Sappy Seals is a Web3 brand that has successfully demonstrated the importance of communities in building a strong brand in the NFT space.

In this article, we will cover the Sappy ecosystem: Sappy Seals, Pixlverse, and Pixl Labs. It will explore how the strength of community, and memes, can propel a brand to become a leading content creator incubator in the Web3 space.

Article Outline

• Background

• The Sappy Seals Culture

• The Power of Memes

• Upcoming Updates To Look Out For

• Project Runway Analysis

• Closing Remarks

Background

1) What are Sappy Seals?

Sappy Seals is more than just a collection of 10,000 adorable seal NFTs. This Web3 brand has effectively demonstrated how crucial a role communities play in forging a strong brand in the NFT space.

Whether you are active on Twitter or casually log on from time to time, you’ll no doubt recognize these sassy seals from your Twitter feed.

This week, Seals became prominent, particularly due to the Bitcoin Digital Artifacts challenges initiated by Sappy Seals on Twitter. These challenges gave users the opportunity to participate in an auction or complete various challenges including riddles to win one of 101 free Bitcoin Digital Artifacts.

The Seals are known for bringing innovation to the table and being at the forefront of emerging trends, and their community is renowned for being one of the loudest and most active in the space - we’ll be exploring this later in this article.

Sappy Seals has come a long way from its humble beginnings of knocking door to door on Twitter DMs after minting on August 31st, 2021 during the peak of the 2021 NFT bull run. They've developed a globally recognized brand with a flourishing ecosystem that includes various products covering community, gaming, and decentralized finance. This has allowed the brand to establish itself as a prominent player in the NFT space.

To date, the genesis Sappy Seals collection has seen a total of 19,537 ETH (~$32.2 million USD) in volume with a current floor price of 1.15 ETH (~$1,900 USD).

2) What is Pixlverse?

The Pixlverse is a 3D metaverse and Web3 platform encompassing community, gaming, and decentralized finance. It links experiences and Web3 tools from partnered communities to create a social base-layer and offers players a chance to connect with a global digital community using blockchain gaming technologies. It allows users to create stories for their NFTs through emergent gameplay experiences.

The Three Pillars of the Pixlverse

1. Community - the Pixlverse is developing a social metaverse providing users with a meaningful and enjoyable interface experience that taps into nostalgia while delivering next-gen technology. Community is a crucial part of the Pixlverse, as it aims to gather communities with a shared interest in developing the future of Web3 and integrate community initiatives, serving as a platform and network for technical innovations created by the community.

2. Gaming - the Pixlverse is developing a gaming module called Pixl Pets that aims to create a fun-first, innovative, and polished game where players are naturally incentivized to explore the metaverse and are rewarded for their time investment with $PIXL (the in-game currency), Pixlverse NFTs, and in-game items. Pixl Pets will serve as the flagship game, providing a unique experience that blends nostalgia with new dynamic mechanics, and the pets will exist as gaming experiences, companions, and productive assets for the world of decentralized finance.

3. Decentralized Finance - the Pixlverse will provide access to financial applications without the barriers created by traditional financial institutions. NFTs and communities are the entry point for the Pixlverse De-Fi protocols, and will act as building blocks, encouraging productivity through collaboration, creating unique earning potential through positive sum transactional value. The tokenomics and De-Fi protocols of the Pixlverse foster social experiences, encouraging collaboration and excitement within the community.

What is $PIXL?

$PIXL is the utility token of The Pixlverse and can be used for purchasing items from the marketplace, breeding, pet leveling, crafting and more.

When staked, each Sappy Seal produces $PIXL daily, based on its rarity. For example, Sappy Seals with rarity rankings lower than 4001 yield 50 $PIXL per day, while the rarest NFTs yield 500 $PIXL daily.

In the words of Sappy Seals’ Community Manager, Camol:

“1 seal ≠ 1 seal. Based on the rarity, the amount of $PIXL you receive changes. First of its kind, and it’s already live.” - Camol

While the floor price of Seals within the 501 and 10,000 rarity band does not change, Seals in the top 5% of the rarity band are priced at a premium.

The $PIXL token can also be earned by active participation and in-game interactions within the Pixlverse ecosystem.

