CyberKongz Weekly: 2021 Year in Review
Wow, what an incredible year 2021 has been, and thank you all for being a part of this Kongmunity! It was literally just a few short months ago that Myoo humbly released the original 989 Genesis Kongz for sale for 0.01 ETH each with no marketing, no promotion, and no hype.
Since then, we have transformed ourselves from these humble 2D profile picture beginnings into one of the most innovative and disruptive projects in the entire industry that are leading the space into the metaverse.
After taking an unimaginable two days for the original collection to sell out on March 5, 2021, we were the first project in the space to migrate the entire collection to a new custom contract and introduce features such as token yield, breeding, and custom name/bios which would all leverage the utility token ecosystem.
This was only the beginning, of course!
From there, we started to make plans for the metaverse. On June 26, our plans to create the scientifically advanced CyberKongz VX in partnership with The Sandbox was announced to the world.
In short succession, the team made some huge moves to give our CyberKongz VX a home. First, in early July, they won the auction for the Shrine of Kongz, then purchased huge lands for our future capital Kongz Island and our urban hang out Neo Kongz City.
Let’s remember, that we Kongz build without hype, and build is what we do best.
As our future homes in the Sandbox were being built under the radar, there was still an insane amount of exciting developments in our Kongiverse that happened daily.
We partied it up IRL at NFT.NYC and DCentral Miami, raised a life-changing amount of money for our Kongz brothers and sisters at Virunga National Park, watched in shock and awe as our Genesis Kongz reached an ATH of over 200 ETH, came together in bittersweet happiness as the last Baby Kong was minted, and so much more!
Here are some of the most memorable highlights from the historic year that was 2021!
Since we literally have so much going on in our Kongiverse, the milestones and highlights are broken out month by month.
The Epic Launch of CyberKongz in March
The beginning, the genesis, the big bang. The month of March was the start of our CyberKongz story and what a wild ride it has been so far.
On March 3rd, 2021, 989 of the original 1,000 Genesis Kongz were listed for sale at a mind-blowing 0.01 ETH and 10 legendary Genesis Kongz were set to be auctioned off a few days later on March 13, 2021.
In total, it took 2 ENTIRE DAYS for the original collection to sell out, and here are the first messages in our CyberKongz Discord when Myoo welcomed Wallace and Inverted who were two of the first Kongz to join the Kongmunity!
As for the Legendary Kongz auction, it was a heated battle that ended up raising over 200 ETH. What’s crazy or not so crazy is at the time, the bids for the Legendary Kongz were nearing the floor price for CryptoPunks.
Here are some of the auction winners and the fun stories that came with the winning bid!
Legendary Sith Kongz #1000: Coco won it for 14 ETH after a 17 ETH bid came in just a few seconds too late.
Legendary Lucifer Kongz #666: Not satisfied with only one legendary, Coco then won this Legendary Kongz with a 20 ETH bid. How epic!
Legendary KongBot Kongz #101: Did you know our familiar KongBot was actually one of the original Legendary Kongz? It was sold for 21 ETH during the auction.
Legendary Scuba Kongz #301: Nate Rivers pulled out the W after some of the other Kongz found the kindness in their hearts and didn’t outbid him.
Legendary Knight Kongz Sir Apelot #801: Owl’s prayers were answered when they locked in the win on the cool legendary Knight Kongz with a 17 ETH bid.
In the end, 60% of the proceeds from the original Genesis Kongz sale were donated to Cool Earth and Orangutan Outreach and an additional 5 ETH to Orangutan Outreach from the Legendary Kongz auction.
Most importantly, the kindness and generosity that Myoo showed during those initial days of CyberKongz have remained a pillar of our values since then.
The Great Migration of April
On April 17, 2021, the Great Migration of the Kongz took place and rewrote the entire trajectory and history of the Kongz at that very moment!
With the migration to our own custom contract, features that were innovative, new, and a first at the time such as $BANANA token yield, breeding, and custom bio/name changes were added to the collection.
It’s funny to think about it now, but the cost to migrate each Genesis Kong was 0.035 - 0.04 which was considered expensive during the time of the migration.
To reward Kongz for making the dangerous journey, an award of 300 $BANANA was given to each Genesis Kongz that was migrated to the new contract.
Our Baby Kongz breeding mechanism was also launched just a few hours after the migration fixes went into place so our Genesis Kongz were able to start breeding and generating $BANANA right away.
Here is the first-ever Baby Kongz that was ever posted in our Kongz Lab which was created by ser Wallace!
Being always so kind, Coco even held a giveaway for an incubator to celebrate the occasion! Looks like Coco’s generosity has only gotten more epic as the year went by.
