How to value the Meebits NFT Collection

In-depth look at what determines the value of these cute 3D characters

At the beginning of May 2021 Larva Labs launched its third non-fungible tokens (NFTs) collection called Meebits, an NFT collection of cute 3D characters. Within 8 hours the platform gathered $75 million in primary sales and Meebits became the most wanted NFT collection that day. 

Meebits are 20,000 unique 3D voxel characters, created by a custom generative algorithm, and then registered on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone who had Larva Labs’ previous NFTs, CryptoPunks, and Autoglyphs, were eligible to mint Meebits without buying one. The rest had a chance to purchase the NFTs for around 2,5 ETH.

There are 7 types of Meebits that can carry multiple traits. One element is more important than the other and can increase the scarcity level significantly. Within this overview, we aim to analyze the most important attributes that impact the value of Meebits: their type, traits scarcity, traits count, and utility. The importance of the Larva Lab brand will be considered too.

Table of contents

• Brand awareness key to successful launch
• Meebits type key for NFT value
• Traits count gives value boost
• Trait scarcity adds serious value
• An additional social layer
• In-summary

Brand awareness key to successful launch

The Larva Labs brand is well-known in the blockchain space. Firstly, they are known for the very first NFT collection created on the blockchain; CryptoPunks. Secondly, for the first on-chain generative art collection Autoglyphs. CryptoPunks was launched in June 2017 and gathered plenty of attention. In 2021, the collection showed its real potential. A few CryptoPunks were sold for more than $7 million each. Without a doubt, the collection played well for the Larva Labs brand awareness over the years.

By no surprise, their third NFT project was very well received by the community. The fact that CryptoPunks collectors got these Meebits for free, immediately caused some social media hype among top NFT influencers. This boosted interest in the project significantly, alongside the fact that Christie’s would auction 9 CryptoPunks a bit more than a week later. A total of 11,000 Meebits went to existing Larva Labs collectors, the remaining 9,000 were sold in an open Dutch auction with a dropping price. Despite the high initial price of 2,5 ETH (about $7,500), all Meebits sold within 8 hours.

Within the first month of existence, Meebits reached another great milestone. According to the DappRadar NFT’s top sales, 8 Meebits were sold for more than $1 million each. One sale was close to $3 million. It proves the Meebits collection to have great potential.

Meebits type key for NFT value

The discovery journey of the Meebits NFTs starts with the different types. There are 7 different types in total, which we consider to be the key element while valuing Meebits. The rarest are Double Pig (1) and Dissected (4). While there are no single sales for the Double Pig Meebit yet, 1 Dissected was sold for $2.6 million recently. Visitors (18) are the 3rd rarest type of Meebits. Their sales are around $1 million each.

With 18,881 entries in the collection, Humans are the most common types of Meebits. These currently sell for an average of $9,000 each. These are obviously also the types of Meebits that sell the most, as 65% of the 4,000+ Meebits sales came from Humans. However, 13 Humans sold for more than $100,000, which suggests that the Meebit type isn’t the only element that increases the value.

Traits count gives value boost

Traits are the second layer of uniqueness to a Meebit. Think about their clothes as an example. The number of traits adds additional uniqueness to a Meebit. As we said before, there’s only 1 Double Pig and there are 4 Dissected, while there are more than 18,000 Humans. However, there’s only 1 Human that has 19 different traits. In addition, there are 2 humans with 18 traits, and 13 with 17 traits. 

While the type of Meebit has the biggest impact on their value, the number of traits sure impacts the price. Especially within the Human type collection, as these traits allow for more differentiation between these 18,881 characters. We can see that the number of traits really makes an impact on the price, at least on Human Meebits.

For instance, there are 13 Humans with 17 traits and only 18 Visitors. Meebit #12739 is one of those Human types with 17 traits, and this NFT sold for $324,000. On the other hand, a  Meebit Visitor (#19729) sold for $959,000. While the Visitor’s value is 3 times higher than the value of the Human with 17 traits, it is a stunning 35 times higher than the average Human’s sale ($9,000). This underlines that a high number of traits can increase the value of a Meebit with a factor significantly.

Overall, the more out of the ordinary the trait count is, the more expensive Meebits are. Meebits with exceptionally high or low amounts of traits will have an increased price on the marketplace.

