The Mimic Black Cat Community Feud: Trust Crisis in Bear Market NFT Communities
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
The Mimic Black Cat Community Feud: Trust Crisis in Bear Market NFT Communities
In the coming period, such debates will become increasingly frequent.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy aya
The Beginning and End of a Farce
A tweet from Twitter KOL and self-proclaimed “undercover observer” sparked the flame war within the Mimic black cat community.
On the afternoon of December 11, he accused Shann, the creator of the Mimic NFT project, of “colluding with opportunistic investors behind the community’s back, disrespecting early builders, deliberately creating divisions within the community, and dragging the Web3 era back into feudalism,” going as far as stating bluntly that “Mimic would be nothing without the Chinese-speaking community.” He also called on NFT holders to join a zero-royalty movement.
In response, Shann addressed these accusations and concerns raised by community members through the official account, countering by accusing the undercover observer of running a Ponzi-like fund.
How should royalties be used to build the community? Should core contributors work for free out of passion? Has the Chinese community been unfairly discriminated against or blacklisted? Behind the heated arguments lies an ongoing and unresolved conflict between artists and their communities.
Once the fuse was lit, the illusion of harmony quickly collapsed.
The quarrel continues. Supporters on both sides have taken to Twitter, defending their positions with long-form posts and heated debates in Spaces. The central point of contention remains consistent: the official Twitter and Discord teams are allegedly marginalizing the Chinese community, with even suspected acts of racial discrimination. Additionally, issues such as withholding NFT royalty distributions from the community, parachuting in new managers, and insufficient DAO governance have further fueled widespread dissatisfaction.
Ultimately, on the evening of December 12, after a voice conversation, Shann and the undercover observer reached a temporary truce. Shann apologized for previous misunderstandings and for blocking members of the Chinese community.
The "Chain of Suspicion" Between Creators and Communities
Although the flame war didn’t last long, it still reveals deeper issues: the tension between CC0 openness and full commercialization represents a fundamental challenge most NFT projects face in community management.
Take Mimic as an example—NFT projects caught in the middle must rely on grassroots community efforts for growth and promotion, while simultaneously maintaining a central figure—either the creator or a close associate—to control finances and represent the official image. Once misalignment occurs in communication or vision, a “chain of suspicion” rapidly forms between creators and the community, inevitably leading to disputes like this one.
Moreover, due to differences in language, culture, and lifestyle, most overseas artists struggle to communicate effectively with domestic communities, resulting in operational decisions that are easily misunderstood or appear tone-deaf. Such problems are by no means unique to the Mimic community.
The bear market acts as a catalyst for community conflicts—with trading volumes sharply shrinking and holders seeing little profit, poorly incentivized and structurally weak communities become breeding grounds for discord, often escalating into large-scale flame wars over unequal distribution of benefits.
There Is More Than One Solution
It is foreseeable that similar disputes will only grow more frequent in the coming months.
The bear market is also a process of deleveraging within communities. As a popular saying on Chinese social media goes: “At the peak come false followers; only at dusk do true believers emerge.” The bear market strips away the “false followers,” leaving behind only the “true believers.”
However, if communities that experienced rapid growth during the bull run lack follow-up project roadmaps and concrete plans for community development, tensions between these “true believers” and the project team will intensify, ultimately leading to mutually destructive outcomes.
Improved communication, refined incentive and penalty systems, and transitioning to CC0 to fully unleash community autonomy can all address some of today’s challenges. Ultimately, the goal must be to build trust between the community and the project team—only communities built on solid trust can carry an NFT project forward in the long run.
After all, this bear market is far from over.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
