NFTs you MUST know (or do you though?)

We’ve had a long ride with NFTs and can disclaim with confidence that it’s not a trend to die in one year and we are not telling you that you should immediately become NFT experts, but you’d better know what all the fuss is about. Just in case someone starts persuading you that THIS NEW NFT COLLECTION IS THE ONE BECAUSE NOTHING LIKE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE you will know that it has been done before because you’ve read this article and now you are educated.

One of a kind: Pixel Map – 2016

Long before Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, Pixel Map was. The truly genius idea created a bottom-top communicating system instead of a normalized top-bottom. The artist Ken Erwin made a billboard-style project where any user can buy a piece and change it. So in the end he has not just drawn another (if it’s possible to say – another – considering it was 2016 and the very begging of the NFTs era in general) picture to sell and make money, but a living organism that was meant to breathe, change and evolve. This is a very significant piece because we believe that in the end, all NFTs will become something more artistically valuable with a deeper meaning. And what can be more meaningful than the always-changing symbol of decentralization?

Cats Era: MoonCats – 2017, CryptoCats – 2017, CryptoKitties – 2017, Cool Cat – 2021,

God help you if you are a dog person because NFT universe is obsessed with cats. 2017 was a year of CryptoPunks, but let’s not forget what creature was a trendsetter for NFT’s that time. The idea itself is clear, simple, and smart – people are not obsessed with NFTs yet, there are 4 years before BoredApes fill the crypto space, and…people just love cats! MoonCats were first on the market – Ponderware – the team behind the collection generally tried to copyCat (you get the joke?) the CryptoPanks success, but with an improvement. You could not choose your Moon Cat – you would get your NFT after a transaction is completed, so your unique cat is generated the moment you click the button to mint. Quite cool, right?

Two months later CryptoKitties and Crypto Cats were born stepping on one’s toes (CryptoCats were first BTW, but CryptoKitties were better). Crypto Cats were just following the flow – becoming a mix of CryptoPunks and MoonCats. They produced 436 cats, but a huge part of this edition remained unsold (non-surprising, considering it wasn’t a unique project and didn’t have any cool features). The revival happened three years later when CryptoPunks promoted the collection on discord and sold everything…except for one cat.

CryptoKitties were released a couple of weeks later, but the project was much (MUCH) more successful. Firstly because kitties themselves were extremely cute and the style was never seen before (at least in the NFT community), but it also had a cool idea of breeding two CryptoKitties NFTs you own and creating an offspring. And we again come back to evolving NFTs – not just an image you buy, but two unique images reproducing another one – even more unique.

The total trade volume of Cool Cats is $300 million. Why? Because if something wants to be popularised – it will be popularised. That’s simple. Cool Cat’s creators were professionals and made a collection that gonna sell. They promoted cats through celebrities – a simple scheme that works every time. Does it have artistic value? Not really. Is it hyped up? Definitely, it is.

The most iconic: CryptoPunks – 2017

There would be no NFT obsession without CryptoPunks. Ask anyone who cares for NFT «Which is the most iconic NFT collection ever» and 8 out of 10 will tell you – CryptoPunks (the rest will name Bored Apes, but what do they know). Matt Hall and John Watkinson – are two Canadian software developers, who changed the history of NFTs. It is the first-ever NFT collection based on the Ethereum blockchain. And as you know – when you are the first on the market you become iconic and get the right to sell your NFTs for $11 million per one.

The most hyped: Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Little note in the beginning – the cheapest Bored Ape is almost $320 000, and the most expensive one – is $2,272 620. Astonishing numbers, but that is what happens when your marketing team is the best of the best and you have a huge budget to use all the possible promotion tools. I’d say that the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection is Kardashians in the world of NFT, it’s popular because it’s popular. That’s it.

P.S. A little news just for your entertainment and measuring the investment value of Apes.

The most underrated: SOC

Yes, we are biased because it’s our project, but the Smart Owls Club collection supports the idea of NFTs becoming something bigger. The Owls are not just cuties (even though they are), they will be applied to the metaverses (we already building the whole Owl city in the Victoria VR) and they are characters of our Twitter comics series (which is much more interesting than just images with no script). We intentionally didn’t spend money on excessive marketing because we wanted to grow the community around owls organically – and we did. The owners of Smart Owls believe in the project and the connection between metaverses and NFTs and so do we.