Some late night reflections 🍜 ... Azuki's active holder base is probably the smallest it's ever been. And at the same time, this is the most excited I've been in a long time. When we started yrs ago, there was abundant liquidity and huge dreams. It felt like there was no limit to what a project could become. Nike was acquiring RTFKT. It was hard not to get lost in the sauce. During that time ppl joined Azuki for all sorts of reasons: the art, decentralized brand, tech innovation, fashion, IRL events, or the chance to make some bread. Often some combination of those things. That was part of what made the early days so special. But it also meant people could love Azuki while having very different ideas of what it should become. With a new clothing brand, expectations are usually clearer: you like the clothes, you buy them. With Azuki, people were imagining entirely different futures for the same project, and tbf we gave them a lot of different things to be excited about. Over time, it became clear to me that airdrops and hype announcements could only take us so far. We needed to build something people would keep coming back to, something that could sustain itself and reach people beyond our existing community. About a year ago, I decided to be much clearer about what that meant for Azuki. We're building a TCG and growing the IP through a manga (and hopefully one day an anime adaptation), based on the characters our community holds. That direction reflects our team's strengths, what the market is telling us, and what I personally want to spend years building. It also builds on what we've learned from making anime content over the years. Committing to it meant saying no to other things. Some of those were the very things people joined for. I understand why someone could care deeply about Azuki and still feel disappointed by that choice. But trying to keep every possible version of Azuki alive would make it impossible to do any of them well. Those early days does hold a special place in my heart. There was nothing quite like it. The people who were part of that chapter helped make it what it was, whether they're still here or have moved on. And today, I've seen firsthand how much players are enjoying the TCG. They're asking about the characters in it. And now they can read the first chapter of the manga and dive deeper into the story. I've even seen a player pick up an OG Azuki because they thought it was sick that they could actually own a character and make it their identity. Seeing that happen means a lot to me. It gives me a real reason to believe we can bring more people into this world through what we're making. We're smaller today, and choosing this direction has come with trade-offs. But I feel really good about where we're going and the community we're building it with. I haven't felt this much conviction in a long time. IKZ 🫡

Wow the first Azuki TCG regional tournament just completely filled with 256 players. IKZ 🔥