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The NFT market skyrocketed in August as projects both new and old accounted for billions of dollars worth of collective trading volume.
Recent NFT trends include generative artworks, fractionation of valuable collectibles, and participation by major brands in established communities.
see NFTs a wild resurgence.
After sales of more than 2.5 billion US dollars in the first half of the year 2021Sales volume for these blockchain-based digital title deeds fell off a cliff amid growing criticism of its environmental impact etherthe blockchain network where most of this action takes place (and the criticism that it was all a bubble).
Fast forward to the last few weeks, and NFTs are back with a plethora of new projects and trends making headlines. Here are the hottest trends in the NFT industry, fueling discussion about crypto’s newest subculture – and moving millions of dollars worth of capital.
1. Club Membership: Bored Apes
NFT enthusiasts could refer to CryptoPunks as the marquee NFT brand. But fashion is nothing if not fickle, and earlier this month a new contender for the NFT crown emerged. The NFT world has gone gaga for Bored Ape Yacht Club, a series of NFTs depicting monkeys (bored) in various facial expressions.
They’re also selling for serious money: A single Bored Ape NFT sold for $2.25 million in ETH this week, with the collection moving more than $400 million of the total volume to date, per CryptoSlam. More than 100 Bored Ape NFTs are currently being auctioned at Sotheby’s, with estimated proceeds of up to $18 million when all is said and done.
Monkey owners make their monkey their Twitter profile, so it’s a status symbol, but they also get a number of perks with ownership: access to a Discord chat for other owners (including NBA star Steph Curry); Access to owner-only merchandise drops (like from hip streetwear brand The Hundreds); and free additional NFTs from BAYC, such as Mutant Apes and Bored Ape Kennel Club.
It’s all about community. Great apes and other collections (Pudgy Penguins, Weird Whales, Gutter Cat Gang) feel like membership clubs, and they’re driving the second wave of NFT purchases.
In short, NFTs represent – for some – a unique moment in history and culture. If Visa is right (scroll down), and NFTs really are Next in a series of “historical trade artifacts,” it’s no surprise that these digital images are rekindling interest.
2. Legacy OG NFTs: EtherRocks, CryptoPunks
If you’re an NFT skeptic shaking your head at the idea of monkey and penguin images selling for thousands of dollars, look the other way now.
EtherRocks is a series of 100 NFTs representing images of rocks derived from royalty free clipart. Aside from color differences, they are all the same. But these cartoon rock images—yes, rocks—were Sold for over $100,000 in early August. At the end of the month, they swapped hands for millions of dollars.
EtherRock’s claim to fame is twofold. First, these NFTs were inspired by the classic Pet Rock toy craze that was prevalent in the 1970s. Second, they have a venerable vintage as far as NFTs go, being among the first non-fungible tokens created in 2017 – and with only 100 tokens available, they have become a coveted property among NFT collectors.
CryptoPunks are still the gold standard owned by NFT (for now) for the same reason: their age. Punks have been around since 2017 and have retained their value. They are “old” by NFT standards.
And just like Bored Apes, having a punk as your Twitter avatar is a status symbol, to the point where punk owners can even do it rent out their avatars to others for “social signaling”.
3. Big brands are buying: Visa, Budweiser
During the last wave of NFT mania, companies started throwing together branded artworks depict toilet paper rolls or tacos and mint them as NFTs.
But in the second NFT boom, brands are doing something different and far more interesting: they are you purchase existing NFTsinstead of making them yourself (which most people don’t want to do).
Visa last week announced the purchase of a CryptoPunk NFT for 50 ETH (about $165,000) to add to his collection of “historical trading artifacts”.
“Today, as we enter a new era of NFT trading, Visa welcomes CryptoPunk #7610 to our collection,” Visa tweeted Aug. 23.
Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, is extremely optimistic about NFTs and believes they are here to stay. “NFTs are gaining traction as digital-first sports memorabilia,” he said in a prepared statement, adding that Visa expects a “huge range of new cases” in the coming years.
Visa isn’t the only household brand buying into NFTs lately.
Budweiser too Bought own NFT last week. The beer giant changed his Twitter profile picture to a sketched beer rocket NFT, which he bought for $26,000, around 8 ETH at the time.
The NFT itself was part of the Rocket Factory NFT series designed by an artist named Tom Sachs.
