What are the Top NFT Collectible Projects?
The love for collectibles goes way back; people have always loved to collect stamps, coins, action figures, and anything else you can imagine. Now, for the time ever, NFTs offer collectors a chance to own and build a digital collection that also has value and proven scarcity.
As with physical collectibles, the value of digital collectibles is also highly speculative. One example of this is the rise in the value of sealed packs of 1999 Pokémon cards, which went from $100 to $50,000 in 2021.
In the digital world, the line can get blurry about what qualifies as a collectible, as technically, it can be anything from a game to art. However, recently we have seen this asset class shape itself into something of its own with the rise of 10k NFT collectibles projects. According to financial reports, more than $41 billion was made in 2021 in the total global market revenue of the NFT sector, and NFT collectibles certainly played a massive part in those numbers.
So let’s take a look at the three examples of some of the most prestigious NFT collectibles projects on the market at the moment.
- CryptoPunks
- Bored Ape Yacht Club
- Clone X
CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks have an interesting background and story on their rise to fame. The 10,000 Punks were created by John Watkinson and Matt Hall in 2017, who later created the company called Larva Labs. All the Punks came with unique attributes and traits based on the curated elements of the creators —the attributes were randomized and attributed through a generator.
When they were first released, they were free to claim. Of course, there was little interest at first, and only serious blockchain and crypto boffins knew about the project. Only 30 Punks were minted after the launch until Mashable posted an article about it, and all of them were quickly scooped up.
The community was small at first until celebrities and venture capitalists started buying them and they slowly became a status symbol. Many NFT enthusiasts now use their CryptoPunk as their digital identity. The most popular traditional auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, have also held several CryptoPunk auctions.
Since the launch of CrytoPunks, Larva Labs has also released two other successful NFT projects called Autoglyph and Meebits. The CryptoPunks and Meebits collections were recently acquired by Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Bored Ape Yacht Club
Yuga Labs launched Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) at the end of April 2021. Nobody suspected that this project would be where it is today. Although BAYC sold out right away for a mint price of 0.8 ETH, it did take a few months for it to really take off and enter blue-chip territory.
The 10,000 programmatically generated apes consist of 170 possible traits, such as fur, earrings, hat, mouth, and more. The story of the Apes is set in 2031 in a swamp club full of extremely rich and totally Bored Apes. Owners got several perks, such as commercial rights to their NFT as well as cool airdrops.
The community and culture around this project, and constant communication from the team have contributed majorly to the success of this project. It set new standards for NFT collectibles projects, and it was only at the beginning of 2022 that the identities of the previously anonymous founders were finally revealed!
Several BAYC owners have started their own brands, such as BAYC wine or clothing, and a vast number of celebrities now own a Bored Ape NFT.
Clone X
Clone X is an NFT project launched by the popular metaverse wearables company RTFKT and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Unlike CryptoPunks and BAYC, this project had a pretty steep launch price of 3 ETH; the project has done extremely well. RTFKT was also acquired by Nike in December 2021, making it the first NFT company to be taken in by one of the big Web2 players in the sports industry.
Clone X NFT is a 20k collection of 3D avatars. The creators’ main aim is to transfer all human consciousness into advanced clone forms and have them create the ultimate metaverse. Takashi, the artist behind the drop, is known for his distinctive colorful and bizarre designs, and many of his physical art pieces are in high demand by high-end collectors.
The project is still in its early stages with big promises to be the metaverse of the NFT space, so this is one to keep an eye on as the project further unfolds.