Over the past few days, I’ve received numerous variations of the same question from a bunch of different active participants in the crypto space:

This post aims to answer that question from my perspective, while offering some insight into the project’s history and some potential future outcomes. It will be fun to revisit this post in the future.

Disclosure is at the bottom of this post - you should read it.

WTF are Nakamigos?

At the surface, Nakamigos is a 20,000 piece digital asset collection that includes a diverse range of pixelated characters.

Here is how the project describes itself:

Emblematic of internationally renown CryptoPunks by Larva Labs (June 2017), Nakamigos is a refreshing take on both profile picture NFTs and pixel based art.

Nakamigos could not have been launched at a better time — seemingly launched at the exact right moment during the depths of the bear market to capture a convergence of sentiment that’s been bubbling below the surface of Web3. Vibes have been off. FUD has been the norm. Communities fighting within themselves and breaking down due to the pressures of a looming recession that feels fabricated by other.

Nakamigos has been a much needed spark to ignite the recession clouded focus and emotions of artists, builders, collectors, enjoyoooor, investors, and all kinds of individuals within the crypto space.

What do we know about Nakamigos’ team?

Nakamigos was created by HiFo Labs, an anonymous new group that has allegedly been responsible for creating NFT & Digital Art projects for the past five years.

Here is what the Nakamigos Mint 101 page has to say about the project’s currently anonymous artist:

No expectations can be held that the artist will reveal themselves, but this acknowledgment is a positive form of communication from the team and feels like we’ll be hearing more about the artist in the future. As long as the sentiment from the community and collectors is positive, I don’t see why anyone would want to hide from this one.

WestCostNFTs developed the underlying project contracts, so there is some sense of security in knowing the projects’ developers have also launched contracts for other very reputable projects within the space.

How was Nakamigos launched?

Nakamigos was launched to the public on March 23, 2023 in a Dutch Auction format starting at 1 ETH and dropping by .1 ETH every 10 minutes to a resting price of 0.1 ETH.

Here is where the story gets interesting. Prior to Public Mint, there was an free Early Access Mint on March 22, 2023 for anyone that held an “end of sartoshi” NFT, aka “eos pass”, during a snapshot taken on January 27, 2023. Some raffle winners were also included.

Out of the 20,000 assets in the Nakamigos collection, 17,000 were available for Early Access Mint. Many were ultimately not claimed within the window and were pushed to Public Mint.

It’s worth noting what the project team makes clear they will each receive a portion of Nakamigos and funds from the public mint for their role in launching the project — a reasonable ask from anyone who creates and puts their work into the world.

Nakamigos May Be Culturally Significant

Remember I said “end of sartoshi” NFT holders were eligible for a free Early Access Mint? Well, this is where the story starts to get really interesting and takes Nakamigos from being just another run-of-the-mill pfp pump-and-dump to something that may actually turn out to be culturally significant.

For those that don’t know, sartoshi is a legend and OG within the crypto space. In March 2021, sartoshi was enjoying digital art on superrare and first created the pseudonym which combined “art” and “satoshi”.

Sartoshi acquired several CryptoPunks shortly thereafter, driven by the love of the art and fascination with what larva labs had created with no blueprint — true pioneers within what is now commonly known as Web3. During that time sartoshi honed their craft by degen trading CryptoPunks with the likes of DeeZe and other notable NFT collectors while simultaneously creating memes and shitposting on twitter.

Sartoshi went on to create the iconic “mfers” project which was inspired by their favorite meme, “ARE YA WINNING, SON?”. The meme is drawn in a stick figure style and depicts a father figure smoking a cigarette with a hat on entering his son’s room from the left side of the image. The son can be found on the right side of the image slouching on a chair with headphones on while looking at what appears to be a computer screen.

The “mfers” collection includes 10,000 stick figure representations of the son in the chair, with additional traits and detail making it a truly special and unique collection by sartoshi. Anyone that has participated in “cryptotwitter” or crypto culture knows about sartoshi and the mfers.

mfers are instantly recognizable as a pfp.

