Most NFT PFP projects have come and gone. The euphoric period of 2021–2022, with its lofty expectations, roadmaps and promises, is mainly in the rear-view mirror.
But one project, Mad Lads, has emerged from the rubble of the bear market and solidified itself as a leading PFP project community on Solana.
What is Mad Lads?
The “Lads” minted on April 21, 2023, following a highly curated allowlist process that began 12 months earlier, spearheaded by co-founder Tristan Yver. Minting at 6.9 SOL, about $144 at the time, the Lads were a galvanizing force for good in the Solana ecosystem after the infamous FTX downfall had many questioning the long-term viability of the blockchain.
Riding the wave of Solana’s price and interest run-up in Q4 2023, the Mad Lads collection hit an all-time high floor price of 218 SOL in early December 2023, putting it in the top five biggest PFP projects across all chains at the time. Currently, the floor price sits at 70 SOL ($11,060).
Yver tells Magazine that trauma bonding through the tumultuous period in crypto in 2022 was a contributing factor to making the community strong.
“I think a lot of the community bonded through mutual suffering. All these people came in when times were still pretty good. Then Luna was just starting to happen, and a lot of people got fucked by that. They bonded through that inside the community. And then FTX happened, and a bunch more people had a really bad time. Then the market just kept crashing,” says Yver.
“Basically, it was this mutual trauma. It’s what’s called trauma bonding. There was this really strong trauma bonding throughout the community that made these people irreplaceable, essentially. That made these people connected in a way that I don’t think you would have been able to formulate in any other environment.”
Yver added that Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko had credited the Lads with breathing life back into the…
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