June - Our Journey into The Sandbox Begins
On June 26, 2021, our scientifically advanced CyberKongz VX were announced to the world!
Of course, we now understand that our CyberKongz VX are one of the best-looking and most functional VX available. However, did you know that our team of Kongz scientists was actually the first to coin the term “VX” for a voxel-based asset?
Even some of our OG Kongz didn’t know what the term VX meant when the announcement first dropped.
As part of the announcement, we were introduced to innovative concepts that now seem commonplace such as the free VX claim for our OG collection of Genesis and Baby Kongz + a public mint, fully custom playable VX Metaverse Avatars with interoperability across different metaverse platforms, and even our own Sandbox Lands for our Kongz family to call home!
This was also the time when we were introduced to the now all too familiar roadmap of how our CyberKongz VX would evolve!
In hindsight, it’s still pretty incredible that such an announcement was made in June of this year when most projects weren’t even thinking about bridging their collection over to The Sandbox or other metaverse platforms.
Just goes to show how big-brained our Council of Kongz is.
Just to put things in perspective of how early of days this was, the Baby Kongz price in the NFT20 pool around this time was 0.18 ETH and 600 $BANANA was only 0.22 ETH 🤯.
July - The Sandbox Here We Come!
Continuing the momentum from the CyberKongz VX announcement at the end of June, the month of July was all about our future in The Sandbox!
To start off the month strong, our future Banana Shop was introduced. Not only was this one of the first stores of its kind to be announced, but it also gave us a sneak peek into the types of items and benefits we might expect from our mad Kongz scientists once we were able to play in our Sandbox lands.
Even though this announcement was made in early July, its message is still as valuable as ever. If you’re newer to the Kongz fam or missed the initial announcement, make sure to read this Medium post as it gives important clues of what is in store for us once our Banana Shop is open for business.
After the Banana Shop announcment, the Kongz went on a Sandbox shopping spree of epic proportions.
First, on July 10, we won the auction for the 3x3 Shrine of Kongz, our sacred site, and beacon of hope for all lost Kongz.
Then, just a couple of weeks later on July 23 we snatched up a 12x12 piece of Sandbox Land for Neo Kongz City and on July 30 a 24x24 piece of land for our capital Kongz Island!
Did I mention that during this hectic time, our Council of Kongz was also officially formed?
Talk about a month to remember in our Kongmunity, sheesh!
August - CyberKongz VX Launch an Epic Success
Oh, what a memorable and life-changing month August was.
It was the first time I was introduced to the Kongmunity after somehow stumbling on this tweet by Coco, it was the month I went all in and purchased my first Baby Kongz, and it was the month that our CyberKongz VX launched changing the shape of our Kongmunity forever!
After months and months of preparing, on August 15th at 7:00pm UTC our collection of CyberKongz VX was launched and minted out within 15 minutes.
Because of the high demand, a crazy gas war broke out.
After all the craziness was finished, the minting of our CyberKongz VX caused over 1,432 ETH or $4.6M in ETH to be burned bringing us to the top of the ETH burn leaderboard which even outranked OpenSea and Uniswap V2!
However, more excitingly, we found out after the mint that there was still 4 legendary CyberKongz VX to be discovered.
Finding the remaining Legendary VX Kongz sure lived up to the hype as just a few days later on August 18, Artic minted this funny Legendary Banana CyberKongz VX!
Most importantly, though, we welcomed hundreds of new Kongz to our growing Kongmunity and continued our giving traditions by donating 20 ETH to Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) and 50 ETH to Virunga National Park from the profits of the CyberKongz VX Sale.
To celebrate in Kongz style, we even held our first ever CyberKongz VX Art Contest and saw firsthand how insanely talented our Kongmunity is!
Congrats again to @nikkokwela for winning the contest with a total of 116 votes for this crazy good entry and for all the runner-ups who submitted their creations!
For the contest, our generous Council of Kongz awarded a total of 5 CyberKongz VX, 5 ETH, and 3,000 $BANANA to the winners and runner-ups; not to mention making it rain literal $BANANA for all those who attended the party!
September - 100 ETH Genesis Kongz, Twitter Spaces with Myoo, and Matabishi
The launch of our CyberKongz VX in the month previous was a special event that we’ll never forget but in reality, we were just getting started.
In September, we saw our Genesis Kongz pass the 100 ETH floor for the first time while flipping the CryptoPunks floor, held a charity auction for our one and only Legendary Baby Kongz Matabishi, listened to our very first Twitter Spaces with Myoo, and so much more!
CryptoPunks Flippening
The day was September 15, and on that day the first flippening of the Punks happened. In hindsight, it was just a foreshadowing of the craziness October would bring us, but it was still just as exciting to see our Genesis Kongz get the attention they deserved for so long.
