Pixelmon’s Kevin Reborn as NFT for Onchain Summer

Credit: Pixelmon

The meme has been reborn. From now until the end of August, users will be able to purchase an open edition of ‘Kevin,’ the defining non-fungible token in the once-hyped Pixelmon collection. The price per ‘Summer Kevin NFT’ is $2 or 0.001 ETH and come with certain rewards:

  • A raffle entry for an Unhatched Pixelmon Egg (worth 0.8 ETH)
  • Access to Pixelmon in-person events
  • Perks for the soon-to-be released Pixelmon-BASE mini-game
  • Opportunity to purchase a Kevin Buildoor Block Set

Kevin became a meme in early 2022 with the launch of the Pixelmon NFT collection and quickly embodied the perils of the NFT space at that time. Pixelmon had gained over 200,000 Twitter followers in less than a month with the promise of the first AAA NFT game, and its NFTs had traded above 3 ETH pre-reveal. But an unveiling of the art showed shoddy work. Kevin, with his blocky green body and rolling eyes, was so bad that it took a life of his own.

But the value of the meme has remained until this day. A quick look at Generation 1 Pixelmon NFTs shows Kevin tokens with a floor price above 3 ETH, remarkable considering the tumble the collection has taken. Still, not all hope if lost. In late 2022, a gaming studio took over the project and has steadily released updates since.

In the end, it will almost certainly be a fondly remembered heirloom of the (yet) largest NFT bull run in history. Now, immortalized on the BASE blockchain as part of Onchain Summer, it may regain fresh legs and bring attention back to Pixelmon and its new ownership.

Onchain Summer Off to a Rollicking Start

While BASE, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 blockchain, launched six months ago, the cryptocurrency exchange hasn’t drawn much attention to it — until now. Through its Onchain Summer series, Coinbase is drawing attention to non-fungible tokens, including art by one of the space’s top figures.

It started the week of August 9th with a collaboration between Web3 art collector Cozomo de’ Medici and top animator DeeKay. Together, they launched two open editions of BASE, which saw an animated Cozomo putting an Ethereum or Bitcoin flag on top of the U.S. Federal Reserve building. The open editions sold over 40,000 copies.

Now, with the Pixelmon’s Kevin, Onchain Summer continues to draw attention to creators and projects. But, as we covered in an article two weeks ago, Coinbase’s event will have more facets than just spotlighting NFT collections. There will be ‘Build on Base’ for developers, ‘Stand with Crypto,’ which focuses on legislation, and ‘Based Accounts,’ projects designed to improve user experience.

In a deep bear market that has seen the many Web3 companies struggle, Coinbase continues to build. Rarity Sniper will follow the ‘Kevin’ BASE drop and update the story if needed.