Ecomi(OMI)

ECOMI is a Singapore-based software company building blockchain-based products in the niche of digital collectibles since 2018. ECOMI operates two major projects – the VeVe app, a mobile-first marketplace for licensed NFTs, and Secure Wallet, a dedicated cold wallet. 

VeVe is an app to buy, sell and showcase digital collectibles. The app provides access to digital art for enthusiasts outside the crypto ecosystem through its mobile store and a secondary market for NFTs. As such, users with no specific knowledge about crypto can download the VeVe app in Apple Store or Google Play and buy the in-app currency for NFT purchases using Apple Pay or Google pay – no cryptocurrency transactions involved. 

Having secured licenses from iconic global brands, VeVe makes it possible to collect NFTs from Disney (including Marvel and Pixar), Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and more. The app also has AR features that bring 3D collectibles to life. 

Please note that VeVe digital collectibles can only be sold on the secondary market in VeVe, and can not be sold on major NFT marketplaces like OpenSea or LooksRare. You will also not be able to transfer your VeVe NFTs to your MetaMask wallet. 

A strong focus on non-crypto native audiences and a long list of exclusive brand partnerships helped VeVe get significant traction in the mass market. The company claims to have over 2.6 million active users and over 4 million NFTs sold. Yet, some community members sounded the alarm bells about the project’s centralization, issues with bots and questionable tokenomics. 

There are two types of tokens within the VeVe app. OMI is the native token of the ECOMI ecosystem, and GEM token is a stablecoin-like currency used to purchase digital collectibles on the VeVe marketplace. GEM tokens only exist inside the VeVe app, while ECOMI tokens are freely traded on centralized and decentralized exchanges.  

OMI price

According to the OMI live price chart, the coin saw its first major pump in Q1 2021 after nearly two flat years. 

During that major rally, OMI price in USD terms peaked at nearly $0.01344 from $0.00003867 — a 364x increase — between Feb. 1 to March 21, 2021, setting a new all-time high. However, this trend was short-lived as OMI followed a rapid decline in the coming months — falling to a local low of $0.001457 in June 2021.

Barring a mini-rally in June after VeVe revealed a partnership with Marvel, OMI started to show some signs of revival only around September 2021. It was following a wave pattern until February 2021, yet wasn’t able to reach levels anywhere near its all-time high. 

The price of OMI declined sharply in the first months of 2022, dropping below $0.03 by April. By June 2022, OMI price had fallen to nearly $0.001, losing most of its gains from the year of 2021. 

How OMI works

OMI is the native token of the ECOMI ecosystem and its medium of exchange. OMI is also used within the VeVe app for a range of utilities such as staking and in-app perks. It’s important to note that some community members criticize the OMI token model for lacking real utility in the ecosystem at the current stage. 

OMI facilitates transactions through a complex scheme and operates behind the scenes, so users usually don’t have to deal with OMI when buying NFTs in the app. 

Instead of OMI, collectors interact with GEM tokens, each representing 1 USD for the ease of use of non-crypto audiences. Yet, GEM tokens have no utility or value outside the VeVe app, and can only be converted to OMI. 

The supply of OMI is capped at 750 billion tokens, with nearly 300 billion tokens, or 40%, held in the VeVe’s Reserve Wallet as a reserve for in-app purchases. The team stated their intentions to never put these tokens into circulation. However, this pledge is not verified by any smart contract. 

Another 40% of the supply was distributed evenly between ECOMI business development and its team, advisors and board members. Another 40 billion OMI, or nearly 5% of tokens, is held by VeVe’s Reserve Wallet. This brings the share of supply held by the team to around 85%, while only around 15% of tokens were available for public sale. 

To make the tokenomics deflationary, ECOMI designed an OMI burning mechanism. Every in-app purchase burns some OMI and reduces its overall supply. Through scarcity maximization, the price of OMI is tied to the popularity of the VeVe app. In theory, the more NFTs are sold, the less would be the supply of OMI, and the higher its price.

In February 2022, OMI token’s migration from the GoChain OMI and wrapped OMI (wOMI) to the new ERC-20 OMI took place. The original GoChain OMI and wOMI are now redundant and should be swapped to the new Ethereum OMI token. Users can check out ECOMI’s official Medium account for step-by-step instructions on OMI token swaps. 

