NFT’s have come a long way since the first piece of digital art was created in 2014 by Kevin McCoy and his “Quantum” image posted online years before the establishment of any crypto art market. This NFT, consisting of an octagon filled with moving circles and other colorful shapes, is being sold today for more than seven million dollars.
NFT’s have benefited from the blockchain technology that allowed cryptocurrencies to reach unimaginable heights and the forecast is for NFT’s to become as important as Bitcoin that is today accepted in countries such as El Salvador or in the online gaming industry with bitcoin casinos becoming very popular among casino game lovers. The possibility of making deposits and withdrawals of prizes with bitcoin attracts many new users to a way of entertainment that offers a great gaming experience.
And 2021 was the year of the NFT, or at least, the year in which NFT’s popularity became widespread in popular culture with the creation of tokens as collectibles in the music, sports, or gaming industry just to name a few. At the same time tokens also serve to grant exclusive access to deals or games that allow the owners of NFT’s to mine tokens.
Without any further ado, let’s dig in.
NBA’s Top Shot by Dapper Labs
The sports industry possesses an ideologically conservative culture. But the NBA has always led the way in terms of innovative thinking and progressive implementations in their organization.
By partnering with Dapper Labs, the NBA has launched an NFT game of collectibles where users can gather, exchange and sell digital moments such as legendary plays and incredible highlights of games that can be shown in a personal gallery to the Top Shot community.
Built on the Flow blockchain, Top Shot has an operational volume of more than 750 million dollars. One of the most expensive collectible cards was a dunk from Lebron James sold at 230 thousand dollars in 2020.
Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis
More than 776 million dollars generated only in the third trimester of 2021 make of Axie Infinity the most popular play-to-earn game in the metaverse industry.
The NFT’s developed by Sky Mavis are named Axies. These are creatures that look like small Pokémon, and they’re used to battle other owners of Axies. Every Axie has different characteristics and a different value according to their in-game level and other factors that make their value fluctuate. Players mine SLP tokens by playing the game and completing daily missions. Digital lands where battles take place can also be acquired and a recent plot of land was sold for more than 2,3 million dollars the last November.
Beeple
Now in the list, one of the most famous NFT artists in the business. Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple in the NFT industry, is the proud record man holding the title of being the creator of the two most expensive pieces of digital art in NFT history.
“Everydays: The First 5000 Days” is a collage that was sold for 69 million dollars in March 2021 and “HUMAN ONE” for almost 29 million dollars in November and its particularity is that it’s a tangible object that can even be exhibited physically.
Bored Ape Yacht Club by Yuga Labs
A piece of digital art showcasing a cartoon of a bored monkey. Sotheby’s sold a collection of 101 Bored Ape’s y 6 Mutant Apes in September for more than 24 million dollars, making it the third most lucrative auction behind Beeple’s NFT’s. The Bored Ape and Mutant Ape served also as the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Owners of both NFT’s have access to THE BATHROOM, the Bored Ape Kennel Club, and the Mutant Ape Yacht Club.
CryptoPunks by Larva Labs
CryptoPunks remains one of the most cherished collections of NFT’s, as well as one of the oldest on the list. Created in 2017, way before the NFT boom.
The NFT “9 Cryptopunks” was sold for 16 million dollars on Christie’s and “CryptoPunk 7523” for almost 12 million dollars making both the 3rd and 4th most expensive NFT’s of 2021.
In August 2021 only, 400 million dollars were spent on CryptoPunks and they have the record of the biggest volume of transactions with more than 3.000 million dollars in exchanges. The absolute winner of 2021.
Featured Image: Unsplash.com
