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Highlights
- The NFT market’s entire value is around US$22 billion, a far cry from its value of US$100m in 2020
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT collection, VeeFriends, made up of 10,255-character NFTs, sold out in a May auction for US$51 million
- CryptoPunks was developed by Larva Labs, who launched the collection in 2017. At that time, 10,000 punks were released to Ethereum users…for free
What a year it’s been for NFTs. In a year which has been marred by Covid-enforced lockdowns, NFTs have emerged as an important development in art and culture. Such has been the popularity of non fungible tokens this year, that the Collins Dictionary crowned NFT as 2021’s Word of the Year.
The demand for NFTs is currently at fever pitch, which is reflected in the obscene amount of NFT projects on the market. In fact, the market’s entire value is around US$22 billion, a far cry from its value of US$100m in 2020.
If you’re new to the concept of NFTs or the NFT market, the amount of projects in the space is probably a little overwhelming.
Let’s look at this year’s biggest NFT drops.
VeeFriends
VeeFriends, created by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (a.k.a Gary Vee) are hand-drawn doodles drawn by Vaynerchuk himself.
The collection, made up of 10,255-character NFTs, sold out in a May auction for US$51 million.
One real world benefit of owning a VeeFriends NFT, is it contains a token for a ticket to Vaynerchuk’s multi-day super conference, VeeCon.
Axie Infinity
One of 2021’s big movers, Axie Infinity is a gaming NFT, which gained massive exposure during the worldwide lockdowns.
While the rest of the NFT world was caught up in art and character NFTs, Axie Infinity was delivering itself to the world, through blockchain gaming.
In this game, users collect digital creatures called Axies, some of which have sold for more than a million dollars.
This game particularly became popular in developing countries like the Philippines and was responsible for delivering the concept of NFTs to much of the world.
Image Source: © Rokas91 | Megapixl.com
CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks was developed by Larva Labs, who launched the collection in 2017. At that time, 10,000 punks were released to Ethereum users…for free. Since then, the value of CryptoPunks has exploded, with one punk selling at a Sotheby’s auction in June, 2021, for US$11.75 million.
On OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, CryptoPunks has the highest trading volume and are arguably the top NFT collection in the world.
Bored Ape Yacht Club
Simply known as BAYC or ‘Ape’, this collection has the second highest trading volume of all NFTs.
The collection is created by Yuga Labs and is comprised of digital pixelated cartoons of ape-like characters, all with unique characteristics.
BAYC recently passed the floor price of CryptoPunks reflecting the bullish appetite for the collection.
Beeple
Beeple is the most successful digital artist in the NFT space and holds the record for first and second most expensive digital art pieces sold at a public auction, with his ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ selling for US$69 million in March.
Beeple’s ‘Human One’ piece – a seven foot, rotating box consisting of LED screens displaying updated images conveying current events – bucks the trend of most NFTs as doesn’t live in a digital wallet, rather being displayed physically.