Some exchanges support both old (GoChain OMI) and new (ERC-20 OMI) tokens, so there are separate token addresses for the two chains. Users are advised to be careful when depositing or withdrawing tokens from these exchanges. 

Since the new home chain to the VeVe app is an Ethereum layer-2 solution, OMI holders also have to bridge their tokens to the Immutable X chain to use them in the VeVe app. Users will have to withdraw their tokens back from layer-2 to Ethereum (layer-1) to store OMI in wallets or trade OMI on CEXes and DEXes. Please refer to this guide for bridging OMI tokens.  

OMI news, updates and highlights

In December 2021, VeVe app migrated from the little-known GoChain to Immutable X, an Ethereum layer-2 solution with a strong focus on NFTs and gaming. 

Veve re-minted all of its NFTs on the new chain, enabling carbon-neutral and gasless minting of digital collectibles. The OMI token standard was also changed to ERC-20, and users had to swap their GoChain OMI tokens to Ethereum OMI. 

VeVe rolled out a beta version of its long-awaited web app in June 2022. At the time of writing the web app is only available to a group of whitelisted users testing the platform. 

The community has highlighted multiple concerns with  VeVe, all unaddressed at the time of writing and leading to massive FUD in the community and many labeling the project as a scam. 

First, there were no payouts available for VeVe NFT collectors until March 2022 when the platform opened access to its beta fiat off-ramp mechanism. Prior to the upgrade, users could buy GEM tokens with fiat or OMI to purchase VeVe NFTs, but could not convert their GEM tokens back to fiat, ECOMI or any other cryptos. Users could not get money out of VeVe, and all the value they earned was locked in the app. 

Collectors now can cash out their GEM profits from NFT trading, but the fiat off-ramp is still in beta with withdrawal limitations. VeVe users must have at least 1,000 GEMs (equal to 1,000 USD) to request a payout. Users can’t withdraw less than 50 GEMs or more than 50,000 GEMs in one transaction. 

Users have to complete KYC to use the payouts feature. VeVe also has a 10% fee on withdrawals, charged aside from the fees for selling NFTs on VeVe's secondary market. You can check out other details on VeVe’s fiat off-ramp in this post. 

Platform centralization is another pain point for VeVe users. In an attempt to defeat bots that make it hard for real users to get NFTs from new collection drops, the VeVe team mistakenly blocked accounts of regular collectors. VeVe NFTs can not be transferred out to any external wallet like MetaMask, so an account ban means that users lost all of their GEMs as well as their digital collectibles. 

In March 2022, the VeVe marketplace was hacked for millions of GEM tokens. The team had to close the marketplace for 2 days and temporarily suspend GEM purchases. While the team did not explain what specifically happened under this attack, it restricted some accounts potentially tied to hackers. 

There is another threat to VeVe's license-based business model. DC Comics, one of the prominent partners of VeVe that previously did a licensing deal with the app, launched its own marketplace in June 2022 to capture the full value of its intellectual property. Could other VeVe partners like Disney or Warner Brothers follow suit? 

Frequently asked questions about ECOMI

• Can you mine or stake OMI tokens?

You can not mine OMI tokens, but you can stake them through AscendEX Earn. There is a 7-day unstaking period and the minimum delegation amount is 30,000 OMI. The staking APY is at 5.13% at the time of writing.

• What are some of the best OMI wallets?

ECOMI’s Secure Wallet is the native cold wallet to OMI tokens, but you can also use any other crypto wallet compatible with the ERC-20 tokens such as MetaMask and Coinbase browser wallet. You can also use Ledger cold storage devices for your OMI holdings alongside the Ledger Live desktop app. 

• What can you do with OMI cryptocurrency?

OMI is a utility token used primarily for facilitating transactions in the ECOMI ecosystem. You can trade OMI for other crypto assets, stake it or use it to get access to some premium features in the VeVe app. 

• How to buy OMI? 

You can buy ECOMI coins on exchanges like gate.io, Ascendex, and OKX. You can also trade ECOMI tokens on Uniswap, using the ETH/OMI trading pair.