Things didn’t run quite as smoothly for Budweiser as they did for Visa: blockchains are extremely public, and once a wallet has been identified as belonging to a specific person (or brand), it’s open to everyone. Budweiser found his Ethereum wallet inundated with weird and wonderful collectibles, including a doodle called “Minimalist tail.”
4. Fractionated NFTs
Fractionated NFTs have been around for a few months, but have gained prominence in the past few days.
While crypto billionaires are happily buying up Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, these six- and seven-figure NFTs are well out of the average crypto user’s price range. But unlike traditional works of art, it is possible to fractionate an NFT and break it down into multiple (cheaper) pieces that can be purchased by the less affluent.
Many crypto users are now banding together in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) that specialize in buying up NFTs to gain access to this new asset class. (They also have fractionated the original Doge meme that inspired Dogecoin.)
Fractional ownership, however, comes with other costs. According to SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, NFTs are fractional come too close to unregistered securities.
“Fractionation allows more people to have a piece of the investment pie. However, companies that offer fractional NFTs to any investor may not have recognized the regulatory implications,” said Philipp Pieper, co-founder of swarm markets in a statement shared with decrypt.
5. Gaming NFTs: Axie Infinity, Supdrive
No “hottest NFT trends” would be complete without mentioning gaming NFTs, a subculture of a subculture that’s making waves when it comes to crypto.
The Ethereum based Axe Infinity has quickly become the most prominent and successful crypto game and more than deserves it $1.6 billion NFT transaction volume since June– more than any other single NFT collection or project. It’s a monster fighting game where the creatures themselves are NFTs and they even have to play the game. Players then earn crypto token rewards, which may be enough to do so driving a living wage in some countries.
Even with a total minimum purchase price of ETH worth several hundred dollars, that hasn’t stopped the game from evolving: it is now more than a million daily active users. No other crypto game comes close to Axie’s recent momentum, despite being NFT-powered Fantasy soccer game Sorare has an avid fan base and the upcoming 3D metaverse game The Sandbox has a lot of potential and prominent partners/investors.
Elsewhere in the NFT gaming world, Dom Hofmann, co-creator of video platform Vine, is leading Supdrive, a video game NFT project that aims to make every available NFT a playable video game – a “On-chain fantasy console,” if you like.
6. Generative Art: Art Blocks
Believe it or not, not only can a blockchain house the token that is a title deed to a work of art, it can actually house it create the work of art itself.
That’s the premise of the burgeoning NFT market for generative artworks, where a script or algorithm stored on a blockchain produces original, one-of-a-kind artworks during the imprinting process. Art Blocks is by far the biggest player in the space.
The Ethereum-based initiative features a wide range of custom drops from different artists, covering a variety of artwork styles and approaches – and almost all of it is increasing lately. Art Blocks saw $583 million in trading volume in August alone, as collectors frenzyed for new drops and paid top prices for aftermarket pieces.
A single Art Blocks NFT from the Ringers collection by Dmitri Cherniak sold for $5.66 million worth of ETH In late August, to Starry Night Capital, a new NFT-centric investment fund created by Three Arrows Capital. Earlier that week, a track from Tyler Hobbs’ Fidenza project went for $3.3 million worth of ETH.
Meanwhile, an earlier, smaller generative artwork called Autoglyphs – by CryptoPunks creators Larva Labs – has seen several single NFT sales over $1 million lately.
7. Collective World Building: Loot
Here’s a trend that’s currently being led by a single project, but has already had a huge impact – and could prove very influential in the future.
Loot is an NFT driven project by the aforementioned Dom Hofmann, and at its core it’s just a series of lists of fictional weapons and gear from the fantasy world. That’s it. There is no artwork or direction, and no company or creative force dictating its use. But that’s on purpose.
Hofmann released these lists (for free) as a prompt in late August, and the community has already responded by developing a wide range of tools, derivative projects, guilds, and other initiatives to flesh things out a bit more. Will it ever be something of a full-fledged fantasy game? A decentralized intellectual property?
It’s too early to tell – it’s been literally a week since I’m writing this. But the crypto community raves about the possibilities, and the loot NFT lists are in massive demand: One sold for $954,000 worth of ETHand there was already Trading volume worth $159 million for the set of 8,000 NFTs. What comes next is up to the collective imagination of the community.
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