What are Chromie Squiggles? A Guide to the Colorful Art Blocks
by corporate trash
10/12/2022
Chromie Squiggle NFTs may look like a simple rainbow drawing, but it is one of the most popular generative art projects in the Art Blocks collection — and in all of NFTs. Their fun simplicity is why they have drawn the attention of many notable people in the NFT space.
Chromie Squiggles are also rather “historical”, especially in terms of generative art NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
From minting at around $20 to reaching a floor price of $14,000 today, it has made many early investors in squiggles and Art Blocks a lot of profit. The iconic design of a squiggle has been on the jerseys of professional sports teams and been acknowledged across many other top projects in the space.
Plus, did you know they move?
What is a Chromie Squiggle?
A Chromie Squiggle is a generative art project created by Snowfro. Snowfro (a.k.a. Erick Calderon) is the CEO and founder of Art Blocks. The collection is significant because it is “project 0” (the genesis project) of Art Blocks, which today is a generative art powerhouse. This is why Chromie Squiggles are considered a historic NFT.
9,675 of 10,000 available squiggles are minted. The mint is permanently paused and the remainder of the squiggles will be distributed to the community over time.
The art is described by the artist: “Simple and easily identifiable, each squiggle embodies the soul of the Art Blocks platform. Consider each my personal signature as an artist, developer, and tinkerer.”
Chromie Squiggles minted on November 27, 2020 for a cost of .035 Ethereum.
What is Art Blocks?
Art Blocks is the first generative NFT art platform. Minters get a randomly generated version of the art in the form of an image, 3D model, or other interactive experience.
There are three types of Art Blocks: Curated, Playground, and Factory. Chromie Squiggle is in the Curated collection.
- Curated pieces are handpicked from a selection board and are the top tier of what Art Blocks stands for as a platform.
- Playground is for artists which have previously been approved to the Curated collection, but wish to experiment with further projects.
- Factory is for artists who are not approved into the Curated collection or don’t want to wait for the approval process.
Art Blocks is home to many iconic generative art collections, including Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs, Ringers by Dmitri Cherniak, Crypto Citizens, and hundreds more. The highest-ever Art Blocks sale was for Ringers #35, sold for 2,100 Ethereum in October 2021. This was the equivalent of $6 million at the time.
Chromie Squiggle Traits
Most Chromie Squiggles are Standard, but they also come in Slinky, Fuzzy, Ribbed, Bold, and Pipe form. Each of them are fairly distinctive from each other. Below is a chart from the Art Blocks Wiki showing each of the types and rarity levels.
Perfect and Full Spectrum squiggles are rare version of the Standard squiggle. The very few “Hyper” squiggles that exist are sold at a high premium. Squiggle #4697, a Hyper Bold, was the most expensive squiggle ever sold, for 945 Ethereum.
Squiggles Controls: They Move!
Squiggles also move if you click on them on OpenSea, a feature that many collectors don’t realize. The Spacebar changes the background color between black and white, Up/Down changes the speed. Squiggles are vector graphics that can scale at any size without losing their quality.
Unminted Squiggles
300 squiggles that were previously unminted were minted using a queue and tip system in May 2021. The demand for these unminted squiggles were extremely high, even as they minted at their current floor price.
Squiggles have around 2,700 unique holders, and about 2,000 of those only have one. Around 650 holders have multiple. One of the largest holders is NFT influencer GMoney, whose vault has 272 squiggles in it. The current floor price is 10.9 Ethereum.
Squiggles Associated Projects
Since the squiggle is such a popular project, other NFT collections have paid homage to it in the past year. They have done this through direct partnerships, indirect partnerships, and adding traits honoring the squigs.
Moonbirds created a Squiggle trait for 58 of their birds. They gave away a newly minted squiggle to one lucky bird. The LIT project allowed Squiggle holders on their “Squiggle Game” allowlist. The tokens for 2022 VeeCon access were created in the style of squiggles, in collaboration with Snowfro.
Infinite Objects creates physical frames for NFT artwork. They worked with Art Blocks so that all squiggle owners could claim an Infinite Object frame with their squiggle in it.
Perhaps the most significant partnership was with the team WAGMI United, whose adidas jersey has a squiggle as its centerpiece on the chest. This team was the acquisition of Crawley Town FC, an English Football League 2 club, by prominent NFT community members, led byPreston Johnson and Eben Smith.
SquiggleDAO
Holders of Chromie Squiggles got together and created SquiggleDAO in order to strengthen the collector community and permeate Squiggles across the internet. On the website, it says: “The DAO unites people through a shared passion and appreciation for the Chromie Squiggle to learn, connect, and benefit from the continued growth of the art.”
The DAO now holds 275 Squiggles, worth about $10 million. The DAO aims to acquire a large amount of rare squiggles for their treasury.
The DAO came together in March 2021 when five people donated their squiggles to the DAO. They soon released their ERC-20 governance token $SQUIG in November 2021. The purpose of the token is to “enable the members of the DAO to participate in DAO governance. One $SQUIG = one vote.”
To become a SquiggleDAO member, you need to either hold a squiggle or acquire 1,000 $SQUIG on Uniswap, but you can participate in the DAO without being a member.
Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro — TL;DR
These little squiggles have a storied history in the NFT space. From their creation back in 2020 through the bear market of 2022, they continue to be recognized and celebrated as pioneers of generative art on the blockchain and a pillar of the Art Blocks collection.
The Art Blocks platform has grown and expanded since Squiggles have been minted, and new art on the blockchain continues to be inspired by the rainbow squiggles.
Follow Corporate Trash on Twitter: @corporatetrash1
Disclaimer: At the time of publishing, Corporate Trash owned one Chromie Squiggle.
Blog image created in collaboration with DALL-E 2 by OpenAI.