ” Blue Chip” collection. This is a designation that only the most elite NFTs can use in terms of exclusivity or perceived value. It was used for the Bored Ape and pastel-washed Doodles.
Cool Cats hovered at a floor price around 10 ETH from October to April as collectors awaited Cooltopia, the long-awaited game. Cooltopia was launched in April. Cool Cats NFTs, however, have been valued at around 3 Ethereum, or about $3,800, in the last weeks.
How could one of the most renowned NFT collections plummet more than 90% from its peak?
Leadership departures
In January, Cool Cats founders hired Chris Hassett, a business executive who has experience with crypto. Hassett was to assist the team in forming high-profile partnerships. The NFT market was optimistic at the time. OpenSea broke all-time monthly volume records.
Many Cool Cats were skeptical about Hassett ‘s “boomer” CEO. Hassett resigned from the project within three months.
Evan Luza, Cool Cats co-founder, told Decryptvia Email that Hassett had left the NFT project in pursuit of “a new opportunity,” but didn’t provide any further details.
Luza responded to questions about Hassett’s community accusations of being “useless” or “not doing anything”.
“While our community’s feedback is very important to us, we like to focus on all of the incredible things we’ve accomplished at Cool Cats in a very short time under Chris’s leadership–launching Cooltopia, signing with CAA, working with TOIKIDO to launch a new line of merchandise just to name a few,” he said.
Chris Peralta, Cool Cats’ head moderator, also left the project in April.
Peralta stated that Peralta’s departure was ” mutually agreed”.
In the March 18 trailer Yuga Labs’ otherside metaverse, a 3D model of a Cool Cat NFT was shown. Cool Cats saw a natural spike in sales the next day, with 199 OpenSea sales.
Crockett, Cool Cat owner, speculated that any Cool Cats bought based on inclusion of the Otherside trailer might have led to a sale once buyers realized that Cats owners weren’t going see any immediate financial benefit or early access the Otherside game.
Topshotkief, a diamond-handed who has owned 80% of his Cats since mint praised the Cats team for their success on their first roadmap.
“They’ve done all they said they would do,” kief stated, adding that “it’s only a matterof time” before Cool Cats gain more popularity.
Perhaps there are others in the community who share kief’s “hodl” mentality. According to data from NFT Floor, only 4.9% Cool Cats NFTs currently have a listing for sale.
It appears that the project is entering a new phase after it has achieved its initial goals. The team published a list future extensions for the game. They also released a new roadmap that includes boss quests for Cooltopia and plush toys to be unveiled at NFT NYC. There are also plans for a 3D Metaverse called Coolverse.
Luza stated Decrypt that the new CEO of the project won’t be anyone from the original team.
“We [founders] are too passionate about what we do to sacrifice it for an operational role. To find the perfect person, we hired a top-notch executive search firm. We’ve had many insightful talks with several stellar CEO candidates, who fully align with our vision of Cool Cats,” Luza stated.