A cult-classic with a diehard community, “mfers” are symbolic of a sort of counter-web3 culture that doesn’t put up with bullshit by influencers and scammers within the space. They’ll tell you how they feel full stop, all while enjoying and supporting art and artists. Almost at any time of the day you’ll find mfers hosting spaces, vibing, and providing a platform for others to share their work and experiences in the crypto space.

Although we know that sartoshi is not a part of HiFo Labs, there is security in knowing that sartoshi is associated with Nakamigos. Sartoshi would not have supported the launch of a project like this that would eventually turn out to be a rug pull. It would ruin their reputation. Same goes for WestCoastLabs.

With no expectation of a roadmap, there is comfort in knowing that Nakamigos as art has the early support of these culturally significant players. Any funds generated from the public mint and creator earnings royalties are not going to scammers. I’ll be sure to report back on this if new information comes to light that sours this view.

The Immaculate Conception

Conceived during the depths of global financial uncertainty, geopolitical turmoil, and the bear market vibes of early 2023, Nakamigos has resurrected the spirits of many within crypto already. This has been evident to anyone that’s been participating within crypto and NFT twitter in the past week. You almost certainly have seen the influx of Nakamigos flood the timeline.

People are clearly loving the ‘migos.

Since there is no official project Discord, the community has been left to assemble in grass roots ways. Twitter is the base layer of Nakamigos communications. Since launch, there has been near 24/7 coverage of Nakamigos via Twitter’s timeline and Spaces. There are also different group chats that have formed around the project, including niche Twitter group chats revolving around specific traits and trait combinations, as well as a community created Discord channel.

Vibes around Nakamigos feel reminiscent of the best of early Bored Ape Yacht Club days when Clubhouse was first introduced and used as a new digital public square to discuss things in audio form. At this time, there was no blueprint for Web3 and everything was new and exciting. There was a convergence of artists, builders, collectors, enjoyoooors, innovators, investors, and speculators that is similar to what you can read about occurred during the Renaissance times.

Vibes felt right but uncertain. We were all figuring things out. We were all building what has been dubbed Web3, together, offering our different means of support to propel whatever projects we supported forward.

When it became apparent that people could actually do things with their NFTs, the game really changed. Decentralized autonomous organizations brought together communities in formal ways to make decisions around communities and projects. Individual NFT owners leveraged the IP of their NFTs in ways that allowed them to support projects while simultaneously creating something new for themselves.

Decentralized communities also came together casually and organically. Roadmaps were proved to not always be necessary. In fact, many projects with initial Roadmaps turned out to rug along the way. If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’ve participated in some crypto project where the founder or team went missing.

Nakamigos has brought a similar sentiment and nostalgia to those that were here for the early-Web3 days of 2020-2021 and “jpeg summer”.

Nakamigos symbolize a fresh start. A chance to take the practice and learning of the past three years in the space and put it to good use. An opportunity to build a more inclusive Web3 community that lasts well into the future by leveraging what has worked for legacy projects like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, mfers, and many more that people have been comparing Nakamigos to.

Don’t just take it from me:

The Immaculate Community

Foundationally supported by mfers, Nakamigos has allowed its community to form organically. In a sort of symbiotic way, Nakamigos are like the yin to the mfers yang. Whether deliberate or not, that’s just how things have been playing out.

Centered on building, connecting, growing, and enjooooying Web3 culture, Nakamigos has been called a “more family friendly mfer”, for what that analogy is worth.

My time interacting with and learning from Nakamigos has been nothing short of positive so far. Nakamigos collectors have come from all walks of life and from around the world. The art is approachable, and so are the enthusiasts.

There has been an amazing confluence of artists supporting Nakamigos. This means, put bluntly, the memes are absolute fire. The following are some of the amazing works created by different artists in the community to date:

Project lore behind specific traits used in the collection has started to appear:

And poetry from OGs in the space:

All of this has been met by serious attention by the market, with Nakamigos passing Bored Ape Yacht Club in total number of sales within a week of minting.

Nakamigos: The Collection

Ok, so what do these 20,000 Nakamigos look like? Lets’s talk traits.