Lastly, the Pixlverse DeFi protocols will utilize a vast array of social experiences embedded within the open world metaverse to introduce a number of DeFi applications to players and teach them about these concepts and how they work. These include:

1. Single Sided Staking - staking pre-existing $PIXL tokens to earn additional $PIXL rewards.

2. Normal LP Protocol - staking equal parts $PIXL and ETH to the protocol and in return receiving a higher APY%.

3. Locked LP Protocol - similar in nature to the 'Normal LP' protocol, however, requires a timelock. Additionally, not only are users rewarded with $PIXL yield here, but they also generate a low supply NFT 'loyalty' reward as well. The first one will be the “glitch serum”, with only 500 available.

4. Bonding Protocol - users will be able to contribute a specific amount of LP tokens and in return receive discounted vPIXL that vests over time, as well as the instant acquisition of the NFT reward from the Locked LP protocol. Using the example above, users would receive the “glitch serum” immediately.

Fun fact: $PIXL was once called $BLUBBR, thankfully the team changed the name not long after its introduction.

The Pixl Marketplace

The PIXL marketplace is a place where players can exchange their $PIXL for exclusive NFTs that can be used across the entire Pixelverse, including cosmetic items, art drops, in-game assets with utility, and more.

These items are limited in supply and once purchased, the exclusive NFT is minted to the player's wallet and the item is available for use in the game. $PIXL tokens used to purchase items are sent to the community treasury and removed from the circulating supply.

The marketplace is intended to reward early supporters of the game, and the NFTs sold here are considered the genesis tier of rarity and are expected to accrue value over time.

The Pixlverse Items storefront on secondary markets has seen a total of 1,228 ETH (~$2 million USD) in volume with the lowest entry item currently priced at 0.0089 ETH (~$15 USD).

Yield Enhancing NFTs

Additionally to all the above, there is a limited number of yield enhancing NFTs available for purchase within The Pixl Marketplace.

These NFTs are designed to reward early supporters and will provide significant benefits within the DeFi protocols that will be deployed within the Pixlverse ecosystem over time.

Each NFT can boost the yield on rewards when staked within a DeFi protocol, but usually only one NFT can be staked per protocol. However, if someone owns multiple NFTs, they can stake them across different protocols. The exception to this rule is for ONE Founders Pass and ONE Goat NFTs, which can be additively stacked.

Blessed Goats

Blessed goats are a tiered based yield enhancer and come in bronze, silver and gold varieties - these can be staked within DeFi protocols to get the following boosts:

• Golden Goat: +15% rewards 

• Silver Goat: +10% rewards

• Bronze Goat: +5% rewards

Founder’s Pass

The Pixlverse Founders Pass, another highly coveted item, offers a 10% boost to rewards when used to stake to one of the flagship DeFi protocols, and can be used across all yield-enhancing activities in the Pixlverse ecosystem.

PIXL Pets

Pixl Pets is a Play and Earn blockchain game set in the Pixelverse. It will be the first game developed by Pixl Labs.

The origins of these creatures are unknown, but they are believed to have been formed during a mysterious cosmic event called 'the Glitch'.

Pixl Pets offers P&E rewards as a supplementary value to the social and entertainment value provided by gameplay, or as core to the gameplay experience and decision-making.

The game emphasizes multiplayer modes and co-operative decision making, allowing players to journey, make decisions, and take risks together. The game is designed to be an extension of the social experience of the Pixlverse Open World.

To date, the Pixl Pets - Genesis Collection has seen a total of 4,735 ETH (~$7.8 million USD) in secondary volume and currently sits at a floor price of 0.1118 ETH (~$185 USD).

Pixl Pet Properties

Pixl Pets have unique properties that are either fixed or can change. Some properties such as cosmetic traits and stat growth rates do not change, while others, like its experience level & its moves, can change. A pet's level can also affect its stats and its ability to participate in events.

There are four elements, each with a unique archetype, and a pet's element affects its moves.

Every pet has base stats, stat growth rates, and current stats that change as the pet levels up. Each pet also has four moves at the start, and can learn more via items or by breeding. Players will also be able to lease pets for the purpose of battling and breeding, enabling them more chances to accrue $PIXL.

Some pets can reroll their moves for a cost, which is one of the only ways to alter a pet's genetics.

Additionally, two community-made tools were created to help players acquire the right PIXL Pets for their team. The first tool is called Move Explorer, which allows players to search for PIXL Pets with their desired move pool. The second tool is called Hatched Egg Detector, which helps to prevent disappointment by detecting if an egg has already hatched on secondary, making sure that players get what they paid for.

