Tyler Hobbs’ QQL NFT Project Raises Nearly $17M in Successful Mint

QQL, a collaborative generative art experiment, raised nearly $17 million in a successful mint on Wednesday afternoon and continued to climb in trading throughout the day.

The unique non-fungible token (NFT) project is a collaboration between visual artist Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist, co-founder of generative art platform Archipelago. The QQL algorithm is open for everyone to use but only mint pass holders will be able to turn their creations into official NFTs in the collection.

The project, which allows NFT collectors to act as co-creators of artwork through the QQL algorithm, sold out of its mint passes offered at a modified dutch auction on Archipelago. Essentially, a Dutch auction allows potential buyers to place blind bids within a certain set of pricing parameters, and the final selling price is determined after taking in all bids. In this case, the auction started at 50 ETH (about $66,890) and decreased over the course of one hour until all 900 mint passes were sold.

The final price for all 900 mint passes ended at 14 ETH, or about $18,729. In total, the project raised 126,000 ETH, equivalent to about $16.5 million.

According to Nansen.ai, the project quickly jumped above blue chip projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club in terms of trading volume in secondary sales, raising over 15,176 ETH (about US$20.3 million) within hours of minting. Many of the buyers of the QQL mint passes are also holders of Fidenza NFTs, Hobbs' original generative NFT project that recently saw a spike in sales.

Last week, the project experienced a $1 million pump after one wallet alone purchased eight NFTs within 48 hours. The quick succession of sales temporarily boosted the project's market cap and floor price.