Ghxsts: The Ultimate Guide
As we witness the rise and fall of NFT collections month to month, Ghxsts has exhibited some of the steadiest growth of any ongoing project. Created by a single person, Ghxsts has grown from initial sales prices as low as 0.001 ETH to achieving a single multimillion-dollar sale in less than four months.
While much of 2021 has been dominated by large-scale PFP projects, many artists — big and small — have disregarded the noise and funneled their passions into leveling up small-batch endeavors. And although Ghxsts has achieved incredible success over just a period of months, the roots of the project still lie within that 1/1 focused community.
Here, we take a deep dive into Ghxsts to unravel just how its creator, GxngYxng, developed this groundbreaking project into one of the most successful indie NFT collections on the market.
Ghxsts: Origins
Ghxsts came from the mind of GxngYxng, an American artist now living in Japan. The concept of the project was to capture the pain GY said he felt inside himself, and the feelings he saw in those around him.
“For months I had been sketching Ghxsts in my journals, and I liked the idea of people helping lost souls find a home. A friend of mine said before that the 101 Ghxsts look like 101 self-portraits, and I feel that it is true.”
Ahead of the project’s May 2021 release, GY spent months sketching portraits of what would become Ghxsts, and eventually quit his stable job in the animation industry. His plan was to go into NFTs full time, and find part-time jobs along the way to help fund the endeavor.
The first Ghxsts sale was on May 2, when Ghxst 001 was purchased on OpenSea for 0.001 ETH ($3 at the time). As the month went on, the full cast of 101 Ghxsts sold out, kicking off the incredible roadmap of GY’s new NFT universe.
Ghxsts: NFT Mythology
It all started with the first 101 Ghxsts, but before long, the mythology of Ghxsts began to develop, leading to new characters, lore, drop mechanisms and more.
Currently, the Ghxsts universe consists of:
- 102 Ghxsts (incl. 1 Genesis Ghxst)
- 43 Immxrtals
- 51 Demxns
- 12 Lunar Zxdiac
- 12 Astral Zxdiac
- 26 Alixns
- 10 Sirxns
- 87 Mythxcals
- 12 Divine Zxdiac
- ?? Gxd
- ?? Creatxr
The only way to receive many of the tiers of Ghxsts is to hold a certain number/combination of NFTs from the base collection. Because of this, the final tiers — Gxd and Creatxr (with Mxnsters and more to come) — have yet to be minted.
Holding a Ghxsts NFT can yield unique rewards such as free airdrops, exclusive NFT mint access and more. Ex: holding at least one Lunar Zxdiac makes a collector eligible for a monthly Eclipse Zxdiac reward, with a new Eclipse Zxdiac featured each month.
The chart below from the official Ghxsts Discord outlines a few of the combo rewards. To collect these rewards, a Ghxst owner would need to hold a specific combination of NFTs in a single wallet to receive an airdrop.
This combination and rewards mechanism has been widely regarded as one of the most unique and profitable among any current NFT project. Free airdrops continue to be an incredibly well received and widely used way to reward collectors. Considering the growing ETH value of each individual Ghxst, GY might be considered the Oprah of NFTs for dropping a barrage of free tokens to his collectors.
Ghxsts: Market Milestones
To date, Ghxsts has accumulated a sales volume of over 5,100 ETH (nearly $15 million). Most of this volume can be chalked up to secondary trades, with a few sales accounting for a significant portion. There are four transactions in particular that have made a significant impact on the Ghxsts ecosystem.
The first such transaction was a gift. In July, GY gifted Ghxsts community member NatFxcts the Sirxn 1 — the first NFT released from the Sirxn series — for their creation of a website that gamified the act of collecting Ghxsts. This gifting reinforced GY’s palpable appreciation for his community.
The next significant transaction came from the auction of Tidxl Wxve Card 1. The card was an outlier among the rest of the Ghxsts collection, created as a sort of ticket that gave its owner the option to redeem it for any revealed (minted) Sirxn. The auction closed on July 15 at 53.23 ETH ($152.1K at the time), helping establish Ghxsts as one of the most coveted projects on the market.