Gameplay

Pixl Pets is a pet battler game that allows players to pilot their team of 4 pets against other players in the Battle Arena and the wider Pixlverse.

Players choose moves for their pets each round, with additional and optional trainer commands. The battle resolves automatically according to the turn order. Pixl Pets' use of a 2x2 grid is unique among pet battlers, and mastering the grid will be key to success.

The game offers a range of experiences, from casual to competitive, with a focus on multiplayer. The core design objectives are to explore the competitive potential of the pet battler, offer meaningful financial decisions, increase player agency, balance strategy and Yomi, and provide a modern and clean feel while respecting the retro-inspired nature of the game.

3) What is Pixl Labs?

Pixl Labs is the parent company that operates both Sappy Seals and The Pixlverse. 

This is similar to Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club, Overlord and Creepz, or Marvel and Spiderman, where the former are the parent companies operating the latter.

The introduction of Pixl Labs hints at the scale at which the team plans to operate. The team also mentioned that the Pixlverse will drive value back to Seal holders through pre-mining $PIXL, brand deals, collaborations, and more. The Pixl Labs team will support both Sappy Seals and The Pixlverse as valuable elements of their vision, while also expanding the "Sappy" brand as a lifestyle brand in the Web2 and Web3 space, with partnerships already being considered. The Pixl Labs Network is expected to grow, offering countless opportunities in the Web3 space.

The Sappy Seals Culture

The Sappy Seals team and community culture is well-known for being one of the most inclusive, culturally-rich and forward-thinking groups in the NFT space. Beyond an infectious sense of humor, the Seals have a strong presence on social media, a capable team, and a supportive community.

Strong Founder Online Presence

Sappy Seals’ Founder, Wab, is one of the most active personalities in Web3. Currently ranked 3rd, Wab’s global reach constitutes 17.1% of the entire NFT space.

Furthermore, Wab“.ETH” has demonstrated his dominance on various blockchains including Cardano, increasing the transaction volume on the blockchain by 30% in September 2022, and becoming one of the biggest online influencers on the chain, surpassing Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson’s own monthly online growth.

Wab has also been extending the reach of Sappy Seals into non-English speaking communities.

In addition, he ensures that he supports his community by retweeting many of their tweets, fostering community loyalty, and elevating other creators who produce content in favor of Sappy.

Strong Team

The Sappy Seals team is also not short on talent, with every team member playing a vital role in the brand’s success, whether it be on the community, communication, or development front.

The list includes:

• Camol - Marketing, Security, Community Management, Platform Partnerships

• Chavo - Art Direction

• Ephi - Art Direction, Game Design, Tokenomics

• Diakou - Art Direction, Funding/Strategy, Game Design, Game Dev, Tokenomics,

• Degen - Funding/Strategy, Tokenomics

• Gunga - Engineering, Tokenomics

• Improt - Engineering, Game Dev

• Jah - Art Direction, Community Management, Marketing, Security

• Metaroonie - Community Management

• Mooney - Community Management, Security

• NFTzy - Funding/Strategy, Tokenomics

• Trisnt - Project Management

• VO - Art Direction

Strong Collaborations

The Seals have established significant partnerships with both Web3 and non-Web3 brands and charities.

One of their most noteworthy collaborations was with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital during Christmas, a prominent and highly regarded charity that provides medical assistance to children worldwide. As part of the donation drive, individuals were able to purchase St. Jude shirts, and Seal holders were able to showcase their virtual shirts using the Meme Machine.

Additionally, the Seals have collaborated with Oscar Mayer to introduce the "Meat-A-Verse," an IRL meet-up event that took place during Miami's Art Basel.

Strong Community

The community of Sappy Seals is known for being highly supportive of each other, regardless of whether they are content creators, artists, or meme creators. They actively help one another grow their audience, and even have a special channel on their Discord where members can share their Seals themed content for others to promote.

Their commitment to supporting each other is best summed up by the slogan "one for all, and all for one."

By regularly rewarding their most engaged, humorous, and supportive members, the team has managed to foster a community that is highly supportive and uplifting.

Additionally, in a space predominantly made up of men, the Sappy Seals community has a culture that is very supportive and welcoming to women in Web3. Just take a look at @SappySisters. Members consistently uplift and encourage each other, and are always ready to provide support when needed.

