Reddit recently launched its own collection of NFT avatars, and not only did they all sell out, but 2.5 million Reddit Vault wallets were created to buy the 40,000 token collection. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, gained a negative reputation in 2021 during the last cryptocurrency bubble, with collectible JPEG NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club and like CryptoPunks becoming excessively overpriced status symbols, and countless counterfeit NFTs, quick cash-grab collections, and outright scams following suit.
While selling an expensive JPEG makes sense for digital artwork from a famous artist, it doesn't make sense for algorithmically-generated profile pictures, no matter how rare the traits allegedly are. The rise and crash of NFT prices showed that scarcity is not as important as hype, and once the market became oversaturated with expensive JPEGs the NFT market was doomed for a collapse, resulting in the disdain that many non-crypto users have for NFTs today.
Reddit's active users metric outperformed OpenSea despite having a user base that is notoriously anti-NFT, thanks to a very simple tactic – the platform avoided calling the avatars NFTs, and they were all sold in fiat. According to BeInCrypto, calling the tokens 'Collectible Avatars' and 'Digital Collectibles' contributed immensely to the wave of excitement, and the process of creating a Reddit Vault wallet was made so easy that many users had no idea they were creating an Ethereum/Polygon crypto wallet or that they were buying NFTs. While the avatars were sold through Reddit's avatar builder for fiat currency (dollars), they are still NFTs built on Polygon and are therefore fully compatible with OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces.
Just Don't Say 'NFT'
During a time when NFTs are misunderstood and reviled, and when NFT trading volume has completely dried up, Reddit's Collectible Avatars managed to sell out a 40,000 token NFT collection to people who are known for hating NFTs. Because crypto lingo was avoided in Reddit's marketing, and because the avatars were sold for dollars instead of crypto, the avatars were highly accessible and lacked the stigma attached to NFTs. While Reddit did call them NFTs in its help section, all marketing material pertaining to the collection avoids crypto terminology.
It also helps that the sale was not a blatant cash-grab by Reddit, unlike many companies that joined the NFT craze in 2021. According to Reddit's help section, the avatars were designed by artists within the Reddit community who were paid for every sale, and the artists receive NFT royalty payments on open marketplaces for all secondary sales. BeInCrypto also points out that Reddit's NFT collection led to the creation of 2.5 million Reddit Vault wallets, which exceeds OpenSea's estimated 2.3 million active users.
Reddit's Collectible Avatars will go down in blockchain history as a highly successful and unusual event, and demonstrates why crypto lingo (and cryptocurrency) needs to be avoided when selling blockchain products to a mainstream audience. By avoiding use of crypto slang, making the buying process easy, and giving sales to the artists who created the avatars, Reddit managed to sell 40,000 NFTs to a user base that is known in the crypto community for despising all things related to Web3 and blockchain, and who would have been furious had Reddit announced an NFT sale instead of a 'Collectible Avatar' sale.