Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, will become a technology buzzword in 2021. The NFT keyword on Google has soared to a record level.
Behind the term, according to Cointelegraph Research the NFT market is close to $17 billion. And the OpenSea NFT marketplace processes most of these transactions, with trading volumes exceeding $10 billion.
Closing 2021, Here are the top 10 collectibles and sales at NFT this year.
1. CryptoPunks, Larva Lab
CryptoPunks is the OG of NFT, according to DappRadar. This collection was relaunched in 2017 before the ERC-721 NFT standard existed. Larva Labs released 10,000 punks for free to Ethereum users and since then, the popularity and value of CryptoPunks in the secondary market has grown tremendously.
In June 2021, alien punk sold at Sotheby's for $11.75 million. In August, Visa secured $150,000 CryptoPunk for its corporate collection and Hollywood agency UTA signed a deal to use CryptoPunks in mainstream media.
August 2021 saw a record $400 million spent on CryptoPunks in one month. In September, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian attended the Met Gala sporting the CryptoPunk badge.
CryptoPunks has seen the highest trading volume on OpenSea with 756,984 Ether ( ETH ) ($3.03 billion). Its increasing value and historical relevance make it a top NFT collection.
2. Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs
The collection with the second highest historical trading volume is the Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, with 266,843 ETH ($1.07 billion).
The core team behind Yuga Labs is made up of four friends looking to build some apes, test skills, and try to build something ridiculous this year.
In September, Sotheby's sold its 107 BAYC NFT collection, consisting of 101 Bored Apes and six Mutant Apes, for $24.4 million. This is the third-highest selling off-chain NFT art at the auction house to date, after Beeple's NFT work.
In November, the surge in OpenSea sales appeared to be related to a more than 900% increase in sales volume of NFT BAYC and MAYC, likely due to celebrity buyers such as Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone featuring NFT BAYC in music videos and Rolling Rock Magazine Covers Bored Ape and Mutant Ape. .
Most recently, BAYC was part of a four-way collaboration between PUNKS Comic, Gmoney, and Adidas Originals for the launch of Adidas' “Into the Metaverse” NFT project.
On Tuesday, the NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club surpassed the bottom price of CryptoPunks for the first time indicating bullish public sentiment towards BAYC's future.
3. Beeple
NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple and self-described as "the dude who makes crap," holds the record for the first and second most expensive digital artwork sold at public auction and off-chain as of November 2021, according to Art Market Research.
After British auction house Christie's sold "Everdays: The First 5000 Days" for $69.3 million in March 2021, Beeple's "HUMAN ONE" sold for $28.9 million in November.
The “HUMAN ONE” is a seven-foot-tall rotating box made of an LED screen. It can be physically displayed, unlike most NFTs that live in digital wallets.
The on-screen recordings will be periodically edited and updated using the blockchain by Winkelmann in response to current events.
Beeple became a household name in 2021, especially after winning GQ's Maddox Gallery Artist Of The Year in September and sitting with Jimmy Fallon on the TV talk show The Tonight Show.
4. Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis
Axie Infinity broke records when the game became the first DApp to surpass $2 billion in NFT trading volume this year, according to DappRadar's Q3 industry report.
Axie lags just behind CryptoPunks in trading volume. The game recently moved to Ronin's sidechain solution and generated over $776 million in revenue in Q3.
Axies are creatures used to duel other players, fight enemies, and complete daily missions.
These NFTs can be breed (printed), bought and sold, and judged on their rarity and in-game advantage. In November, a plot of land in the NFT monster-battle game sold for 550 ETH ($2.3 million).
Axie Infinity co-founder Jeff “Jiho” Zirlin spoke to a panel at the NFT BZL conference earlier this month about his belief that they are in the battle for the future of the internet, and that grassroots communities like Axie are having an impact on big companies.
Axie Infinity was first created in 2018 and is currently leading the gaming sector as a pioneer of the play-to-earn, or P2E, movement. And since launching a betting program that allows users to hold Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) governance tokens, trading games are increasingly attracting players.
5. NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs
NBA Top Shot is a popular fantasy basketball NFT game that was first launched in late 2020.
As the first collectible sports game of its kind, users can collect, trade and sell cards as digital tokens representing their favorite NBA players and moments.
Highlights can be used to complete challenges or organize them into a showcase to show off to the community.
Top Shot collectors who attend an NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas can purchase live moments in the arena.
Officially licensed by the National Basketball Association, NBA Top Shot is created by Dapper Labs and built on the Flow blockchain. Historical trading volume, according to DappRadar, was $750.4 million. The three highest-selling NFTs are NFT LeBron James from the 2019–2020 Los Angeles Laker season
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