In September, Nex10 Labs made history with Uninterested Unicorns (U_U), a NFT (non-fungible token) avatar project that sold out USD$1 million worth of NFTs in less than 10 minutes of its launch. More than 1,000 ether (US$3.6 million) were also traded in the opening week.

Nex10 is the brainchild of Terence Ting, who also founded esports organisation Team Flash and is the co-founded The Asian Mint, an NFT-focused media platform for Asian collectors. With a team that comprises enthusiasts and experts from Ubisoft, DAOventures, and Riot Games, among others, the company is focused on building global intellectual property of Asian talents through decentralised finance and NFTs.

“We believe in the future of Web 3.0 and a fully decentralised internet economy, where NFTs will be key to this movement,” says Ting. “Digital collectibles and metaverse is the future, and combined with video gaming will create a new entertainment experience to be shared with the world.”

Ahead, Ting tells us more about U_U, the nascent rise of NFTs and what this means for investors.

How did U_U come about?

Uninterested Unicorns is the brainchild of three Singaporeans. I lead the marketing and brand development aspect of U_U, while Ryan Teo (Lead Artist) is responsible for the name and overall art concept/style. We also have Lim Keng Hin (Lead Blockchain developer) join our team later on, who was largely responsible for the smart contract and blockchain/tech development part of U_U.

The idea for U_U only came about in August 2021, and we moved really fast to make it a reality in under 1.5 months leading up to our first official sale. We were confident that we could get our brand out in the market and build a strong loyal community off our first IP, especially with our U_U concept that had such strong meme and viral potential.

Currently, U_U is available for trading on OpenSea, the largest NFT Marketplace in the world to date. This means that you’ll be able to purchase your very own U_U NFT with cryptocurrency (Most people do this with Ethereum, as our NFT is built on the Ethereum chain).

U_U NFT sold out more than US$1 million worth of NFTs in less than 10 minutes. Can you share with us more about that?

During the public sale, we actually could have sold out in less than 3 minutes as we were tracking website traffic at the same time. Some of the top supporters of our community came from the US and Asia, as well as Europe. It was truly a global community from the start that supported us from Day 1, and we are so grateful for the passionate support from our Unis.

What does this milestone mean for the community in the region?

It presents a bright future for the NFT space as a whole and for Uninterested Unicorns. Also, reinvesting our funds to grow our Uni community in the right areas will be a key strategic decision-making process by our collective team.

The challenge now is to build on our initial success and momentum – to create an NFT brand that will last the test of time and still be relevant a decade from now.

Tell us more about the U_U game. Is it conceived as a metaverse?

The U_U game will be the first stop in our long-term vision to create a larger metaverse that combines real life experiences with the advancement of NFT & Blockchain technology. The goal for our U_U game is to introduce Play-to-Earn elements to a new audience and also generate long-term value for our early supporters and utility token, UniCandy ($UCD).

What’s your take on the current NFT landscape in Singapore?

Singapore is still early in terms of overall NFT awareness and grassroots development, so it will take time for the local scene to catch up to the rest of the world. The Asia market as a whole is also growing fast, with Philippines and Indonesia as two other key markets for NFT today.

Currently, the US probably has the most active NFT market in terms of total traders, project owners and creators.

What advice can you give new buyers of NFT?

Do your own research and understand what makes an NFT project successful, from factors such as team, community, utility, mass appeal potential, etc. Always invest what you can afford to lose as the NFT space is still at a nascent stage and the risk reward ratio is relatively high. You can make great investments but also see a quick downturn in a bear market if you are not careful.

What advice can you give to digital artists as well as businesses looking to make a foray into this NFT space?

For creators and small to medium businesses/start-ups, there is a lot of potential in this space but you really need a good concept and team to stand out. Identify your core markets and who you can attract easily without much marketing effort – from there on, it’s about building a strong community that will support whatever you choose to create and will not sell at the first sign of a market downturn (The NFT term for this is “paper hands”).

What are the trends within the NFT space now?

NFT and blockchain technology is going to be the future of digital collectibles, and the gaming industry, combining several popular Gen-Z trends together. Right now, the early audience is mostly based on the DeFi/Crypto market, and have also attracted people from specific cultures such as NBA TopShot (Sports), Axie Infinity (Gaming), etc.

How do you think NFT will play out in metaverses?

NFT will be one of the core technologies that power future iterations of the metaverse.

Currently, we have incumbent players such as Sandbox, Decentraland and Cryptovoxels that already have a native marketplace selling NFTs. I believe that there will be more use cases developed over time for NFTs, both within and outside metaverse platforms. My dream is to see one true metaverse where virtual and reality can combine to form one cohesive experience.