Doodles, the colorful NFT avatars created by Canadian artist Scott Martin (a.k.a Burnt Toast) are taking a bold leap forward. On to AI-powered decentralized content platforms. When they launched on Ethereum in October 2021, Doodles shot to popularity—capitalizing on the vibrant appeal of their “children’s stick-figure” aesthetic. Doodles previously reached a high floor price of 5 ETH+, securing their place in the ‘blue chip club’ of NFTs. Today, with the cryptocurrency world experiencing extreme volatility in all major assets, the team is diligently pushing forward and looking to greener pastures, including the release of its DreamNet ecosystem and native token, DOOD. Yet, doubts remain over the allocation of tokens and risks for market manipulation.
Doodles' Rise and Current Market Position
Doodles’ early success can be attributed to both its unique art style and heavy community involvement. With a floor price that skyrocketed within hours of its release, the collection quickly found itself created as one of the biggest powerhouses of the NFT space. Its addition in 2015 to the so-called “blue chip club” sealed its reputation’s fate.
Doodles, like all NFT projects, has gone through an up and down market. Expectations going forward Transaction volume in 2024 is down 67% YoY, and the floor price has mostly hovered around 3 ETH. With Scott Martin again in the CEO seat starting in January 2025, the change foreshadowed a desire for greater clarity on the project’s direction.
DreamNet and the Tokenization Experiment
Now Doodles is trying to make the leap from a set of digital collectibles on your Ethereum wallet to a full-fledged entertainment empire. DreamNet is the technological and aesthetic centerpiece of this transformation. This is an AI-powered, decentralized content network that encourages the free exchange of value between content creators and their audience using a token-based economy. This new initiative marks an exciting, ambitious leap into the future of NFTs. It goes on to explore their promise as digital identity passports, and not simply as curiosities.
The implementation of the native token DOOD is at the heart of this vision. DOOD is scheduled to release on Solana. By cross-chaining to Base L2, it’s about to make its product even more accessible and useful, touching down in several blockchain ecosystems. The token will be used to incentivize participation within the DreamNet ecosystem, rewarding both creators and consumers for their contributions.
With a 68% allocation ratio, Doodles is distributing the overwhelming majority of the DOOD supply directly to its community. This approach is centered on giving communities power to make sure local interests are synced with what has proven to be a long-term strategy for the project’s success. The idea that “holders are shareholders” is at the philosophical core of this holistic approach. This films token holders with a direct incentive to grow the platform and shape its governance.
Concerns and Risks
Even with such an ambitious vision, there are some alarming red flags regarding the token distribution and governance. Almost a third of the upcoming community airdrops because there is no snapshot time clearly defined. This lack of clarity has led to significant fears of “rat trading,” where people theoretically manipulate the system by buying up tokens just ahead of the airdrop. This can be harmful by lowering the real rewards of true community members and further poisoning the equity of the distribution.
The Doodles ecological fund is exclusively castled by the Doodles team—opening up speculation of possible market manipulation. The team has considerable influence, as their actions might change DOOD’s price. This imbalance in power could potentially put retail or individual token holders at risk.
There’s no getting around it. There are significant risks that are built into the fabric of trying something new in the crypto space. As MarsBit put it, “innovation” and “harvest” are two sides of the same coin. While Doodles’ reputational innovation with DreamNet and DOOD offers a number of exciting features, there is a significant risk to participants surrounding financial loss.
