In an environment of generally declining interest in digital collectibles, Reddit’s go-to-market strategy for NFTs was simply not to market them at all.
According to data from Dune Analytics, trading volume for Reddit NFTs surged beyond $1.5 million on Monday, while the overall value across collections now exceeds $100 million in market cap.
Since the Polygon-based NFTs were debuted in July, more than 86,000 NFTs have been minted. Reddit now has 3 million unique wallets, even exceeding the widely popular NFT marketplace OpenSea.
How did Reddit achieve this? For starters, it appears that Reddit NFTs aren’t explicitly called NFTs, but are instead dubbed “collectible avatars.” In order to buy one, users are directed to “open a vault,” and in doing so, they create a blockchain-based wallet.
While Reddit mentions that this collectible avatar will be transferable via the blockchain, it does not draw reference to any terms like NFT and crypto wallets.
“We try really hard not to use any crypto words — it just confuses people,” said Reddit CEO Steven Huffman in an interview with The Verge in August.
This strategy appears to have worked in Reddit’s favor, with millions of users creating crypto wallets and the surging interest in its digital collectibles.
“Reddit Avatars are the Trojan Horse of NFTs that are onboarding millions into Web3, and no one is talking about it,” wrote one NFT collector AB on Twitter.
Not everyone who unknowingly purchased an NFT was pleased, however, with some users feeling tricked into owning something they did not wish to be associated with.
“I have even seen evidence of a few people being outraged, and even considering burning their NFTs worth 5 ETH rather than hold or sell them,” stated AB.
