A team from Melbourne sold out US$2.5 million worth of llama JPGs within a few minutes last night — but the error-plagued launch has left some users fuming, with one complaining the llamas are destroying their soul.
Some users who tried to mint Sollamas paid but didn’t receive them, while others received more llamas than they had paid for.
The NFT avatar project on the Solana blockchain involved the minting of 9,900 llamas, with another 100 reserved for the team. They cost 4 SOL each, or 3.9 SOL for those who bought a three-pack during the 11pm AEST launch window.
With Solana tokens trading at US$65 apiece, that’s US$260 for a 576 by 576 pixel llama JPG, which many users were no doubt hoping to flip for a tidy profit. Other NFT avatar projects have exploded in value in recent days.
Trading hadn’t yet begun this morning on the leading (and perhaps only) secondary marketplace for Solana NFTs.
With all 9,900 llamas sold, the team would have made at least US$2.5 million in SOL tokens on the launch, less costs, depending on how many users opted for three-packs.
That said, the issue of refunds and free llamas given to users who didn’t pay for them complicates matters.
“I’m becoming depressed knowing I have someone else’s llamas unjustified and I am causing them so much pain I can’t look at my llamas without feeling hurt my I used to love my lammas now they are destroying my soul,” one user wrote this morning on the team’s Discord channel.
The team also receives a five per cent royalty on all llama sales, which they have pledged to use for future development.
About the Sollamas
According to the Sollamas website, the project was created by “a small bunch of mates from Melbourne, Australia all with the same vision and goal. Our core principles have always been to deliver the best possible NFT user experience from launch as well as creating collectible art with utility.”
Each algorithmically generated llama has 165 different attributes based on rarity — “from hats, glasses, necklaces, back blankets, beards to even the odd poop.”
Despite the issues with the airdrop, some who got llamas seemed pretty happy with them.
But there was also some trolling going on. (We’re pretty sure this user wasn’t serious).