CyberKongz to Mint Genkai NFTs on Ronin, Migrate Game to 'Axie' Chain

CyberKongz has grown into a significant NFT franchise, with $210 million in total volume traded across just the largest of its four collections. Now, the creators plan to migrate the CyberKongz NFT minting game, called Play and Kollect, from one Ethereum sidechain to another—from Polygon to Ronin, the network created by Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis.

The Kongz team is also launching Genkai, a new anime-inspired NFT collection, across both Ronin and the Ethereum mainnet this week—with plans for a second game on the horizon. A Sky Mavis representative confirmed to Decrypt that there is no "concrete timeline yet" for the planned migration from Polygon to Ronin.

“Genkai is the first non-pixel artwork I have created for CyberKongz, and will represent our growth as a project to expand our IP into the Southeast Asian and Japanese markets,” said pseudonymous CyberKongz founder and artist Myoo in a statement. “Additionally, CyberKongz will be working with Ronin to develop a game featuring Genkai.”

Because Ronin is currently a private (or permissioned) blockchain, the Genkai mint is the first non-Axie Infinity NFT drop to occur via the blockchain. The move comes just months after Sky Mavis announced that it is working with four game studios, including the makers of The Machines Arena, to build out Ronin’s gaming ecosystem. 

“CyberKongz is, we believe, one of the greatest IPs in Web3,” Sky Mavis Director of Business Development Kathleen Osgood told Decrypt in an interview. She added that Sky Mavis works closely with every gaming partner it brings onto the Ronin network.

But why did the creators of the pixelated apes choose Axie’s chain?

There’s always been a community connection between Axie fans and CyberKongz holders, a pseudonymous Kongz council member known as Henry the Grape told Decrypt in an interview.

“We were really born out of the Axie community,” Henry said. “So when the opportunity came with Ronin to be able to continue building our ecosystem on Ronin, it was kind of a no-brainer.”

The Genkai mint will span 20,000 total NFTs, with 16,000 to be minted on the Ethereum mainnet and 4,000 on Ronin. Ultimately, the Ethereum NFT holders will have the option to migrate their Genkai NFTs to Ronin in the future, if they choose. The Ethereum public mint will be priced at 0.25 ETH (about $460) per Genkai NFT, starting July 27.

Furthermore, as part of the collaboration with Sky Mavis, the Axie Infinity creator will reward all Mystic Axie NFT holders with a free Genkai NFT.

When asked about the Kongz’ future plans, Henry said that an animated series and comic books are also a part of the vision, but didn’t want to share too much just yet.

“One of the things we’ve realized in Web3 is when we say too much in the beginning, people either tend to lose interest or they start to judge you by that,” Henry added. “And a lot can change.”