Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MMI jointly issue soulbound NFTs to build a Web3-native social credit system
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Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MMI jointly issue soulbound NFTs to build a Web3-native social credit system
A tribute to those who have made every small attempt and revolutionary innovation in the crypto world.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
By Morty
While all brands are brainstorming how to reward supporters and key opinion leaders with more creative holiday gifts, Cobo had already innovated back in 2021, organizing a large-scale anniversary event in a distinctly “Web3” fashion.
On its fourth anniversary, Cobo launched a commemorative NFT titled "Cobo 4th Anniversary NFT," honoring the Builders of the industry—those who have made every small attempt and revolutionary innovation in the crypto world.
The data stored within the fourth-anniversary NFT is a video composed of three elements: Shinobi (Shen Yu), water, and numbers. Holders of this NFT also received community benefits such as whitelists for other premium NFT projects.
Shinobi, founder of Cobo, said: "Water represents infinite possibilities, while numbers are the flesh and bones of the Cryptoverse." His message was simple: whether in the past, present, or future, crypto remains full of boundless potential.
Time flies. Another year has passed, but the state of the crypto market is not what it once was.
The bear market marks a pause in the symphony of liquidity. During this downturn, we’ve witnessed the brutal deleveraging process and the collapses of LUNA/UST, FTX, and CeFi. This year is undoubtedly extraordinary and difficult. Yet fortunately, the Builders of the industry continue to persevere.
This year, Cobo—a fellow Builder—continues building, committed to developing scalable infrastructure services for the Web3 world. On its fifth anniversary, Cobo chooses to go against the current by launching a Soulbound NFT called "Evolution," paying tribute to the Builders of the industry!
This Soulbound NFT is a collaborative effort between Cobo, digital asset management tool Gnosis Safe, and MetaMask Institutional (MMI), the institutional version of MetaMask. In addition to Cobo, which we've already introduced, both Safe and MMI are heavyweight infrastructure providers.
Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MMI share a common vision: using Soulbound NFTs to build a bridge connecting East and West, helping English-speaking communities better understand Chinese crypto communities and developers, while also enabling Chinese participants to access resources from Western English-speaking ecosystems.
The initial supply of Evolution is limited to 1,000 units, primarily distributed to institutions, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), and partners of Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MMI.
Soulbound NFTs were a new concept introduced by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, on May 12 in his paper "Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul."
Soulbound NFTs, or SBTs, differ fundamentally from traditional NFTs. As the name suggests, an SBT is permanently "soulbound" to a wallet address and cannot be transferred or traded.
Vitalik envisions leveraging the unique properties of SBTs to establish a dedicated social credit system for Web3—each non-transferable SBT conferring a distinct social identity to its wallet address, thereby granting corresponding social status within the Web3 ecosystem.
Deconstructing Cobo’s Fifth Anniversary Soulbound NFT: Evolution
Based on information released by the team, there are three key highlights of Cobo’s "Evolution" NFT:
Prestigious Development Team
Behind the creation and launch of "Evolution" are three highly influential Web3 infrastructure providers: Cobo, Safe, and MMI.
Cobo is the largest digital asset custodian and blockchain technology provider in the Asia-Pacific region, headquartered in Singapore, and trusted by over 500 institutions and high-net-worth individuals for long-term custody. Cobo focuses on building scalable infrastructure to power the global Web3 revolution, offering services including Cobo WaaS (Wallet-as-a-Service), Cobo NaaS (NFT-as-a-Service), Cobo MPC WaaS (a co-custody solution based on threshold signature schemes via secure multi-party computation), Cobo Argus (a multi-signature smart contract solution for teams engaging in DeFi), and Cobo Custody (centralized secure custody).
Gnosis Safe is a flexible and secure digital asset management tool. Gnosis Safe provides a multisig wallet that allows multiple users to jointly control funds in a single wallet. These multisig wallets serve not only DAOs and institutions but also individual users seeking enhanced fund security. Notably, Gnosis Safe has expanded beyond Ethereum to support multiple chains and integrates seamlessly with Web3 wallets like MetaMask.
Among participants in the crypto space, MetaMask—the open-source, most trusted on-chain wallet and Web3 gateway—is far more widely known than Gnosis Safe. MetaMask is used globally via browser extensions and mobile apps. MMI is the institutional-grade version of MetaMask.
