My team and I started 9GAG in 2008 as bored degen uni students.
Just a side project for the lols, no big plans, just a love for memes.
We kept our day jobs for years.
Fast forward to today: 200M+ people share memes on 9GAG every month.
Now the next chapter is here.
Making @Memeland one of the strongest Web3 companies to ever exist.
I'll be the first to admit that it hasn't been easy sailing BUT like any new frontier, success is accompanied by lessons that are learned along the way.
With that being said, our team is stronger than ever, and the core believers behind Memeland have remained united, even through the harshest conditions.
Memeland is here to stay.
Planted.
2026 for Azuki is about clarity and execution.
Confidence in who we are today. At peace with who we’re not.
Clear on where we are now, excited about where we’re going next.
It’s going to be a very fun year.
GM, dear friends! Working on our studio's 10th year book! So much to cover and will be ready by DATALAND opening in Spring of 2026 and super exciting to share the chapters, new articles from our esteemed collaborators with you all soon!
What is all this about? What strategy? Who are these characters?
Some of you have been asking me in recent days about what’s behind all this. I’ve been slowly showing my ideas and the vision of the project. I’m going to try to explain, briefly, what this adventure means to me.
When I started in 2020, I got trapped in this bubble by the unrestrained madness of crazy ideas, strange art, memes, new subcultures, and a new economy.
I started by creating all kinds of things for myself or for others in order to have a salary and have fun. Over the years, that fun transformed. It became more serious, harder, locked inside a block, inside a box.
Now you are an artist, you must do this.
Create your style, be serious, work hard.
The truth is, it worked. I found a style, I refined my technique, especially with p5js and abstraction, but I became serious. Too serious, maybe. Uncontrolled growth, collaborations with museums, a voice on social media, podcasts, travel, conferences, and many sold outs.
I have created a lot. It’s hard to keep up with my pace. Maybe I’m one of the artists with the most work generated in such a short period of time. This has led me to ask myself many questions.
What’s next, how do I explain my work?
How much is too much?
Do I miss my works?
How do I create new challenges?
Who are my collectors?
Why do they collect?
Are they really collectors?
The answers are long, but my conclusion is that my community is a mixed blend of all kinds of people: many “traders,” “tech bros,” collectors, professors, freaks, technology enthusiasts, etc etc etc.
And this is what makes the community special.
Exquisite, if you allow me.
This collection is that: a proposal to help resolve those questions. But it is much more; it is my new flag.
To be myself again, to have fun, to mix art and design, to create an IP, a story, and to mix the old with the new.
Exquisite is an agent, an analyst, a curator.
A curious being that seeks to understand, improve, collect, and play.
A collection not only based on art, but on the utility of what art, culture, and technology can bring us.
Exquisite is a strategy, Harto Strategy.
Flywheel spinning vigorously --> over the last few days we've sold multiple NodeMonkes and bought back and burned about 0.5% of the entire supply of NODESTR! 14.5% of the entire supply is now burned.
I just like the IP.
2026 is a massive year for @Azuki.
Episode 3 of the anthology.
TCG hitting full stride.
Official manga release.
TCG → Manga → Anime series.
Years of lore drops and activations have been building toward this moment. The goal is clear: take the IP mainstream.
Proud of the part I’ve played so far and the way I've participated in the IP, and excited to keep contributing as it grows.
In the age of so much digital noise, JPEGs on Bitcoin will matter more than you think.
On-chain digital artifacts will be the last piece of authenticity.
For Ordinals to rise again, a purge was necessary and it was carried out in 2025.
This year, without a doubt we will see the resurgence of Ordinals.
Ordinals are dead.
One of the reasons I chose an NodeMonkes as my PFP is because its pixel art style is not random.
It feels like a visual language that reminds me of the retro video game era, where shapes, expressions, and personality are communicated in a simple way, making it iconic and easily recognizable.
The artist’s ingenuity was key in blending the different traits, making the beauty not reside in a single piece, but in the distribution of rarities across the entire collection.
I doubt that NFTs/Ordinals will disappear, as I’ve seen that many people also appreciate the style, the forms, and digital identity and even though we’re in a lull right now, I’m confident we’ll come back in one way or another.