This transaction was especially important as the winner of the auction — named 7CA (after the first few letters of their wallet address) — was suspected to be Mark Cuban due to coincidental wallet activity associated with the billionaire. Although this was never confirmed, the speculation was spread across NFT Twitter.
The third transaction was the July 19 sale of the Genesis Ghxst. Closing with a 30.87 ETH ($110.85K at the time) bid from 7CA, the auction held major significance as the NFT was a drawing GY made when he was 4 years old. The NFT itself depicts a rudimentary line drawing that GY’s mother titled “Ghost Feb. 1999.”
The fourth notable transaction is the largest Ghxsts sale to date: that of Sirxn 0, the animated Bioluminescent Sirxn. The auction for this NFT closed at a whopping 619.5 ETH ($2 million) on Aug. 23. As many had been calling for 1/1 NFT sales to pick up, the purchase of Sirxn 0 helped Ghxsts’ popularity skyrocket, in turn growing the Ghxsts community.
Ghxsts: The Community
Possibly the most exciting part of the Ghxsts project is its community. Differing from various other PFP projects that bootstrapped communities around the sales of their collections, GY has brought together a vibrant array of artists, collectors, enthusiasts and more.
The Ghxsts community — or Pxin Gxng, as GY calls it — has experienced exponential growth over the last few months, even seeing an assortment of top-tier NFT influencers welcomed into the Discord. And beyond the main project, many may be surprised to find that Ghxsts isn’t limited to a single collection.
Though all of these collections are definitely worth a look through, PxinGxng deserves a spotlight for being second only to Ghxsts in terms of importance.
Ghxsts paved the way to the creation of the Pxin Gxng, the de facto name for the Discord and Twitter community surrounding the project. In turn, the PxinGxng collection was created for and within the community.
It is essentially a set of edition pieces created by GY to offer a wider range of accessibility to those wanting to become an active part of the collector community. The PxinGxng floor is much lower than that of the main Ghxsts project, and is mostly made up of memes that reflect the community’s collective sense of humor.
The PxinGxng collection also has a roadmap separate from Ghxsts that yields similar rewards for collectors, such as airdrops and mint access. PxinGxng pieces are usually dropped on OpenSea without warning and are usually available at prices around or below 0.1 ETH.
Those who have been an active part of the community the longest have been continuously rewarded for their support by receiving airdrops and early access to Ghxsts and PxinGxng pieces. Others hoping to enter the community only need to join the server and engage in general conversation and meme-sharing.
Ghxsts: The Future
Since its May launch, the main Ghxsts OpenSea collection has grown to 272 NFTs at press time, with the universe continuing to develop. Even among a wealth of PFP projects, Crypto FUD, calls for an NFT bear market and more, the project and its supporters remain steadfast in their resolve that Ghxsts is here to stay.
With a masterfully crafted, continuously growing universe, GY has set himself up for success by implementing a slew of collector rewards and unconventional drop mechanics that incentivize the community to hold their NFTs for the long term. With a current floor for multi-edition Ghxsts NFTs sitting around 6 ETH and 1/1s at 69 ETH, many have been priced out, but new opportunities to collect an NFT within the Ghxsts ecosystem continue to arise regularly.
While the importance of Ghxsts will continue to manifest in the months to come, the forward-thinking nature of the NFT space has given a spotlight to the project and creator GxngYxng. From collaborations with fellow prominent projects and artists, to derivatives featuring the Ghxsts likeness, the influence of GY’s project continues to reach throughout the NFT ecosystem. Ghxsts is a true win for GY that goes beyond financial and personal triumph, becoming a shining example of success among independent artists.
“You’ve changed my life and have become my greatest friends,” GxngYxng tweeted in July. “To the PxinGxng and the whole NFT community, thank you from the bottom of my heart, you’ve all helped me find my childhood dream again.”
Photos courtesy of Ghxsts.