Azuki Raises $2.5 Million for NFT Skateboards

Azuki is already one of the biggest NFT projects in the industry, having brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales so far. But even with all this virtual world, Azuki’s most recent outing saw the project sell physical skateboards. This outing was also a massive success, bringing in over $2.5 million in sales and was held by Chiru Labs, the company behind Azuki. 

This sale was held on October 21, 2022, and saw 8 skateboards sold in total following 145 bids on them. It also represents one of Chiru Labs’ most successful offerings to date. 

Skateboards and NFTs

Besides the popular company backing them, the skateboards were also notable for not being your run-of-the-mill skating equipment. As per Chiru Labs, each skateboard is made of 24-karat gold and weighs 45 pounds and as such, users are recommended to not actually try to ride them. But despite their impracticality, buyers flocked to these boards and paid a pretty penny for them. 

Chiru Labs confirmed that the highest amount paid for one of the skateboards was $400,000 while the lowest amount paid was  $260,000, all of which was done in ETH. The highest bid was paid by a user known as ‘dingaling’ who already has 70 Azuki NFTs in their portfolio and now gets to add another Chiru Labs asset to their collection. 

Besides the 24-karat gold and decked-out appearance of the skateboards, they are also made unique by the scannable chips inside of them which confirm their authenticity and rarity. As Chiru Labs explains, this can be very beneficial because it means that asset transfer can be done more seamlessly. If one of the boards is sold, for example, the new owner can transfer the asset digitally to their own wallet and create a new proof-of-ownership.

And therein lies even more potential for this sort of NFT application. While the authentication of digital goods is mostly a straightforward process, physical goods have suffered from counterfeiting for years. But with scannable chips and transfer via blockchain, that could easily be a thing of the past. This is all part of what Chiru Labs calls a ‘physically backed token’ i.e a physical asset that is recorded and backed up on a blockchain. 

Authenticating Products Via Blockchain 

This new development signalled a triumph for Chiru Labs, showing that its physical goods have just as much, if not more, demand as its digital assets. It also shows a potential new application of NFTs in that they can be tied to physical goods and used for authentication. 

If physically backed tokens truly catch on from here, we could see them being used in all sorts of industries, from luxury goods to even consumables like wine. Essentially, any physical item that could have a scannable chip and is in danger of counterfeiting could benefit from this. And with the success that this first project has seen, Azuki could roll out more in the future.