A year ago, Ghxsts were just creatures in the artist GxngYxng’s mind until he decided to let them out. Feeling encouraged by his first sale at .001 eth ($3), GY decided to fully lean into his artistic vision. He quit his corporate animation job and decided to place his trust fully in himself. In a span of a few days, he drew 100 of the haunting figures and ignited a new phase of 1/1 art in NFTs — all while quickly finding ways to mitigate gas wars for his eager collectors.
Since that fateful May 1st day (well, GY’s May 2nd in Asia), he’s drawn over 300 elaborate 1/1s and dozens of editions pieces while writing and releasing the Ghxsts Comic and collaborating with some of the top artists in the space — including Cool Cats, DeadFellaz, Ugly Dolls, Nyan Cat, and more. His 1/1 Cool Cat collab raised 54 eth for charity in just one auction.
These days, GY’s pieces that he once sold for mere dollars fetch prices from 50 to 100 eth, with some of his limited Sirxn pieces going for upwards of 500 and 600 eth. But even as the art has started going for higher prices, Ghxsts has found ways to keep their “art for everyone” approach. In June and July 2021, GY released his Zxdiac collections — 12 Astrology Zxdiacs and 12 Lunar Zxdiacs, each with 30 editions to welcome more collectors into the project. The pieces sold out in one minute. He also launched his Pxin Gxng collection to showcase memes, muses, combinations, and more that represent the community behind Ghxsts — the loyal Pxin Gxng. GY is committed to providing pieces to his collectors at affordable prices. Sometimes that price is absolutely free.
Throughout the last year, GY gave away over 6,000 edition pieces for free to collectors as rewards for holding his other pieces. He also gave away 175 free 1/1 pieces — around half of the total pieces minted in Ghxsts. Here’s a visual representation of all the free work GY gave out in the last 12 months — each piece hand drawn.
Utility has been central to Ghxsts since its inception, with GxngYxng pioneering a combination method that allowed collectors to keep their two original pieces and get a third for free that combined the traits of their other two. Co-founder Jxnet also developed three languages for collectors to learn in order to decode ciphers and win 1/1 pieces. Ghxsts regularly supplies collectors with allowlist spots for other sought-after projects, including Invisible Friends, Cool Pets, World of Women Galaxy, Chimpers, and more. Ghxsts also helped usher in the early use of “mint passes” with techniques such as Alixn Abduction Cards that allowed owners to guarantee themselves any 1/1 Alixn that they wanted from the collection.
He’s using a similar technique with the upcoming Mxnsters collection while also expanding upon the ethos of Ghxsts — which is that the community helps build the story. Collectors who have Creatxrs get to directly contribute to the types of traits used in Mxnsters. Ghxsts allows collector and artist to work hand in hand, with both GY and Janet maintaining a very close relationship with the members of Pxin Gxng in ways that larger 10K projects simply cannot.
And even though Ghxsts is not a 10K, it has stayed relevant alongside major 10K projects since its inception. Not only did Ghxsts have a presence at NFT.NYC in November 2021 with an immersive gallery experience, but Ghxsts has been selected as a featured creator for Coinbase NFT and was chosen among a handful of other artists to work with the Chicago Bulls on an upcoming NFT project. Ghxsts has been featured in major web articles, mentioned on CNBC, and included in the upcoming NFT documentary NOT_A.JPEG alongside industry leaders like Andrew Wang, Swickie, TropoFarmer, and more.
Ghxsts will return to NFT.NYC in 2022 as one of the only 1/1 projects to throw a private collector’s experience during the event, and it will also be showcasing the immersive gallery experience again.
On social media, Ghxsts has grown organically to over 120,000 Twitter followers and got verified by the platform in February 2022. GY’s eight collections now have generated over 10,650 eth of volume on OpenSea.
In early 2022, GxngYxng became one of the first major 1/1 artists to successfully migrate his collection off the OpenSea Shared Contract and to his own ERC-721 contract, providing collectors with added security and allowing for future use in token gated product launches, airdrops, and more. And when it does come to merch, Ghxsts has always sought to think outside the box beyond traditional T-shirts or hats. Ghxsts released Froot Loops-inspired cereal boxes for one of the first significant merch drops. Solving the puzzles on the back earned collectors a free Puzzle Muse NFT. The team has also released cassette tapes of the Ghxst theme songs, hand-embroidered -1 Ghxst memes, Christmas ornaments, and more to bring GxngYxng’s art and Pxin Gxng’s unique experiences to the physical world.
The hidden utility of the Pxin Gxng community that Ghxsts has fostered is that there’s an explicit trust and helpfulness rarely found in the NFT community. Not only have collectors teamed up for combination snapshots, traded pieces based solely on trust, and visited each other in real life, but several community members who have since started their own projects found they had a built-in instant support group in Pxin Gxng. It’s a family.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, GxngYxng is going to finish his Creatxr roadmap, launch Mxnsters, work on some stuff we can’t yet talk about 👀, continue issuing new chapters of the Ghxst comic, release exciting collaborations both physical and digital, found a scholarship for art students, and keep doing what he loves most — creating.
Thank you all for the wonderful 365 days of little sleep, lots of chatting, and so many memories. Can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow.