Behind MetaMask lies ConsenSys, a leading blockchain infrastructure company. As MetaMask’s parent firm, ConsenSys secured a $450 million investment at a $7 billion valuation in March from Temasek Holdings, Microsoft, and others. Well-known products under ConsenSys include Infura (an API provider), Truffle (a smart contract development framework), and MetaMask itself.
Therefore, beyond anticipating strong performance post-launch, given the renowned reputations of Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MMI, we can confidently expect continued evolution and expansion of value and utility for "Evolution"—constantly evolving, constantly transforming.
Romantic Artistic Elements
For this Soulbound NFT design, the Cobo team incorporated the four classical elements from ancient Greek astrology—air, fire, water, earth—and a fifth symbolic element: the key, forming the core visual motifs of "Evolution."
Ancient Greeks believed these four elements constituted the material world, representing the four dimensions of the universe. By extension, astrology holds that these elements reflect inner human consciousness. In the context of Web3, the Soulbound NFT carries deeper meaning—Cobo aims, through collaboration with Gnosis Safe and MMI, to explore and construct the Web3 world through the concept of the "soul."
By integrating these romantic classical elements, Cobo enhances the artistic and collectible value of Evolution, while also enabling classification of different types of collaborators across Cobo, Gnosis Safe, and MetaMask for targeted expansion.
In this sense, it also embodies part of Vitalik Buterin’s envisioned Web3-exclusive social credit system.
To me, the inclusion of the key as an element symbolizes Cobo’s aspirations for the future. A key can unlock a door, a treasure chest, or a path forward.
The presence of the key adds a layer of mystery to Evolution, leaving us curious about where this key might lead us.
Progressive Utility Over Time
True to its name "Evolution," holders will receive time-based rewards. According to Cobo, during the three days following the release of Evolution, the team will unveil one special gift per day related to MMI and Gnosis Safe, progressively enhancing the NFT’s utility. These mysterious upgrades will play a crucial role in building bridges between Eastern and Western crypto worlds.
Each day, Evolution holders will uncover a new easter egg—patience and exploration will reveal them.
This approach makes the rollout of Evolution even more intriguing.
Additionally, holders will gain access to quarterly Cobo research reports produced by award-winning researchers, DeFi portfolio managers, and security experts. Topics will cover DeFi strategies, trends, and market opportunities. Holders may also receive exclusive gifts and invitations to private online and offline workshops hosted by Cobo, MetaMask Institutional, and Gnosis Safe.
As mentioned earlier, the 1,000 Evolution NFTs are primarily aimed at institutions, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), and partners of Cobo, MetaMask Institutional, and Gnosis Safe. Thus, within the Web3 social system built by Evolution, holders gain corresponding social identities, opening doors to more interactions with high-net-worth users—especially critical at a time when Eastern and Western crypto communities are drifting apart. In the future, Evolution could become a vital bridge linking the Eastern and Western crypto worlds.
As Cobo’s CTO and co-founder Changhao Jiang noted, "We are excited to launch Evolution—the first soulbound NFT in collaboration with MetaMask Institutional and Gnosis Safe—to our exclusive community. Given each organization’s unique expertise, this project marks the first step toward deepening our relationships and fostering future collaborations. At the same time, Evolution enables us to distribute exclusive community benefits to our loyal users."
This is another impressive aspect of Cobo’s anniversary branding strategy—not only innovating in format, but also amplifying the diversity of Evolution’s utility through strategic partnerships with Gnosis Safe and MetaMask Institutional.
In Conclusion
As Cobo’s CTO and co-founder Changhao Jiang stated, each institution brings its own strengths, making the "empowerment" and "evolution" offered by Evolution more differentiated—and thus more attractive and competitive.
Even more exciting is the future development of the Web3 social ecosystem built around Evolution.
It's easy to envision that, combining Cobo’s years of technical expertise and experience in the Asia-Pacific region, MMI’s reputation for providing efficient DeFi access to cryptocurrency funds, market makers, exchanges, and DAOs, and Gnosis Safe’s capability in developing flexible multisignature solutions via smart contracts, the targeted distribution of Evolution will form a high-value Web3 social network, creating a more diverse and interconnected ecosystem.
The combined strength of these three leading infrastructure providers raises our expectations for the future—not only delivering value to holders but also serving as a bridge between East and West, guiding the broader crypto ecosystem in deeper exploration of Web3 and driving industry-wide progress. As a long-term Builder in the Web3 space, Cobo will grow alongside the industry, moving toward a brighter Web3 future.
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