A recent NFT project called Lil Kittens has appeared on the Base chain and officially started minting. The project has issued a total of 3,000 NFTs, adopting a phased pricing mechanism: the first phase offers guaranteed free spots (limit of 1 per wallet), the second phase is first-come-first-served at a price of 0.00016 ETH each (limit of 15 per wallet), and the third phase is a public minting stage at a price of 0.00027 ETH (limit of 75 per wallet).

This tiered pricing approach is actually a standard tactic in NFT projects, first to reward early supporters, and second to leave opportunities for later entrants. As a Layer 2 solution launched by a compliant platform, Base chain has very low on-chain gas fees, making it suitable for small-value NFT transactions.

But to be honest—NFT markets are pretty much cooled off now. The blue-chip projects that once started at tens of ETH last year have long collapsed, and the bubble has mostly burst. New projects now follow a simple rule: one gets launched, one dies.

The name Lil Kittens sounds really cute, probably betting on the pet NFT niche. But the problem is, there’s no strong IP backing, and no clear practical use cases, so it’s hard to imagine any long-term value. 0.00027 ETH in fiat currency is just a few dollars, so the participation cost isn’t high, but there are few bagholders—liquidity is as bad as it gets. OpenSea is now just a dump site for such trash NFTs, a pile of zero-volume junk.

If you just want to collect a cute cat image for fun, that’s fine. But if you’re hoping to make money from it? Better forget it. This track is no longer suitable for retail investors.