A brief history of Chimpers and why its done so well in a bear market
If Q2 last year was the best time in history to launch a new NFT project, Q2 of 2022 might go down in history as the exact opposite. With new projects launching constantly and the bear market raging on, it has been a challenging time to bring a new project to market.
At the same time, a handful of projects have bucked the trend and found their footing, they're all over Twitter, and it's bringing positive vibes that gives us a little slice of the magic that was the NFT summer of 2021.
One of the projects that really stands out to me right now is Chimpers - my Twitter feed has gone !CHIMP crazy, and it only seems to be accelerating. As of today the floors sits at 2ETH which is very hard to achieve in the current market where many projects struggle to get above 0.2ETH.
So what makes Chimpers so special? It's a combination of the team, the art, the story, and the community - so I thought it would be fun to put together a brief history of Chimpers to chart how they got to where they are today.
To kick things off - let's talk about the founders.
Chimpers is the brainchild of twin brothers @TimpersHD and @NFT1nsight and Ser Joey (@PunkHot10) a good friend of theirs. As I've mentioned in the past - for me, the founding team is paramount to just about everything else in an NFT project, a good team can do amazing things, and survive the ups and downs that come with running an NFT project. In this case, these three founders have solid complimentary skillsets - Timers is a super talented pixel artist, 1nsight is a skilled community manager, and Ser Joey has strategy and ops covered.
If you're familiar with NounsDAO then you've already seen Timpers in action, and he also has a pretty badass You Tube channel where he teaches people how to make pixel art. This alone differentiates Chimpers from a lot of projects where the artist is separate from the founding team - the deep connection between the project and the art really shows.
Okay, so we know about the founders, let's talk about what they've done in the NFT space leading up to Chimpers
I'll start a bit out of order because I think it actually makes a bit more sense this way - let's talk about Chimpers Genesis.
The Chimpers Genesis NFTs are a collection of 100 1/1 hand-drawn characters that all have their own unique name and backstory, tying together an intricate and vast world known as - The Chimpverse. They are also directly connected to an NFT that was airdropped to early collectors called "Diamond Fleece" which I'll share more about next.
So what the heck are Diamond Fleeces?
Diamond Fleeces directly connect to the core project that gave life to the Chimpers universe - The Boring Ape Chronicles, often referred to as TBAC.
You can read the two intro paragraphs above for a quick summary of what The Boring Ape Chronicles is. The key data point to have in your mind at this point is that Episode 1 of TBAC is called - The Quest for the Diamond Fleece. Six TBAC episodes were created in total with 100 of each edition made available to collectors for 0.25ETH.
So back to the Diamond Fleece. In December of 2021 Diamond Fleeces were airdropped to investors holding NFTs for all six episodes. Initially, investors didn't know what they could do with this free gift, but later the team announced they could go to a burn site and burn their Diamond Fleeces in exchange for a Chimpers Genesis.
As if getting a 1/1 Chimpers wasn't enough, Diamond Fleece holders magically received an item called Diamond Dust, the remnants of the Diamond Fleece, so they will always have something to commemorate the journey. The utility of the Diamond Dust is still unknown 👀
One sidenote - since there weren't 100 full-set collectors at the time of the original Diamond Fleece airdrop, the team held the remaining Diamond Fleeces, auctioning one off each week. The auctions ranged from 8ETH all the way up to 55ETH by the time all the auctions were finished.
Which now brings us back to where we are today - Chimpers.
After building a solid community and continuing to build on the world and mechanics of TBAC, Timpers and team decided it was time to do a generative project - 5,555 chimps on the Blockchain...and Chimpers was born.
The story is still being told and I have no top secret alpha to share here, but I would suggest reading this section on the website which I've pasted below to make life easier.
and if you really want to know what's going on, you should read this too (below):
Yes, you read that right - Chimpers are going to be the focus of a brand new Web3 adventure story. Honestly, this is what pushed me over the edge. Seeing what this team did with TBAC, and missing out on some pretty massive opportunities there made me realize, better late than never - time to jump in, errr Chimp in.
So last week I picked up this guy - a Chimpers with a Holo background that I'm pretty excited about.
One thing I really like about the team behind Chimpers is how much passion they have both for art and storytelling. It shows in everything they do, and the Chimpers community is easily one of the most positive, excited, and dynamic groups I've ever come across. The day I chimped in reminded me a lot of the week I got my first Bored Ape back in May of 2021, similar energy and vibes, and to have that during a bear market, definitely says something.
Before I end this article I wanted to give special thanks to @MoonCat2878 who wrote a totally kick ass thread that taught me most of what I know about Chimpers and the whole backstory behind TBAC. MoonCat - you rock.