Key Takeaways
- Reddit Collectible Avatars have taken the social media site by storm.
- By never explicitly mentioning NFTs or even cryptocurrency, Reddit has managed to get millions of users on board.
- Reddit seems to have found a winning formula that will likely catch the attention of others.
Share this article
While some Reddit Collectible Avatars were available for purchase at the launch of the NFTs in July, many have also been distributed for free to the social media site’s most active users.
What are Reddit collection avatars?
NFTs are reaching a new audience, this time through Reddit.
The social media giant’s Reddit Collectible Avatars collections stole the crypto spotlight this week, amassing a combined trading volume of $2.2 million on leading NFT marketplace OpenSea over the past 24 hours.
After an initial release earlier this year in July, the avatar NFTs received little attention from Reddit users or the broader crypto community. However, in recent weeks, many active Reddit users have started receiving free collectible avatars. This, combined with several recently released Halloween-themed collections, has seen interest in the avatars grow.
Minted on the Polygon blockchain, each Reddit Collectible Avatar can be used on the social media site as a user’s profile photo. Avatars also offer additional benefits, such as the ability to mix and match clothes with other avatars and a glow effect on users’ responses.
While some Reddit avatar collections, such as ‘The Singularity’, have millions of stocks, others are scarcer. This has led to sought-after avatars to increase in value as interest in the NFTs increased this week. Currently, the highest rated avatars appear to be from the Sys32 template Collection ‘Spooky Season’. Examples from this small group of 210 NFTs have risen to a floor price of 2.8 ETH – approximately $3,700.
Another Spooky Season collection from poieeeee currently ranks first for the most traded NFT collection on OpenSea over the past day. Since launching on October 24, the 1,800 NFT-strong poieeeyee collection has reached over $1 million in trading volume. However, it’s not just these Halloween-themed examples that are finding success. The Mistakes collection, part of the first Reddit Avatar series released in July, increased more than fivefold in value this week. On October 22, a Foustlings avatar would have set collectors back 0.31 ETH. Now the same NFTs are regularly selling for as much as 1.65 ETH – a 432% increase in the floor price.
While many in the Reddit community are exuberant about their newly received and often precious avatars, die-hard NFT fans seem to have missed the excitement. The Reddit Collectible Avatars have been known in NFT circles since their launch in July, but have been largely ignored. Now they have increased in value, leaving many wondering why these Reddit avatars are attracting so much attention.
Why are Reddit avatars so popular?
Reddit’s NFTs have been successful for many of the same reasons as other avatar projects, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club or CryptoPunks.
On Reddit, the avatars are easily visible and users can show off their wealth and customize how other posters see them. Allowing users to customize how they look online in exchange for a fee isn’t unique to the crypto space or Reddit. For years, popular online games such as Counter-Strike, League of Legends and Overwatch have sold cosmetic items or “character skins” to players through in-game purchases. In this sense, Reddit avatars are familiar to users who are willing to pay money for cosmetic items elsewhere online.
However, there are other reasons why Reddit avatars have seen success. The social media site already has millions of users, meaning its collectible avatars will appeal to more people than the average NFT collection. By comparison, many “crypto-native” NFT collections try to build a community around their avatars from the ground up, and while some succeed, many more fail.
It’s also worth noting that Reddit Collectible Avatars have been purposefully marketed without using any crypto jargon. Crypto wallets have been replaced by ‘Reddit Vaults’ and the term NFT has been dropped in favor of ‘Digital Collectible’. While it may seem like an insignificant change to those used to using crypto and trading NFTs, for the uninitiated it has made a huge difference in terms of accessibility.
Additionally, the specific decision not to call Reddit avatars “NFTs” has contributed to their adoption. NFT has become a dirty word in many art and gaming communities in recent months. The term has acquired a number of negative connotations, ranging from excessive energy consumption to scams and even money laundering. On the other hand, “Digital Collectible” is easier to understand, doesn’t have the baggage that “NFT” does, and has likely helped its adoption among users who were previously skeptical of blockchain technology.
While all of these points may be true, some have taken a more cynical approach to the Reddit avatar hype. Coinshares CSO and Crypto Twitter personality Meltem Demirors has posited that the popularity of Reddit avatars among the non-crypto community can be explained simply by the status and value they confer. “Reddit NFTs prove that everyone loves being an insider on something new that gives them status and makes them money,” she wrote. “Ppl don’t actually hate NFTs or crypto, they hate that people who aren’t them get status and wealth from it because they think they deserve it more.”
Love them or hate them, the Reddit Collectible Avatar collections prove that anything can be successful if marketed properly. Reddit has found a winning formula by turning a poorly understood technology into something that even people with no prior knowledge of crypto can enjoy and participate in. Other companies, both in the crypto space and beyond, will likely be watching closely so they can try to replicate Reddit’s. success.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this piece, the author owned ETH, BTC, and several other digital assets.
Share this article
