The clue is in the name right? I'm about to take you through one of my first experiences in NFTs, ladies and gentleman, HYPE HIPPOS!
I first heard about this on Twitter and the name wasn't lying, I found a lot of people talking about Hype Hippos. Being new to the scene I can admit I definitely had FOMO, I joined the discord and made sure I was there for the drop, this was going to be big, there genuinely was a decent amount of hype around this project.
So far most of the projects I had seen offered nothing in terms of utility, it was all giveaways and donations, Hype Hippos promised something different and it was an interesting development, they were going to drop 10,000 males originally, then females at a later date and would introduce a breeding mechanism so you can enjoy babies and presumably sell them on for a tidy profit.
I set myself a limit, with a minting price at 0.08 ETH and taking in to account the scandalous gas prices I settled on minting just one for around $300. When you think about NFTs like this it's crazy the amount of money you're willing to spend on them, if someone offered me the same thing in the street there's no way I would ever pay that, but online it doesn't feel like real money, it's like being at the casino.
So I minted my hippo, they sold out relatively quickly and I sat back and waited for the hype to consume the world, I was expecting people kicking my door down demanding I hand over my Hype Hippo, what happened was probably the complete opposite.
My wonderful $300 Hype Hippo
I watched as the floor price slowly dropped, as the whole market had dropped I wasn't too concerned. It was only while I was out walking one day that I really thought about the project and stripped away the hype, here we had 10,000 hippos at a floor price that is dropping by the day and they are going to introduce thousands of female hippos which are then going to allow you to create MORE hippos, so where does it stop? Unlike ZED where even the crap horses have utility there was literally nothing you could do with your hippo except breed it and create more useless hippos. They were about to dilute an already worthless asset.
This was probably the moment I should have sold and moved on but as anyone that's in crypto or NFTs knows, what if THIS one is your ticket to financial freedom, so you end up holding/hodling. Over the next few weeks I watched people in the discord welcome the introduction of females, book their places on the pre-sale and say how they can't wait to get their females so they could breed, I can only assume these people hadn't considered what happens in the future. Needless to say I didn't buy any.
After the females dropped, I don't think they sold out, the community was largely looking forward to the breeding update, there were a few concerned voices but they were overwhelmed by the hopeful majority.
Over the coming days and weeks the community grew more and more impatient with the lack of clear direction from the mods, I don't know whether they are the team behind the project or just mods but they were not particularly helpful with community concerns. They constantly demanded patience and reassured people with comments like everything is in progress, you will like what we have coming up, and other generic words without any actual substance.
As with most projects desperate for a boost in hype and with the communities encouragement they reached out to influencers, I don't know how much they paid them but one woman who they chose had absolutely no connection to the industry, she looked like some sort of model so her audience were likely to be people that had never even heard of NFTs and VERY unlikely to buy one. It seemed like wasted money and the community were quick to point this out.
One of the finer moments was a "donation" they made to a hippo charity (apparently), this is the genuine proof they showed us on discord that they had made a donation:
Feeling pretty reassured? No, of course not. They refused to tell anyone what charity it was, how much had been donated, what type of donation it was, literally no details because they claimed the charity told them not to. Thankfully by now the community had all realised something wasn't right and had demanded real answers from the team. Answers they never received.
In summary I'm stuck with my one Hype Hippo now and I'm not sure I'll ever get my money back on it or any sort of benefit from having it, but I'll hold anyway. Who knows, this might be a gem one day.
Hype Hippos Socials
Website - https://hypehippo.io/
Discord - https://discord.com/invite/uh8p9DFZrm
Twitter - @hypehipposnft
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