Doodles' Doopies NFTs and Their Strategic Role in Solana's Growing Ecosystem

The NFT market's prolonged bear phase from 2023 to 2025 has tested the resilience of even the most prominent projects. Amid this turbulence, Doodles' Doopies NFTs have carved a unique niche, leveraging Solana's ecosystem to pivot toward utility-driven innovation. This analysis evaluates their long-term value proposition, contrasting their strategies with Solana's top NFT collections like Solana Monkey Business (SMB) and Portals, while addressing the challenges of sustaining community engagement in a bear market.

The Bear Market Context: A Test of Resilience

The broader NFT market peaked in 2022 with $1.58 billion in revenue but stabilized at $600–700 million by 2024–2025, reflecting a maturing but cautious landscape. Doodles' Doopies NFTs, with a 2025 floor price of 0.5566 ETH ($1,730) and a market cap of $17.27 million, have shown mixed performance. While their 24-hour trading volume of 21.32 ETH ($66,150) indicates moderate liquidity, the DOOD token-launched in May 2025-has struggled, trading at $0.007, a 20% drop from its initial offering. This volatility underscores the challenges of tokenization in a bear market, where speculative hype often gives way to demand for tangible utility.

Strategic Pivots: From Extractive Partnerships to Community-Driven Utility

Doodles' leadership, under Scott Martin, has shifted focus from corporate partnerships (e.g., Rubik's Cube) to a Solana-based ecosystem centered on gamified utility and meme coin dynamics. The DOOD token, with a total supply of 10 billion, allocates 68% to community and growth initiatives, including airdrops to existing NFT holders and incentives for new participants. This approach mirrors trends seen in projects like Pudgy Penguins and Azuki, which have integrated tokens to drive engagement. However, the DOOD token's underperformance-despite its ambitious roadmap-raises questions about its ability to retain value without robust on-chain utility.

In contrast, Solana Monkey Business (SMB) has maintained a strong community through its MonkeDAO governance model and staking rewards. With a floor price of $1,920 and 2,511 unique owners, SMB's 24-hour trading volume of $58,890 highlights its enduring appeal. SMB's success stems from its blend of historical significance, metaverse integration, and consistent updates, which align with the bear market's preference for projects with clear utility.

Comparative Analysis: Doodles Doopies vs. Solana's Top NFTs

While Doodles' pivot to Solana is strategic, it faces stiff competition from collections like SMB and Portals. Portals, for instance, leverages virtual real estate and NFT customization but has struggled during the bear market as demand for digital land waned. Doodles' emphasis on gamified interactions and destructive art experiments could differentiate it, but its long-term viability hinges on executing these ideas without diluting community trust.

The DOOD token's tokenomics-despite its community-centric allocation-lack the immediate utility of SMB's staking or governance features. For example, SMB holders earn rewards through MonkeDAO, fostering active participation. Doodles' vision for DOOD to evolve into a utility token remains unproven, and its current bearish price trajectory (projected to stagnate in 2025) suggests skepticism about its value proposition.

Community Engagement: A Double-Edged Sword

Doodles' community has expressed concerns about the rumored Doopies collection, fearing brand dilution and a shift toward "max extraction" strategies. This mirrors broader bear market trends where projects that prioritize speculative trading over community value often face backlash. In contrast, SMB's active governance and consistent updates have solidified its position as a leader in Solana's ecosystem.

Quantitative metrics for Doodles' community engagement remain elusive, but SMB's 2,511 unique owners and DAO-driven model provide a benchmark for success. The broader NFT market's 11% decline in July 2025 further emphasizes the need for projects to prioritize utility and governance over hype.

Conclusion: A Work in Progress

Doodles' Doopies NFTs represent a bold experiment in merging meme coin dynamics with NFT utility. While their Solana pivot and DOOD token offer potential, their long-term value depends on overcoming current challenges: token performance, community trust, and differentiation from established Solana projects like SMB. The bear market has proven that survival hinges on sustainable tokenomics, real-world utility, and active governance-areas where Doodles must deliver to avoid being overshadowed by more mature ecosystems.

For investors, the key takeaway is clear: Doodles' Doopies are not a guaranteed bet but a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Their success will depend on whether the project can evolve from speculative hype to a utility-driven platform that resonates with Solana's growing user base.