The Power of Memes, Arf

Beyond building a strong gaming and DeFi ecosystem, Sappy Seals has also established themselves as an incubator for content creators. They have furthered this mission by launching Meme Machine, a platform that allows NFT holders to create personalized memes using their Sappy Seals. The platform includes a browser extension called Sappy React, making it easier for users to use generative memes straight from their desktop.

The goal is to compensate and support community members involved in decentralized IP-building. Sappy Seals is also planning to expand Meme Machine's features with an editor, AI meme generation tools, and a market-to-earn program.

In addition, this helps to supercharge community content creation by enabling creators to increase their content output, as they can easily generate and utilize branded content using the platform.

According to TweetBinder, over the past week, the Sappy Seals community has generated over 175,000 tweets, which amounts to an average of 25,000 tweets per day.

Sappy Seals member, @Bartorinho1916, has highlighted that in the past week, a total of 11,850 contributors have shared content related to Sappy Seals, with 11,088 retweets of Sappy Seals content, resulting in a potential reach of over 13 million unique users.

As the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and in the case of Sappy Seals, it also means great exposure. The community is currently a dominant force on NFT Twitter, with around 34% of all NFT Twitter users having seen a content creator with a Sappy Seals profile picture in the past 24 hours. This should come as no surprise, given that 7,928 Twitter users, or around 79% of all Sappy Seals members, currently have a Sappy Seals profile picture.

When comparing floor prices vs. global reach of various collections, Sappy Seals rank at the top as one of the most affordable NFT collections with high reach.

In fact, Sappy Seals hold the top position in terms of Pay Per Reach (PPR), with the lowest PPR cost of $59 for every 1% reach.

Overall, Sappy Seals have come up with an astute self-promotion funnel that includes incentivizing artists to create more meme templates, offering helpful content creation tools to their community, and utilizing this content to widen their audience, entice additional users, and boost demand for their content creation tools. I call this the Circle of Arf.

Upcoming Updates To Look Out For

From technological innovation, to a culturally-rich and forward-thinking community, Sappy Seals have made a name for themselves in the NFT space. However, things are far from complete as the team has set ambitious goals for the current year, from empowering creators, to a full rebranding, the future of Sappy Seals looks promising.

1/ Empowering Creators

Community content creation is one of Sappy Seals’ biggest advantages and the team plans to implement initiatives that will empower creators in the community to share the brand’s unique culture with the rest of the world.

2/ Rebranding

The Sappy team aims to increase the brand's public visibility by rebranding and expanding their market beyond just NFTs. They want to retain the essence of Sappy while aligning it with their goal of becoming a well-known brand.

The Sappy Seals brand is also getting a makeover with updated metadata and new artwork from artist @4LeafCloverNFT, but the original art will still be available for holders to choose from. The new artwork has already been completed and will be released at a later time.

3/ Lore

Sappy Seals will expand beyond NFTs and be introduced to a wider audience through storytelling. They will embark on imaginative journeys, showcasing their creativity and overcoming obstacles, with the help of friends from the web3 community. Together, they will collaborate on creating an intellectual property.

4/ Animated Seals

In addition to being a new way of expressing oneself socially, NFTs have the potential to do more than just serve as profile pictures (PFPs). The team plans to animate the entire seal bodies to allow the average holder to build their own personal brand and at the same time enhance the brand of the seals as a whole.

5/ Meme Machine Updated

Sappy Seals and Pixl Labs have always aimed to be innovative and think outside the box. While the primary features of the Meme Machine’s minimum viable product (MVP) are already live, more features will be rolled out in stages with iterative improvements.

For example, the current sidebar on the Meme Machine website shows a couple of products in development. One of them is the ability for creators to “Market 2 Earn”, create, and use AI. Additionally, more future features include onboarding other NFT communities such as The Plague, Pudgy Penguins, y00ts, and Ape Society as well as a creator leaderboard.

6/ IP Licensing

The team is working on ways to enable Sappy Seals holders to monetize their personal brands, but they're being careful about it due to the sensitive nature of intellectual property licensing. They want to ensure that everything is properly secured and long-term safe before they implement any monetization plans.

7/ Collectibles

Pixl Labs is primarily centered around software development and gaming innovation, but they have broader ambitions for Sappy Seals as a brand that encompasses lifestyle. In this effort, collectibles are a crucial aspect, and the team plans to release new merchandise and physical items. These will include essentials, capsule drops, POAPs, and other items that are yet to be announced. Pixl Labs is carefully selecting the appropriate partners to ensure that the brand's long-term success is secured.