With the excitement surrounding our Genesis Kongz and the $BANANA they yield, our Baby Kongz and CyberKongz VX also got some love too as they hit a floor of 5 ETH and 1 ETH.
Twitter Spaces with Myoo
On Sunday, September 19, @nate_rivers held what turned out to be the first and only Twitter Spaces with Myoo this year!
During this insightful and fun chat, we finally learned how to pronounce Myoo’s name (Mee · oh), what happened during the initial CyberKongz launch in March, and his thoughts on the success of the project!
For a more detailed look, you can find the write-up in the September 25 Kongz Weekly.
Legendary Matabishi Charity Auction
To celebrate World Gorilla Day, we auctioned off the 1/1 Legendary Baby Kongz Matabishi with all proceeds being donated to our friends at Virunga National Park! After an intense bidding war @segswho came out on top with a 69 WETH bid!
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the CyberKongz team decided to double down and match the winning bid and sent a total of 138 ETH ($400,999) to Virunga National Park via the Giving Block!
What a proud day and month to be a Kong!
Other Notable September Highlights
- Oncyber.io integration and Oncyber.io gallery contest.
- Just over 2k Baby Kongz born.
- Wrapped Genesis Kongz is introduced.
- Background color update for VX Viewer.
October - OOH Community Governance, 200 ETH Floor, Kongz Tank, IRL Party, and So Much More
In terms of a floor price for our entire collection, October was the craziest month we’ve had in our Kongz history. It was all kicked off by the introduction of two new additions to our Kongiverse; OOH Community Governance and Kongz Tank.
Seemingly right after, the literal damn broke and our Kongz went straight to the moon. Genesis Kongz surpassed a floor of 200 ETH, Baby Kongz broke the 10 ETH floor and our CyberKongz VX hit a 2 ETH floor!
Of course in hindsight, this was the peak of the market hype, at least in 2021, but I still truly believe it was just a preview of what could happen in 2022.
OOH Community Governance
On October 2, our big brain Council of Kongz introduced the CyberKongz OOH community governance which allowed us to further establish a solid foundation for decentralized decision making using a Snapshot Strategy. Since then we have passed 3 different votes and even introduced V2 of our governance proposal.
If you are newer or missed the announcment, make sure to check out this Medium article from our CyberKongz team which outlines how the mechanics of the voting works.
Kongz Tank
On October 8, we unanimously voted in our Kongz Tank initiative, which was huge news as it was a way to incentivize and launch other projects outside of our Kongiverse that have plans to leverage our $BANANA token ecosystem!
To this day it’s one of the only (if not the only one) initiatives to provide funding and support using a native project utility token in this manner.
Since our Kongz Tank announcement, we have already helped to successfully launch two projects; the littles and ZenApe 😊
CyberKongz The Art of the Code Party
On October 17, El Chapo and CryptOG put together The Art of the Code Party which was our first ever digital CyberKongz art exhibition! On the night of the 17th, the city of Los Angeles didn’t know what was coming as CyberKongz from all over the world descended on the city.
Our Kongz partied it up, checked out the awesome CyberKongz art, and most importantly got to meet up with each other and put a face to the handle name.
It was a night to remember filled with great vibez, the start of lifelong friendships, and even better conversations.
Other Notable October Highlights
- CyberKongz Twitter hits 50k followers.
- The Legendary CyberKongz VX Punk and Shinobi are found in the same week.
- Rebel Seals and Galaxy Fight Club partnership announced.
- Metalink x CyberKongz partnership announced and all verified Kongz get access to Metalink.
- CyberKongz VOX File Format added.
November - NFT.NYC, the littles, Untamed Isles Partnership, and Much More
November, November, what a month of November!
Even with the NFT market falling into more of a lull especially compared to the months of September and October, us Kongz had just as eventful of a month as ever.
In just November alone, we got to party it up again IRL at NFT.NYC, watched our first Kongz Tank project launch successfully, had another super exciting partnership announcment with Untamed Isles, held an art gallery in Hong Kong, and on and on!
Like every month, there were a ton of huge milestones, but the biggest highlight in November had to be NFT.NYC, so let’s start there!
CyberKongz Take Over NFT.NYC
The week at NFT.NYC was filled with awesome Kongish vibes, 3 different CyberKongz parties, and a surprise Kongz style afterparty with an open bar for everyone.
A big thank you still goes out to the entire Council of Kongz team for all the effort and energy they put into the CyberKongz Rooftop Party + After Party. Without their leadership, we would not be the Kongmunity we are today and would not have been able to celebrate our accomplishments in NYC during the festivities.
