Nic's weekly analysis #5 : Valhalla

Valhalla and its team may have taken on a challenging task with their NFT project. Their ambitious goal is to create a platform that can compete with Twitch, which is no small feat. However, the project has already demonstrated potential, as evidenced by its successful mint that quickly sold out, as well as more than 23,000 ETH in total sales volume.

Furthermore, the project was created by Stacked Studios, an LA-based startup with a mission of developing web3 products and becoming one of the largest crypto companies globally. The company has secured $15 million in funding, indicating that they have a solid foundation for their project.

While Valhalla's project is not a simple PFP project, the question remains: can the team accomplish their grand vision? To answer this question, we will explore the project's history, team, achievements, and plans to challenge Twitch's dominance.

What is Valhalla?

Valhalla NFTs are a collection of anime characters designed to unite gamers worldwide and create a community. According to the founder's Twitter thread, Valhalla NFT project is a brand designed specifically for gamers within the crypto world.

The collection comprises of five character types, each with its unique personality. These include : 

-Humans : “The primary type that populates Valhalla. They’re chill to play with, team players, and always down to play fill.” 8510 NFTs

-Toxic : “Toxic players are in charge of keeping you in ELO hell. They’re the ones who instalock Jett. They’re the ones who’ll feed first blood, endlessly run it down mid, and spam FF15.” 645 NFTs

-Mechs : “Aim bot on by default. Trained with advanced neural networks to calculate the most efficient path to domination. Probably drew themselves using Stable Diffusion.” 647 NFTs

-God/Eternal : “Can trade profitably at a crypto desk while playing League of Legends at a Challenger level.” 99 NFTs

-Demons : “Born in a PC bang. Only games between the hours of 10 PM – 5 AM. Plays like they’re on PEDs, but their performance is 100% grass-fed organic. Their blueish skin derives from the minimal light they receive from their computer screen.” 99NFTs

The artwork for this project was created by Hicham Habchi, an accomplished concept artist known for his work with renowned gaming and comic brands such as Marvel, DC Comics, and Blizzard.

Valhalla made a significant impact in the summer of 2022 with a 3D billboard in Times Square that went live months before the official mint. The project gained attention for its innovative minting process, where prospective holders could only enter the community by obtaining referral codes from existing members. This approach sparked a wave of interest and resulted in tens of thousands of applications for membership.

The presale of the Valhalla NFTs sold out in just one minute, and within the next four days, the team had received over 16,300 paid deposits, which was 33 times oversubscribed.

Their story:

Stacked Studios aims to create a streaming platform for content creators, similar to Twitch, that is owned and operated by the creators themselves. This platform would enable creators to use NFTs like Valhalla to build strong communities. CEO Alex Lin envisions the platform using governance tokens to make creators shareholders in the platform, regardless of their familiarity with cryptocurrencies.

While it is difficult to gauge how close Stacked Studios is to realizing this goal, Valhalla has made significant strides in serving its community of NFT holders. In Q4 2022, the team successfully organized a tournament for Fall Guys, which was well-received by the community. The project also partners with esports teams, such as T1 and Sentinels, and has released NFT skins for special occasions.

Valhalla launched its own marketplace in February 2023, as part of Stacked Studios' belief that NFT projects should control their own distribution. However, controversy emerged early on when there were speculations that CEO Alex Lin and Hoshiboy, the founder of Azuki, were the same person. Nonetheless, the Valhalla community defended the project, and the accusations were debunked.

Despite these early challenges, Valhalla has enjoyed strong community support and participation. In the long term, Stacked Studios aims to create a platform that empowers creators to build their communities through NFTs and turns them into shareholders of the platform.

Valhalla's Leadership Team: Who are They?

Valhalla is a creation of Stacked Studios, a company led by CEO Alex Lin, who was previously a consumer tech entrepreneur and featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. The fully-disclosed Valhalla team is made up of experienced members from various well-known companies. Ding Zhang, the Lead Software Engineer at Stacked, is a notable team member who was previously a Founding Engineer on Uber's membership team.

Pantera Capital led the funding round, and the company also participated in the mint, but the exact number of NFTs they claimed remains unclear.

And then what?

The success of Valhalla and Stacked Studios in the future hinges on their ability to create the streaming platform they have envisioned and promised. However, there have been no concrete indications of progress on the platform, and the trailer for their unreleased game has left much to the imagination. Despite generating excitement in the community through various events and activities, it remains to be seen whether they can deliver on their ambitious goal of becoming the Twitch for web3.

Creating a platform that can compete with Twitch, which receives over 55 million hours of watch time per day, is a massive undertaking. Even if they can deliver their promised product, it will be challenging for them to achieve such viewership numbers. The Valhalla collection may be either a necessary means to reach Stacked Studios' vision or a distraction from their ultimate goal, but only time will tell.

In any case, Valhalla has garnered the attention of the Web3 gaming community and has the funding and support to establish itself as a major player in the space.

How can you take advantage of this opportunity?

It is necessary to have a good knowledge of web3, to be able to make technical and fundamental analysis and especially to succeed in making the different links between all of that. That's why the NFTNics system is here to help you. So I'm going to share with you the analysis that I made of this project 👇 :

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