On the other hand, 85% of Meebits have a trait count between 8 and 12. These might seem ordinary, but there’s another layer that can increase value and add rarity. A Meebit can possess one or two rare attributes that can perhaps only be found once or twice within the whole collection.

Trait scarcity adds serious value

Every Meebit has a certain type and a number of traits. Aside from the number of those traits, the traits themselves also add value. There are more than 200 different traits that could be categorized into 3 main categories: Body, Clothes, and Accessories. Each trait has a different level of scarcity. Noticeable, Human Meebits with at least one attribute with scarcity lower than 1% sell the most.

The Body category consists of different sub-categories: Hairstyle, Beard, and their colors and Tattoos. In total there are 22 different Hair Styles, and here Fiery Mohawk (0.21%) and Half-shaved (0.18%) are 2 rarest traits. Within the last 3 weeks, we’ve seen two sales for Half-shaved Meebits, and one of them was sold for more than $157,000. This is interesting because the price was at least 17 times higher than the average Human price.

Lastly, Tattoos can increase Meebits scarcity too as most of them are unique. Even the most common Tattoos, such as LLL, LLL, can only be found on 17 Meebits in the entire NFT collection. The largest sale so far was for a Meebit with unique tattoos, which was Meebit #764 for almost $50,000. 

In terms of the Beard sub-category, Medical Mask is the rarest attribute. Only 113 (0.56%) Meebits possess it, and because of the rarity sales range between $80,000 to $10,000 per Meebit. Another very rare Body attribute is Beard color. For example, on average Meebits with Silver Beard (0.35%) sold for $38,000 each.

Now let’s take a look at the Clothes category, which represents Hat, Shirt, Overshirt, Pants, Shoes, and Jersey number traits. The color of each attribute also can play a major role too. While analyzing Top 50 Meebits Human sales, we spot that 34 sales of 50 hold rare Clothes traits. This would suggest that investors are more likely to pay for rare Clothes traits, over Body or Accessories traits. 

The rarest traits are found within Shirts, Overshirt color, and Shoes. There’s only 1 Meebit not wearing a shirt (0.01%), while there are 6 with Glyph Shirts (0.03%) and 26 with Punk Tees (0.13%). The last two are good examples of Larva Labs branding their own NFT collections.

A Pig with a Punk Tee trait sold for $123,000 recently. At the same time, we’ve seen Overshirt Colors Posh (0.06%) and Argyle (0.10%) are sought-after rare traits among the top Meebits sales. Lastly, for the sneakerheads out there, the highest sale for a Meebit wearing LL Alien Shoes (0.07%) was around $62,000. This would be the third most rare shoe trait in the entire Meebits collection.

It’s safe to say that Meebits trait rarity plays an important role in the valuation. On the other hand, the Meebits collection is still very young and much of the rarity is yet to be discovered. This would mean that investors might still find plenty of rare undervalued Meebits, which might increase in value over time.

An additional social layer

For most NFT collections it’s all about scarcity and traits. That’s the case with CryptoPunks, and also with Meebits. However, the Meebits NFT collection adds an extra layer of fun. These NFTs were created as 3D characters that the owner can use as avatars across different virtual worlds, such as Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, and The Sandbox. They are truly meant as avatars for the metaverse. 

As the owner of a Meebit you can extract files in order to make Meebit move, dance, or exercise. Multiple users used these videos to make their Meebits famous. While such videos grasped plenty of community attention on Twitter, there is no data proving the success of such sales techniques, at least not yet. On the other hand, such utility creates an additional social layer that makes the collection even more special. Community is extremely important in the blockchain space. With the rise of digital influencers like Lil Miquela and Vtubers, we only have to wait for a Meebit to become famous. That’s how this social element might become a key value driver in the long run.

In-summary

To conclude, within less than a month of existence the Meebits NFT collection reached a couple of important milestones. Firstly, it sold out within less than a day. Secondly, at least 13 Meebits were sold for more than $1 million. 

Without a doubt, the initial collection success was driven by a strong Larva Labs brand. On the other hand, the collection itself offers a unique product proposition. For now, the key drivers of Meebits value are their type, trait counts, and trait scarcity. With the development of digital identities and the metaverse as a social space, Meebits could gain ground as a status symbol in years to come.