8/ Auctions & Raffles

Sappy Seals are working on systems to make sure community-owned seals are included fairly by creating ways for holders to have equal opportunities through $PIXL sinks. This will allow holders to participate in raffles or auctions that give them the chance to win branded content, collaborations, and merchandise.

9/ Marketing

In addition to Twitter, Sappy Seals will expand to other social platforms once the rebranding is complete. They plan to empower creators across different mediums and establish their presence on Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms. After the rebrand, they will deploy engaging GIFs and content on Twitter, use Instagram for worldbuilding through comics, fables, and story-telling, and create skits, animations, memes, and viral content on TikTok. This will be a gradual and iterative process.

The Sappy Seals team plans to continue to be a positive force in the Web3 space and contribute to its future, while expanding their reach and opening new doors, with plans to provide value for holders in the space as well as outside of the Pixlverse. Arf.

Project Runway Analysis

To truly understand the funding required to establish a brand as extensive as Pixl Labs, it's essential to consider the resources available to the team. Pixl Labs has produced a total of five collections and, over the past year, have raised a conservative estimate of at least $5.4 million USD.

Due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, the team could have converted a large percentage of their ETH (and $PIXL) funds into stable currencies to safeguard their finances. However, in this analysis, we will presume that they retained all their funds in their original currencies, with royalties mostly in ETH and mints in both ETH and $PIXL currencies. These funds were then converted at the current exchange rate to estimate their financial runway.

After OpenSea declared that they would abolish royalties and switch to a near-zero royalty model, teams may face challenges in raising funds through royalties. Pixl Labs, for instance, earned approximately $2 million USD in extra revenue through royalties, which is equivalent to 36% of their entire treasury.

Although Pixl Labs has a considerable amount of funds, they may consider VC funding as an option. Wab has made playful remarks about other teams securing VC funding in the past.

He has also stated that while he may not necessarily require VC funding in the future, he recognizes that it is a probability.

For context, Yuga Labs’ VC funding constitutes 23% of their war chest, and when combined with their $APE coin allocation, it amounts to over 90% of their entire treasury.

Closing Remarks

TL;DR

Here are the summarized points made throughout this article:

• Sappy Seals is a Web3 brand that has successfully demonstrated the importance of communities in building a strong brand in the NFT space. The brand gained prominence on Twitter, and has become a recognized player in the NFT space with a flourishing ecosystem that includes gaming, decentralized finance, and a total volume of 19,537 ETH (~$32.2 million USD) to date.

• Pixlverse is a 3D metaverse and Web3 platform that combines community, gaming, and decentralized finance. It is designed to create a social base-layer for users, allowing them to connect with a global digital community using blockchain gaming technologies. Pixlverse has three pillars: Community, Gaming, and Decentralized Finance. $PIXL is the utility token of The Pixlverse, and it can be used for purchasing items from the marketplace, breeding, pet leveling, crafting, staking, and more. The Pixl Marketplace is a place where players can exchange their $PIXL for exclusive NFTs that can be used across the entire Pixlverse.

• Pixl Labs is a parent company that operates Sappy Seals and The Pixlverse, with plans to expand the "Sappy" brand as a lifestyle brand in the Web2 and Web3 space while supporting both entities and growing the Pixl Labs Network.

• Sappy Seals is home to a strong and inclusive community, led by founder Wab, who has a significant online presence and has extended the brand's reach into other blockchains and non-English speaking communities, with a talented team and notable collaborations with brands and charities such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Oscar Mayer. The brand has managed to foster a supportive and uplifting community culture that is welcoming to everyone.

• Sappy Seals has launched the Meme Machine, a platform that allows NFT holders to create personalized memes using their Seals, and plans to expand its features with an editor, AI meme generation tools, and a market-to-earn program. Sappy Seals also ranks at the top as one of the most affordable NFT collections with high reach, utilizing their community's content creation to widen their audience, entice additional users, and boost demand for their content creation tools.

• Sappy Seals is set to make significant updates this year, including empowering creators to share their culture, rebranding the brand beyond NFTs, expanding through storytelling and animations, monetizing personal brands, releasing physical items, and creating equal opportunities for community-owned seals. The team plans to establish a presence on various social platforms and deploy engaging content gradually.

• Pixl Labs have raised a conservative estimate of at least $5.4 million USD. The team may face challenges in raising funds through royalties after OpenSea's announcement to switch to a near-zero royalty model, and they may consider VC funding as an option in the future.

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