In addition to the rooftop party, our DKong007 hosted the CyberKongz Art Exhibition in collaboration with Superchief Art Gallery, and Evuls and Andy Milonakis organized the Anonymice x Hoots x Cyberkongz party, which were equally as epic!
Kongz Are Entering Untamed Isles
On November 11, another huge partnership was announced and this time it was with Untamed Isles, a beautiful and expansive MMORPG with Zelda Breath of the Wild aesthetics and a monster battling mechanic that is like Pokemon on steroids.
Other than the game itself looking incredibly fun to play, what’s cool about the Untamed Isles partnership is that not only will you get to use your CyberKongz VX (and Genesis and Baby Kong) directly in the game, but you’ll also receive a plethora of benefits exclusive to CyberKongz without purchasing other NFTs.
If you haven’t already, I highly suggest you read this article posted in our CyberKongz Medium and the Guppy Gang litepaper as it covers everything you need to know about this partnership and project in detail.
the littles Sells Out in Minutes
On November 26 after a day-long white list presale, our first-ever Kongz Tank project the littles launched and sold out within 3 minutes!
This marked an important day in Kongz history as we were not only introduced to a well-thought-out project with great potential, but it was also the first project to launch successfully with a goal of integrating our $BANANA token into their ecosystem!
Other Notable November Highlights
- CyberKongz Classic Collection by Uniqly launched.
- Unique Baby Kongz ownership hits 50%.
- Halloween Themed VX Viewer is released in time for spooky season.
- CyberKongz VX Spooky Art Contest is held and winners are announced.
- CyberKongz VX 3D print files released and 3D prints of our CyberKongz VX start production.
December - Epic Charitable Giving, The Great Baby Squeeze, Solarbots Partnership, Kongz Island Teaser, and Much More
As the year came to an end, there was no stopping us Kongz and we continued to chug along and build even in the midst of a much slower NFT market.
The month of December has always been known as the month of giving, and sticking true to our values that is what we did!
By the end of the month, our charitable giving in collaboration with Christie’s x OpenSea and the Right-Click Give organization had raised over 285 ETH or over $1.2 million for Virunga National Park and Blankets of Hope! This is an incredibly generous amount that should make all Kongz proud.
Many projects might call it a day after a historic event like this, but we are not just any project.
By New Year's Eve, all of our Baby Kongz had minted out, we announced another huge partnership with Solarbots and even released a sneak peek of our Kongz Island concept and a mysterious “adventure” map to get us ready for 2022!
The Great Baby Squeeze of December 2021
Remember, remember the 14th of December.
What a bitter-sweet moment in Kongz history as all of our cute Baby Kongz were born in the span of a crazy few fomo inducing and hectic hours in the afternoon of December 14 PST.
This day marked the end of an epic era in Kongz history and kongratulations to Myoo and the team for guiding our Kongz family to this incredible milestone!
Being part of this historic event is something I’ll never forget and I bet every other Kongz who was there would agree with this too 😊
CyberKongz x Solarbots Partnership Announced!
What a way to end the year with a bang! In addition to all our Baby Kongz being born, our partnership announcment with the highly anticipated Solarbots was announced on the same day!
Since the announcement, Solarbots successfully launched with a whitelist mint starting on December 20 and a public mint on December 22. Their tank units have revealed, we’ve been knee-deep studying their complex tokemonics ecosystem, and can’t wait to see where the project goes in the new year!
Welkong Home to Kongz Island!
On December 16, the Council of Kongz released a concept preview of Kongz Island, our home and capital city in The Sandbox metaverse, and it literally blew everyone’s minds! With the help of xuanch.eth, the head artist of CryptoCities who created this beautiful concept art, we now have an idea of what Kongz Island, looks like.
In addition, on the very last day of the year, Myoo teased us with this image of a map.
I wonder what this means and what we have planned for 2022 🤔
Other Notable December Highlights
- Our official CyberKongz Twitter hit the 100k follower milestone.
- The Kongz took over DCentral Miami and even had an 8-foot tall Myoo statue.
- Second Kongz Tank project ZenApes mints out in minutes.
- CyberKongz VX 3D models start to arrive at new homes around the world.
- VX Viewer update that included applying colored backgrounds to all CyberKongz VX images.
- The last Legendary CyberKongz VX Frostbite was revealed as a Christmas present.
See You In 2022
What a year it has been and thank you again for being a part of our Kongmunity!
We started as a small, stealth, 1k collection launch in March and since then have transformed ourselves into an ever-growing Kongmunity with huge partnerships, well-thought-out plans for the metaverse, and one of the biggest brained leadership groups in the entire metaverse.
I can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store for us, Happy New Year, and I’ll talk to you all again very soon!
