The Guide to DeGods and $DUST: Solana’s Deflationary NFTs
by corporate trash
6/6/2022
DeGods is one of the most well-known and successful NFT projects on the Solana blockchain, and they’re continuing to expand their collections. With almost $50 million in secondary sales since minting in October 2021, it’s the seventh-highest sales volume Solana NFT collection of all-time.
As the project has grown, so has the community surrounding it. With around 4,300 unique holders, most keep their NFTs staked to earn the native $DUST token. This lack of available supply to purchase has placed a premium on the price over the past few months.
The floor is currently 399 Solana on Magic Eden, the highest active Solana NFT on both Magic Eden and OpenSea Solana project charts, as it continues to add utility to the original DeGods collection.
What is DeGods?
DeGods NFTs are a 10,000 PFP collection that launched on Solana on October 8, 2021, after an initial delay and problems with the mint. The price was 3 Solana each. The art style shows men styled in streetwear-meets-fantasy clothing and attributes.
Leading up to the mint, the team offered allowlist spots via “bounties,” mostly IRL tasks from community members like, doing pushups and calling their mom. A hype video was also released. Like many popular mints, especially on Solana, bots took over and there was much outrage. However, their already large community soon took to the marketplace to buy that way instead.
The team now has nine people on it, but the two cofounders are Frank and Finn. There has been a lot of dialogue on anonymous and pseudo-anonymous founders in the NFT space, but for now they have chosen to remain undoxxed. The artist is rumored to be Skye.
The DeGods community, especially those who have been there since day one, are passionate about the possibilities and history of the project. The community has also released helpful resources for those new to Solana, like de.xyz. A map showing the global reach of the project is hosted on the main website.
DeGods Traits
Each NFT has eight sets of traits categorized into various rarity levels: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, and Mythic. The No. 1 ranked DeGods has three Mythic traits. The rarest attribute available is Medusa Head — only 25 exist. Clothing choices vary from tracksuits to t-shirts to war armor, and backgrounds show the DeGods in various settings or solid color backgrounds.
The highest sale for a DeGod was on April 11, 2022. #3033 sold for 999 Solana, around $104,000 USD at the time. This NFT has rare Mythic Mamba and Mythic Wings traits, each which appear only about 50 times in the collection.
What are DeadGods?
DeadGods became available as the “first” DeGods upgrade for a cost of 1,000 $DUST each, starting on March 31, 2022. They are a “1:1 fine art version” of holders’ existing DeGods NFT. The rarity is the same, but all attributes are re-illustrated. The swap morphs holders’ existing NFT art into an undead, mutated version.
This is similar to how Doodles created Space Doodles, a wrapped version of your existing Doodle. If you sell your Doodle, you sell your Space Doodle. They are one in the same. Just like DeGods and DeadGods.
The main reason to upgrade to a DeadGods is that they earn more $DUST while staked — DeadGods now earn 15 tokens per day, while DeGods earn 5. Holders can swap back and forth from their DeGods to DeadGods whenever they’d like once they’ve paid the 1,000 $DUST.
$DUST
$DUST is the native token of DeGods that powers the entire ecosystem, on the Solana blockchain.
Staking
By staking your DeGods, holders can earn 5 $DUST per day, or 15 $DUST per day with staking a DeadGods — these numbers were originally double of what they are now. About 12 percent of DeGods are currently staked, but 98 percent of DeadGods are staked. That’s $140 million in value staked in DeadGods.
There are many use cases for $DUST within the DeGods ecosystem.
Burning
There is a burning mechanism for as well, and the dApp for this is launching soon. Should someone want to burn their DeGods for $DUST, they are put in a queue, where the most common ones are burned first.
Only one NFT can be burned the entire day in the entire collection. There is a unique formula based on $DUST supply, remaining DeGods and rarity ranking, which estimates the amount of $DUST one can earn burning their NFT.
535 DeGods have been burned so far, but only through the unique 33.3 percent tax that was imposed in the smart contract. With this tax, if holders sold for below the mint, the current price floor, or under their price, they would pay a 33.3 percent tax on their final sale.
These funds would go into a treasury wallet which then bought back these DeGods, and then would burn them forever from the supply.
This tax is now gone and was noted as a “failed experiment” by the team. Now, each secondary sale has a 9.99 percent royalty. 6.66 percent goes to the DeDao, and 3.33 percent goes directly to the core team.
$DUST is currently worth about $2.95 USD — equating to about $15 per day for holding a DeGod, and $45 per day for a DeadGod. It can be purchased on the Jupiter exchange using a Solana wallet like Phantom.
DeDao
The project’s DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is called DeDao. They host auctions and raffles in $DUST for allowlist spots, NFTs held in their vault, and more. The plan is to also sell acquired DeGods and sell them in $DUST on the website.
In April 2022, the DeDao acquired its own basketball team in rapper Ice Cube’s BIG3 league. Tickets, merch, and part-ownership in $DUST are all on the table, and the community is excited about the possibilities.
Like many other NFT projects with native tokens, the team aims to add $DUST into other Solana marketplaces and P2E games for further utility.
Duppies NFTs
Duppies is a newer collection of 13,333 NFTs on the Solana blockchain announced in May 2022, created by the DeGods team. The website states: “the goal for Duppies is to stand alone as its own brand & IP.” Instead of acting as a “child” collection to the parent, Duppies will eventually have its own CEO and actually compete with the genesis collection.
Although the art is yet to be revealed, the project has lofty ambitions to become the strongest NFT community out there. It also will introduce a new type of staking system without earning tokens. This has been hinted to reward the most loyal holders of Duppies.
Existing DeadGods holders (not DeGods) will be able to mint one Duppies per NFT owned. The June 2022 public and allowlist mint will be solely from the $DUST token (cost: 375 $DUST) which can be earned by staking DeGods or DeadGods. It can also be purchased on the Jupiter exchange. This means that the entire sale of Duppies is in $DUST only.
TL;DR — DeGods NFT, $DUST, and Innovating
The DeGods team clearly thrives on pushing the limits and experimenting with utility. They started out taxing those who sold below the floor, but have since pivoted into a more beneficial solution with $DUST.
New burning and staking mechanisms are needed to push forward innovation in the NFT space, and continues to make the DeGods collection an interesting choice for collectors.
Duppies will allow new NFT collectors (and those new to Solana NFTs) to get into the ecosystem with a more affordable price point, and create new uses for $DUST. They are creating new ways for people to earn $DUST in order to mint. With the expansion of the community (even Shaq got in on the action) and core DeGods team, they are setting a plan in place to achieve their ambitious goals and roadmap for years to come.