Our story 2022 - Now
Last updated
Last updated
Once upon a time, the derivatives meta was at its peak. Many were diving into Punks and Apes, hoping to make a quick buck, but success was rare. This is how BNBHobosWTF was born (yes, WTF domains were cool at the time).
The original collection, , has incredible art. We saw it was CC0, so we decided to create a derivative. Since BNB was the chain of choice, we made the collection brighter, adding vivid colors to all the traits. And then, we launched it. Our first post on Twitter
After a week of trying a paid mint, giveaways, and treasure hunts, we decided to go for a free mint. On June 22, 2022, our crazy journey officially began.
Our Telegram community went wild. Whale holders were hosting giveaways left and right. The excitement gave me the motivation to build an actual project around BNBHobos, rather than just leaving it as a free mint.
We launched our second collection: HobosOnBSC Homes, a derivative of the Hoboland collection, another CC0 project. It was a free mint for Hobo holders, with a few remaining for sale at 0.015 BNB.
This collection was another success, bringing funds into the treasury and keeping the hype alive. People loved the golden toilet—a legendary trait!
We wanted to bring something original to the project, so we introduced Hobo Ladies. These featured fresh designs and original traits, while keeping the Hobos' signature look. Like before, it was free for holders, with leftovers minted at 0.015 BNB.
With a growing treasury, we could now mint and support other projects, while also offering community giveaways. By this time, we had even implemented a weekly giveaway system for holders, bringing top BNB NFT projects into our ecosystem.
With AI-generated art becoming mainstream, we decided to create an original collection, Steampunk Pets—a small batch of 289 NFTs, free to mint for holders. It was a massive hit.
Due to a third-party contract vulnerability, our collection went quiet for a while—a tough lesson learned. But we’ve come back stronger, and Steampunk Pets is back in business. We can proudly say we were among the pioneers of AI-generated NFTs on BNB (not the first), setting the stage for what came next. See details here Steampunk Pets
Seeing the success of Steampunk Pets, we decided to go big and create a proper pet collection to complete the Hobos ecosystem—Hobos, Ladies, Homes, and now Pets.
This time, it was a paid mint, selling out within a few hours. The promise? Holders would have a chance to win a Pixel Sweeper NFT every week for 80 weeks. Most of the mint funds went into buying Sweepers, and we even managed to trade for more than 80.
Fast forward to today (January 30, 2025), and we’re at week 90, still delivering on our promises with already 10 PixelSweepers over the promised amount delivered to holders.
Stacks, the L2 for BTC, was gaining momentum, so we decided to bring a small collection of 333 supply, called Ordinal Hobos, to that chain as part of our exploration into going multichain. The collection was—and still is—intended purely as art and was advertised as such to the community.
The mint is still live, but the BTC L2 hype didn’t quite reach Hobos—only 8 have been minted so far.
But hey, Hobos are on Stacks, too, holding it down!
We realized that having a 10K supply might be overwhelming for new holders, so we began burning Hobos to reduce supply.
Each burned Hobo earned rewards like:
Community tokens
Whitelist spots for upcoming projects
NFTs from other collections
This kept the community engaged for over a year, with burning competitions and games driving activity.
In early 2024, we decided to merge Hobos and Ladies into a single collection: Hobos Forever. All info on it can be found here Hobos Forever
Metaraffers, Degen Losers Club, Lights Out, Crazy Chimps, Crypto Quties, Horror Apes Club, Pet Frens, Ape Heroes, Crazy Joker Sweep Festival, Bad Seeds, The Living Dead, BNBats, Psynions, Mamanime Guardian Spirits, PsyBears, P3P3, Drunk Skunks Drinking Club, MetaFlip Coin NFT... and many more.
Sadly, most of these projects are gone—some rugged, some just faded away.
But guess what? We’re STILL here.
NFT & Token Tracking App – Allowed holders to check their NFT and community token holdings. (No longer active, but will be back with better UI once Hobos Forever is launched)
Staking System – Enabled users to stake their NFTs and earn community tokens. Over 80% of the Holders used it and redeemed over 6.000.000 HOBOT token.
Raffle System – Let holders buy tickets with community tokens for a chance to win NFTs. Over 15k tickets sold with community token to win NFTs from multiple projects.
Mini Mining Game – Provided an interactive way to earn even more community tokens. Over 100k community tokens redeemed.
A Lottery - that was designed as a fun way for people to try their luck while also generating revenue for the project, with 10% of ticket sales going back into the treasury. It worked well for a while, helping fund giveaways and community activities. Though it’s not currently active, it’s not something we’ve abandoned entirely.
All of the above are no longer active, as the treasury eventually ran dry and many partnered projects either shut down or lost community interest. As sales volume declined and the lottery system fell out of use, the remaining funds were depleted, making it impossible to offer enticing rewards in raffles. With no real utility left for the token, staking also became obsolete.
Unfortunately, the hosting platform vanished without warning, taking our virtual world with it. Every land and home owner was fully refunded, and we moved on. It was a tough lesson, but it showed us that even the biggest and most ambitious projects can disappear overnight.
We launched a NFT game collection - THE 100 - that kept the community engaged until the end of January 2024. However, as participation and minting numbers declined, we realized the game couldn’t be sustained. Rather than letting it fade away, we made the decision to refund all minters, ensuring everyone got their funds back.
What we learned:
Don’t burn project funds on endless giveaways—eventually, the treasury runs dry, and those only in it for freebies will leave. Unless there's a dedicated fund with a solid plan to sustain it for as long as initially planned.
Be transparent from day one. Let people decide if they’re here for the community or just for a quick flip.
Build sustainable revenue streams while rewarding loyal members who actively contribute to the project.
Always keep your promises and remain transparent with the community funds. (This wasn’t a lesson—it’s something I’ve done since day one.)
We’re still here because we believe in Hobos Universe. With Hobos Forever, we are consolidating the Hobos Universe project and we’re building the community we always envisioned while continuing to deliver value, fun, and surprises.
Without a community... well, you know the rest. 😉❤️
We got listed on (huge thanks to Fab for believing in us—without that listing, there would be no Hobos Universe). The mint started slowly but picked up in the final two hours, with the last 6,000 Hobos minted out!
We built our own world in the Metaverse, where holders could purchase homes and hang out with friends. Check out the video here: .
