Here’s Everything to Know About Azuki’s Animecoin ($ANIME)

Azuki, an anime-themed NFT project built on the Ethereum network, recently launched its flagship cryptocurrency, Animecoin ($ANIME). Here’s everything to know about the anime-focused digital token.

Azuki Launches Animecoin

Azuki is an NFT collection launched in January 2022 by its founder, Zagabond. It has 10,000 digital collectibles featuring anime-themed characters. The project aims to unite enthusiasts across the NFT and anime worlds. With a current floor price of 4.9 ETH, Azuki ranks among the top 10 NFT projects by market capitalization ranking.

In September 2024, Zagabond announced the acquisition of Anime.com, emphasizing that it aligns with the project’s “vision of Anime 2.0.” Last week, the project hinted that $ANIME will debut later this month in collaboration with the Animecoin Foundation. The duo added that the token will launch on Ethereum and Arbitrum networks.

Earlier today, $ANIME launched, and 37.5% of its total supply of 10 billion tokens was airdropped to the Azuki community. The remaining tokens are earmarked for the Animecoin Foundation, Team & Advisors, Community Cultivation, and others. On-chain data from CoinMarketCap shows that 55.38% of the supply is currently in circulation.

In a recent interview, Zagabond projected that the new token launch would fuel onboarding the next one billion anime lovers into the crypto industry.

Notably, Azuki’s decision to launch a native token follows a similar path several NFT projects have taken to establish their presence in the crypto market. These projects include Pudgy Penguins, Nifty Island, Magic Eden, and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

$ANIME Sees Price Slump

Upon launch, leading crypto exchanges like Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, and Crypto.Com listed $ANIME, enabling billions of crypto users to access the cross-chain token immediately. Like most airdrops, the Azuki-owned token saw network congestion as users grappled to claim their tokens. Still, the claiming window remains open for 45 days.

Despite the hype from the community, the token sunk over 50% hours after launch. Its price slumped from $0.186 to $0.084 before rebounding at $0.0943 at press time.