Thread by @sainteclectic

With the frenzy of NFT activity we've seen its hard to believe Solana is still in its infancy.

Early movers in the space were lucratively rewarded, so how did they go about achieving this?

This is a story is about everyone’s favorite NFT marketplace @SolanArtNFT 🧵👇

Before we start, shout out to community champion @MilstGuga who worked with me on this. It took quite a lot of digging so thank you also to those who shared their experiences.

Solanart (completely unaffiliated with the @Solana foundation despite its name) was the first NFT marketplace on Solana.

It's earliest listing in July was cryptopunk copycat @PunksOnSolana and the team is run by a lean four man team with some mod support.

In August NFT mania kicked off with the hyped release of @DegenApeAcademy @AuroryProject & @Frakt, which they listed. Let's call these "EARLY PROJECTS"

In late Aug they claimed they were pausing listings. Lets call the ones listed after "LATE PROJECTS" - this is important later

Solanart make money from:
- Auctions (3% success fee)
- Listings (0.02% fee, since removed); and
- Owned projects @PunksOnSolana and @BoldBadgers which they created and sold to people

"So @sainteclectic, just how much do they make?"

Let's dive deeper.

On their Owned projects Solanart have made 97,592◎ as of writing:
- 30,000◎ from Solpunks (3◎ x 10,000 NFTS)
- 50,000◎ from Badgers (5◎ x 10,000 NFTS)
- 17,592◎ from Solpunk / Solpunk airdrop / Badger auction fees

On the "Early Projects" they've made auction fees of: 50,277◎ as of writing.

On the "Later Projects" they've made auction fees of
- 3,009◎.

In total @SolanartNFT have made 150,878◎

At today's prices of US$140/◎ this equates to US$21 million dollars.

Date-adjusting the US$ figure for the Solpunk & Badger mints (since they happened awhile ago) the total is US$15.2m.

Or $3.8m per team member for 3 months

Let that sink in.

These calculations exclude the 0.02% fee they received for every listing so I am undercounting.

This fee was not very explicit early on, so many unsuspecting sellers were hit with this bill, especially those listing their rare and mythic NFTs at very high prices.

You access the calculations here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

Feel free to download and play around with inputs.

Note that the SOL volume in the spreadsheet (2,442,589◎) is lower than their figure listed on their website (2,591,531◎ as of writing), so I am again, undercounting.

So what have the team done with the $15.2m revenue?

Did they:
a. re-invest in Solpunks / Badgers community
b. re-invest in auction functionality / UI / UX
c. hire more team members to help workload
d. none of the above

Can you guess?

Let's go through each one:

A. Outside of the initial SSBxSolpunks aidrop there has not been much (or any) Solpunks/Badger community building.

The team have been vague in Q&A sessions.

They didn't even bother to set up their own dedicated discords (they sit inside Solanart's).

I didn't have to go far to find evidence - hopping into discord yielded this conversation immediately:

Feedback from Solpunk/Badgers community members was mostly poor.

Opinions differ, but a common thread is that there was a "severe lack of effort post-sale"

What is clear is that Solanart did not bother to build or give back to their NFT communities after collecting their SOL.

B. Solanart's auction website has had one major UI upgrade over the last 3 months: changing the site color from blue to purple blue.

And maybe some improved search boxes.

Their floor listings were commonly broken and not refreshed allowing some people to bait others into over purchasing (the example presented in screenshot is extreme but a real one).

Many times, listings were met with constant errors. These now appear mostly fixed.

They also did not bother updating their or improving auction mechanics & functionality.

To this day you can't bid on items nor lower your current asking price without cancelling and relisting.

And don't forget they used to charge a fee each time you listed / relisted.

Only when CT personality @pentosh1 tweeted about it did they remove their 0.02% listing fee, after creaming it for a good 3 months.

https://twitter.com/Pentosh1/status/1436484576948457506?s=20

The website was often overloaded and wrong images were being presented on NFTs.

People who bought tokens due to this mistake were told to refresh the page and received no further help.

Buyer beware.

C. But @sainteclectic, @SolanartNFT is a four man team, they are stretched! Coding & community is difficult!

Yes it is, especially when you're focused on launching and pocketing as much as you can - selling two NFT projects and launching an auction site with barely any upgrades.

All of the above points toward very little reinvestment of their US$15.2m windfall.

Now at the end of the day they can decide how to run their business. If they don't want to reinvest that's their call.

But as the community there are 15 million reasons you should demand better.

I will conclude by sharing some further observations of their behavior.

Remember when I said they listed EARLY projects and LATER projects?

Well in late August they said they were pausing listings and suddenly pulled support from various LATER projects.

@Thugbirdz was one such project that had support pulled from them despite having agreed a listing back in early August.

They were told that Solanart were pausing listings - who can blame them, they were too stretched, right? They were on a pause right?

During this time @SolSoulsNFT and @SolamandersNFT also struggled to get responses from Solanart for listings.

But it didn't stop them from listing @TheBearGangNFT on 3 Sept and @SolLions on 9 Sept.

There are been rumors they are affiliated but these are unsubstantiated.

Since fellow sleuth @MilstGuga tweeted that we'd write a thread on them they've suddenly become responsive.

They said they'd get in contact with SolSouls and Solamanders.

Thugbirdz also got a listing since it just became more popular.

Funny 'innit.

https://twitter.com/MilstGuga/status/1439607413980778500?s=20

Now the latest twist development is that they are planning to launch a Solanart token, potentially raising more funds from unsuspecting people (though it apparently will be airdropped to Badger holders).

Well, I guess you know what to expect after you acquire the token.

What's next is up to you

At the end of the day Solanart provide a service and are free to run their business & listings however they wish

They could have set an example but IMO they focused on launching money makers; giving little back - to Solpunks, to Badgers, to site users

This model has worked for them and been incredible lucrative... until now.

Now that you're aware of what they've made and what they're like.

I hope this thread gets the conversation going on what acceptable community standards are for auction sites and the teams behind them.

In the end the Solana NFT community will wise up, self-police and eventually leave @SolanartNFT in the dust if they don't change.

But unfortunately, not before they get away with US$15m (and counting).

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