megaETH NFT "Shell Sale" Sparks Controversy: Reasonable Valuation or Early Harvesting?

The real-time blockchain megaETH, focused on enhancing Ethereum's performance, announced today the upcoming launch of a new NFT series: The Fluffle.

megaETH, a real-time blockchain solution designed to enhance Ethereum's performance, announced the upcoming launch of a new NFT series titled "The Fluffle." This series will have a total supply of 10,000 NFTs, each priced at 1 ETH for whitelist members. Notably, these NFTs will be untradeable and non-transferable, serving as Soulbound Tokens (SBTs).

As an added benefit, NFT holders will be eligible for a future 5% token airdrop allocation, with 50% unlockable on the day of TEG, and the remaining will be unlocked linearly over 6 months. While the whitelist details are yet to be announced, users can currently check their whitelist eligibility on the official website.

This NFT sale event has sparked intense controversy within the community. On one hand, some players are convinced that the fundraising odds are extremely high and are actively seeking whitelist spots off-market. They believe that the NFT serves as a "shell" for future token sales, and that those who fail to obtain a whitelist spot will miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

On the other hand, some players question whether megaETH's actions are a disguised ICO, taking advantage of the ongoing bull market to harvest the community early. They argue that the project's mainnet has not yet been launched, and that selling tokens in this manner may not align with the spirit of Web3.

To provide a balanced perspective, Odaily Planet Daily will outline both viewpoints in this article for readers' reference, not as any investment advice.

Pro: Reasonable Valuation, Worth Participating

There is no doubt that the highlight of megaETH's The Fluffle series NFT lies in the future 5% token airdrop allocation. Therefore, the community generally views it as a "shell sale" activity, where the successful sale allows the project party to obtain 10,000 ETH, currently approximately $27 million (if ETH does not drop).

If calculated at a 5% airdrop ratio, the token's FDV would be $540 million. Adding the previously obtained $30 million financing, megaETH's total financing amount reaches $57 million. Based on the general token estimation of 20 times the financing amount, megaETH's FDV would be $1.14 billion.

However, whether calculated by the NFT pricing at $540 million FDV or by the financing amount estimated at $1.14 billion FDV, community players supporting megaETH believe the valuation remains within a reasonable range and has at least 10 times potential returns. After all, compared to the FDV of previously popular Ethereum scaling solutions like TEG, such as ZKsync ($4.2 billion), Starknet ($19.5 billion), and Blast ($2.7 billion), megaETH's current FDV is indeed not high, and it is even lower than Starknet's current circulating market value of $660 million.

BMAN, co-founder of ABCDE Venture, expressed support for megaETH: "They could have raised more funds but turned down a $1 billion offer from VCs, choosing to use the retro ICO method to give more tokens to the community. I believe this is an attractive opportunity for liquid funds, and it is also one of the most asymmetric opportunities recently. As an investor, I am glad Ethereum has returned to the simple, retro ICO era."

A team member of the NFT project CyberKongz, enzoblue, even boldly stated that anyone who does not want a whitelist can feel free to DM him.

Some community players have seen through the reason behind megaETH's "shell sale." On one hand, using SBT can avoid speculation on the NFT in the secondary market; on the other hand, clearly defining the NFT as "collectibles" reasonably mitigates legal risks while offering the community a private placement price similar to that of VCs in the form of NFTs. megaETH co-founder Bing Xiong also candidly stated in response to community doubts: "We cannot directly ICO the tokens to the community; we can only lower the valuation and give it to the community in the form of NFTs, and whether people buy it depends on their own valuation of the project."

Con: Mainnet Not Launched, Early Harvesting

Of course, in this mixed reality of the cryptocurrency circle, where truth and falsehood are intertwined and innocence relies entirely on eloquence, it is often not enough to just listen to what the project party says to understand their true intentions. Therefore, some community players have raised doubts about megaETH, believing that in the current market environment, a $540 million valuation is still too high, and that the project party is looking to sell tokens before launching the mainnet to take advantage of the liquidity in the bull market for early harvesting.

During this cycle, there is a prevalent phenomenon in the market where project parties consider token issuance