At the base layer, all Nakamigos stand before a subtle and tasteful RGB #7AA4FA blue background. Alone, the color exudes a calm that is hard to communicate. The color is impressive and very nice.

All Nakamigos have this background and are thus unified at the base layer.

Most Nakamigos are Human, of which there are six flavors: Latte (7,790), Boba (4,250), Pumpkin Spice (2,562), Mocha(1,286), Coffee (1,076), Invisible (832):

Non-human traits are more rare and there are six types: Frog (868), Bot (551), Crocodile (495), Snowman (245), Balloon (36), and Ghost (9):

The Types of Nakamigos were cleverly selected to offer a wide range of unique characters that stand out while not trying to do too much.

What other collection has Ghost, Balloon, Snowman as its Rare types? And notice — no apes.

Full Trait list is noted below, except for the Types that were listed above:

• Cape (3)

• Chain (2)

• Facial Hair (3)

• Glasses (7)

• Hair (13)

• Hat/Helmet (35)

• Headband (7)

• Headphones (5)

• Mask (2)

• Mouth (3)

• Ninja Jacket (3)

• Shirt/Jacket (81)

• Smoke (1)

• Tie (3)

• Vest/Armor (6)

There are too many individual sub-traits to list out, so I encourage you to check them out for yourself on your favorite NFT marketplace.

Exploring Nakamigos uncovers a near infinite combination of ‘migos that can be created with all of the simple yet effective pixel traits. All kinds of niche combinations are to be discovered that make the collection fun and endless.

For example: the Ninjas. Ninjas were not included in official Nakamigos communications as being Rare but have taken a life of their own as one of the most iconic and community loved aspects of the Nakamigos collection. Ninjas are essential to Nakamigos lore. Historically, Ninjas have been always been super dope.

There are three kinds of Ninjas and they all certainly look rare: Midnight (319), Snow (90), and Crimson (16). Here is one of the sweet sixteen Crimson Ninjas with a black baseball cap and yellow moto jacket:

Within the Nakamigos collection there is something for everyone. Frogs for the culture. Motorcycle and Football combinations for those that want to go hard and enjoy sports. Bots and Invisible Humans battling it out for recognition on the timeline. And Crocodiles, because why the heck not?

Balloons and Ghosts make up the two rarest types. These are some of the most minimal Nakamigos by pixel count. Lean and agile ‘migos. Balloons and Ghosts, both being able to fly, go up. Culturally, these Types are unique and significant.

There are also lesser-known and numerically rare trait combinations that pair in timeless ways. This is how you know the artist was very meticulous in crafting Nakamigos. For example, there are only four [gold mouth + gold medallion] Nakamigos and 43 [gold mouth + gold chain] Nakamigos.

Here’s one of the gold lovers ‘migos that I happen to currently hold:

Nakamigos are instantly recognizable, friendly, sophisticated and timeless.

A collection, seemingly, by NFT Degens, For NFT Degens — risen from the ashes of the bear market.

Future Outlook

I’ll be brief here because I’ve written so much already and honestly have no idea what will happen with Nakamigos in the short or the long run.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Nakamigos community to decide.

Nakamigos will moon if the spirit of the Immaculate Conception continues. As long as the community embodies agility and strength from all the Ninja Practice in the Dojo, Nakamigos may be in for something special.

Said best by a Nakamigo:

That’s the kind of energy a project like Nakamigos needs to succeed long term.

Nothing is certain. We’ve seen tons of NFT projects and their attention fizzle out days and weeks after launch. Nakamigos feels different, but anything is possible. It can go the same way. The team and artist could end up being malicious. Anything is possible, community willing.

Until then - we continue to enjoooooooy.

Cheers for subscribing :)

Disclosure: I am currently holding two Nakamigos at the time of writing this post, therefore I stand to financially benefit or be hindered by price action of the asset. I make no guarantee that I will be holding Nakamigos by the time you read this, unless you are subscribed and were emailed this post because it will be memorialized on the internet well into the future. I have no affiliation with the project’s founders and have no idea what will happen. I retain the right to change my views at any time. This post is not financial advice.