Azuki-Linked AnimeCoin Airdrop Goes Live

The highly anticipated AnimeCoin airdrop launched today, seeking to create a strong community built around anime.

AnimeCoin’s market capitalization briefly spiked to $1.15 billion before crashing down to $380 million, according to CoinGecko. It is currently priced at about $0.068, down from a high of $0.186.

ANIME is a culture coin, says the AnimeCoin Foundation on its website, describing it as “a movement that transforms the anime fandom of 1 billion fans into a community-owned network of creativity… A space where fans truly own what they create.”

AnimeCoin is closely associated with the NFT collection Azuki, whose community members and partner communities are getting 37.5% of the total AnimeCoin airdrop. Another 13% is set aside for community initiatives by the forthcoming AnimeDAO over the next three years. The rest is split between domain expansion, the team and its advisors, the company, and partner communities.

The total supply of ANIME is 10 billion tokens, with about half in circulation. The rest have unlock periods of one to three years.

The claim period is 45 days, and about two thirds of the tokens have been claimed, said pseudonymous Azuki co-founder location tba in an X post. Any unclaimed tokens will be reclaimed into the community allocation.

While AnimeCoin is launching on Ethereum and Layer 2 network Arbitrum, the tokens can be claimed on Arbitrum. Arbitrum and Azuki are collaborating on AnimeChain, a Layer 3 chain.

Azuki’s flagship collection comprises 10,000 anime-themed NFT avatars, but it also has two others, Elementals and Beanz, eligible for the airdrop.

Anime media is an export industry rivaling steel and semiconductors according to Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading Japanese newspaper. The anime market’s total size is estimated to be $29 billion in 2024, according to Research and Markets.