Project Deep Dive: Is Valhalla Worth the Hype?

Getting to the end of 2022, there’s one soon-to-launch NFT project that has piqued the interest of the industry that everyone is waiting to launch: Valhalla.

Whenever situations come up like this, it’s easy to buy into the hype and make poor judgment decisions, I know I sure did when Mekaverse launched last year (thankfully I didn’t end up buying).

I decided to do a deep dive into Valhalla and committed to going through their entire Twitter feed, Discord, website, news stories, etc., to best gauge whether this project had the merit to back up the hype that it has garnered up to this point. These are my findings.

Project Summary

Valhalla is an NFT project focused on being the number one gaming NFT in the world.

“Valhalla is a utility-enabled PFP project for gaming and streetwear enthusiasts. Members will be granted access to our exclusive community, events, and digital drops.”

The team behind the project is Stacked Studios, a studio founded by serial entrepreneur Alex Lin—2x Y Combinator founder and Forbes 30 under 30—that is focused on creating the Web3 version of Twitch.

“We are creating a novel experience for our members, tailormade for those as passionate about gaming and culture as we are.”

Stacked raised $13M in its series A funding round led by Pantera Capital (bringing the total to $15M raised). The goal is to turn video streaming creators into shareholders of the platform through the use of governance tokens, but users won’t need to be crypto-savvy to use the service.

The model will “align the interests of content operators and creators for the first time.” Stacked is expected to launch in North America in December 2022.

Leading up to their mint, Valhalla ran a unique application process. Existing members were giving codes to send friends, so the application pool grew purely by referrals and word of mouth. The model was an incredible success, generating over 11,000 applications!

Key Links

• Twitter
• Website
• Discord

Mint Details

Notably, Valhalla is running a presale where community members and reputable collectors can reserve an allocation ahead of the public sale. NFTs purchased in the presale will be subject to a 3-mont unlock period. 500 NFTs will be included in the presale and cost .25 WETH.

If someone purchases 15 NFTs, 5 will unlock and be able to be sold at the end of each month (equal 1/3 monthly vesting).

Collection Details

Team

Alex Lin - CEO

Ryan Wen - Chief of Staff

Victor Cheng - SR Software Engineer

Samantha Chow - Product Manager

Terry Kang - Software Engineer

Roberto Berwa - Software Engineer

Ding Zhang - Lead Software Engineer

Matt Henderson - Software Engineer

Team Experience

Y Combinator, LVL6, Hush, Gauge Capital, Microsoft, Open Table, Goldman Sachs, EQUIAM, MIT Media Lab, Greenzie, Vana, Facebook, Uber, Allelo, Atlassian

Partners

• Wardell, a pro Valorant player
• JD Gaming, the #1 League of Legends team in China
• Talon esports, the premier esports team in Asia-Pacific
• Sentinels, an esports team competing in Valorant, Fortnite, Halo, Wild Rift, and Apex Legends
• T1 esports, 3x world champions in League of Legends

Key Lore

None available currently

Verdict (10/10)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Like Ey3k0n and KPR before it, Valhalla is the latest example of a highly qualified team putting in a year+ of work (beginning in 2021 when NFTs exploded) and finally coming to market.

This is a new meta that took time to develop, and it’s one that will ultimately be incredibly beneficial to the NFT space as a whole, as the bar for quality will continue to rise and the influx of top-quality talent will rise alongside it.

Despite not knowing the true utility of the NFTs being sold, Valhalla remains a 10/10 for me because it is already funded with years of runway and will predictably integrate well into Stacked, a project I’m incredibly excited to see develop moving forward.

When also considering the project has accumulated over 11,000 applications for early access, the gaming partnerships already formed, the team’s background, and the quality of everything that has been publicly unveiled so far, I can’t emphasize enough how positive my outlook is on Valhalla at this point in time. I’m looking forward to their upcoming mint and hope to be a part of it myself!