Bean DAO Drops Lawsuit Against Azuki Founder, Launches Memecoin Project
Bean DAO, formerly known as Azuki DAO, has announced a rebranding and a new memecoin project backed by $10 million. The DAO has also withdrawn its legal action against Azuki NFT founder Zagabond.
Bean DAO, an independent decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) linked to the Azuki non-fungible token (NFT) collection, has announced a significant rebranding, transitioning to the name “Bean.”
This change comes alongside the DAO’s decision to withdraw a proposed legal action against Azuki’s founder, Zagabond, related to a controversial $39 million NFT minting event.
The rebranding signifies a shift in strategy, with Bean moving towards developing a memecoin project and integrating it into the Ethereum layer-2 Blast ecosystem.
Developers behind the initiative have revealed that Bean has secured substantial financial backing, amounting to $10 million, from key investors. This funding is earmarked for the project’s development and accelerating its integration within the Blast ecosystem.
The Bean memecoin will have a total supply cap of 1 billion tokens.
The developers have clarified that the current token supply plan differs from the information previously displayed on their website. The outdated plan outlined a distribution of 40% of tokens to the treasury, 50% to Azuki DAO members, and 10% to Azuki NFT creator Zagabond.
It also stipulated that minting would be exclusively available to Azuki NFT holders for a 24-hour window following the token’s launch, with unclaimed tokens subject to burning.
The revised plan presents a new allocation: the Azuki DAO community will receive 50% of the $Bean tokens through an airdrop to holders of the Azuki series NFTs, completed four months ago.
The same address still holds the remaining tokens. Moreover, the Bean Treasury will receive 40% of the tokens, and Zagabond will retain the final 10%, which also remains in the same address.
Azuki NFT controversy explained
The Azuki NFT collection, known for its 10,000 anime-themed profile pictures (PFPs), faced a market turmoil with the release of a second series, the “Elementals.”
This series, consisting of 10,000 PFPs released by Zagabond, closely resembles the original Azuki PFPs. This similarity led to a perceived dilution of the original series due to the sudden increase in supply.
The controversy sparked a backlash from some Azuki NFT holders, who felt betrayed by Zagabond’s actions. They accused him of exploiting the Azuki brand and community for his own benefit and demanded compensation for their losses.
Some of them formed the Azuki DAO, an independent entity that claimed to represent the interests of the original Azuki NFT holders. The DAO also initiated a legal action against Zagabond, seeking damages and an injunction to stop him from minting more NFTs under the Azuki name.
However, the legal action proved costly and time-consuming, and the DAO soon realized it had little chance of winning the case. Zagabond argued that he had full rights to the Azuki name and artwork and that he had not violated any terms or agreements with the Azuki NFT holders.
He also claimed that he had created the Elementals series as a way of expanding the Azuki universe and rewarding loyal fans.
After months of negotiations, the DAO and Zagabond reached a settlement in which the DAO agreed to drop the lawsuit and rebrand itself as Bean DAO. Zagabond agreed to support the Bean DAO’s memecoin project and grant them access to the Blast ecosystem.
The two parties also agreed to collaborate on future NFT projects and promote the Azuki and Bean brands.
With the rebranding and the lawsuit behind them, Bean DAO is now looking forward to the future. The DAO hopes that its memecoin project will attract more users and investors and that it will benefit from the scalability and security of the Blast ecosystem.
The DAO also plans to launch more NFT collections and games and foster a vibrant and inclusive community around the Bean brand.
The Bean DAO’s announcement has received mixed reactions from the crypto and NFT communities. Some have praised the DAO for its innovation and resilience and have expressed interest in the memecoin project.
Others have criticized the DAO for abandoning the Azuki brand and settling with Zagabond and have questioned the value and utility of the memecoin.
Some have also expressed skepticism about the Blast ecosystem, which is still in its early stages of development and has not yet proven its performance and reliability.
The Bean DAO’s memecoin project is expected to launch in the coming weeks, and the DAO has invited all Azuki NFT holders to join the airdrop and claim their $Bean tokens.
