Non-Fungible Tokens, known as NFTs, have become the most talked about subject of the financial world in recent months. With the most expensive NFT selling for $69.3 million last month, people have begun to pay attention to this industry and are wanting to know whether it is worth the investment.
NFTs differ from regular cryptocurrencies as they contain media related files such as images or video clips and often relate to a particular area of interest.
With some costing as little as under a dollar to some NFTs selling for millions of dollars, it’s an industry that is growing rapidly in both demand and supply.
Supported by the Ethereum blockchain, NFTs are secured with no risk of forgery or duplication with other blockchains planning to get in on the action and release their own variations.
But what are the best NFT tokens you should be investing in?
It’s no secret that not every NFT is going to sell for millions of dollars or will be worth as much one day so doing thorough research is essential to make sure you get the most out of your investments.
Whether you are doing it purely for entertainment or sentimental reasons or purely for eventual monetary gain, NFTs is a worthy industry that should be considered for investment and has begun to reshape the financial market.
We’ve gathered the most popular NFTs you should consider investing in as well as the best marketplaces you should be looking at when buying and selling NFTs.
What are the most popular NFTs?
When looking into buying and selling NFTs, it’s important to have a good knowledge of the market and what is making the most money, especially if you are looking for investments that you wish to resell in the future.
Whatever your passion, there is an NFT out there suited to your interests that is sure to be a great investment that can also provide an entertainment factor as well.
The first is the NBA Top Shot which is officially licensed from the NBA with a blockchain developed in partnership with Dapper Labs and built based on the Flow blockchain.
Simply put, each NFT contains a short video clip of a game “moment” such as a dunk or a game winning block accompanied with the relevant information such as the rarity of the NFT, the stats of the player featured as well as seasonal averages.
With a limited number of NFTs sold in packs each week, there are tier based schemes with moments being categorized as Common, Rare and Legendary.
The platform is still in its Beta stages but there is a fourth platform, Ultimate, that is in development which will be sold via auction rather than pack drops on a weekly basis.
The most expensive NFT sold on the site was sold for $208,000 and featured a dunk by LeBron James that was categorized as Legendary
One of the earliest forms of NFTs are still among the most popular and desirable due to their limited nature. Consisting of 10,000 unique characters known as punk, Cryptopunks were created in 2017 and made on the Ethereum blockchain.
Initially available for free, they are now available for buying and selling on the market with each individual punk going for well over $1 million each. To buy a punk, simply install MetaMask which then connects to your Ethereum wallets and then you can browse the marketplace.
The price of the punk is dependent on what kind of attributes it has. The most common form of punk are the male and female ones whereas the alien and zombie punks are much rarer and therefore more valuable.
Also, punks that have either zero or seven accessories can go for large amounts as the majority of punks have either two or three accessories.
Out of the top 18 crypto sales, 16 are from the sale of Cryptopunks with the most expensive Cryptopunk selling for 4,200 ETH which is around $7.8 million.
For those who want to collect artwork then Hashmasks are a great place to start. Created by Suum Cuique Labs in Switzerland, this site features a variety of digital artworks from over 70 artists based around the globe.
There are 16,384 digital artworks available which are all unique and like Cryptopunks, the desirability and rarity is dependent on the attributes of the Hashmask.
Each artwork is owned by one person at a time and that person is given the task of naming the artwork. They can be purchased using the NCT which is the token used on the platform and the owners of the artwork can gain around 10 NCT each day.
When the buyer has reached 1,830 NCT, they can burn them and rename the Hashmask using the Ethereum blockchain. Making changes to the Hashmask adds to its exclusivity but it does cost money to do so, however, this is where it is different to normal NFTs as user participation is encouraged.
The most common kind of Hashmask characters are animals which total 12.5% whereas there are only 13 unicorn Hashmasks which are the most sought after.
The most expensive Hashmask sold went for 420 ETH which equals $1,660,268.40.
Sorare is an ideal choice for those who want to invest in digital trading cards. It is a global fantasy soccer card game with each card including stats relating to the player as well as the rarity and experience points.
Like NBA Top Shot, these cards are sold within tiers of Rare, Super Rare and Unique. There are 100 Rare copies, 10 Super Rare copies and only one Unique copy and each card comes in the form of an ERC-721 standard NFT form.
Users first purchase 10 common player cards and form a five player starter squad. They can then earn points from their players’ performances in actual games as well as in-game tournaments and receive ETH rewards.
With licenses to sell player cards from a variety of world class teams including Real Madrid and Liverpool FC, Sorare has garnered a total of 25,967 ETH in sales so far which is around $103.1 million.
The very first NFT to go mainstream was CryptoKitties which is still available to play now. First released in 2017, this Ethereum based game simply allows players to collect and breed virtual cats which are unique on the blockchain.
With their rarity dependent on their attributes (fondly known as “cattributes”) and appearances, these cats can be sold for under a dollar all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Purchasing a CryptoKitty requires Ethereum payments only and using the game’s crypto wallet known as Dapper. You can either purchase a cat from the marketplace or bid for a cat in an auction in the game.
The aim of the game is to try and collect cats with fewer generations of breeding which means they can be bred more frequently. This makes “Generation 0” cats the most desirable with only 50,000 available and their value is increased over time.
Also Founder cats and Exclusive cats are among the most valuable and can be found in the marketplace from time to time.
The most Cryptokitty was sold in 2018 for 600 ETH which was around $172,000 at the time and would now be worth around $2.3 million this year and a total sale volume of over 66,000 ETH which is around $32.8 million proving that this site has maintained its popularity over the years.
NFTs have also begun to dominate the world of virtual real estate thanks to Decentraland which is a virtual platform in which users can create a customized avatar and trade collectibles by purchasing virtual land and creating their own neighborhood.
Each avatar has its own virtual passport which is unique and cannot be replicated. To become a player on Decentraland, you’ll need to pay in both fungible and nonfungible tokens using their own currency known as MANA.
As MANA tokens can be interchangeable with one another, this makes it a fungible currency. They can be purchased from all of the major online exchanges and can then be used to purchase in-game goods such as parcels and estate which is known as LAND.
The LAND is an NFT which is logged into the Ethereum blockchain and can then be traded on the site’s marketplace. Decentraland encourages players to run the governance process of their land and vote on proposals.
With more than 96,000 assets in the game, Decentraland has a total trading volume of 147,830 ETH which equates to around $248 million.
Rarible is another popular marketplace for digital collectibles and was founded in January 2020 by Alexander Salnikov and Alexei Falin. Based in Moscow, this site allows artists and collectors to buy and sell rare digital collectibles such as digital art, domain names, memes and metaverses among many more products.
They also allow users to mint their collectibles in a straightforward manner by uploading any supported digital forms such as image or audio and then including the descriptions and pricing.
They will then have to connect it with their Ethereum wallet which can then approve any minting transactions. Rarible has proven a successful platform for artists and creators who can tease their NFTs to potential buyers who will then receive the full file once it has been purchased.
The value of these NFTs is dependent on the demand and amount that the market is willing to pay for the artwork. It was the first site of its kind to install its own kind of unique token for purchases which made it stand out from the competition.
With a total sale volume of 67,000 ETH or $113 million, Rarible has seen a huge spike in sales thanks to its integration of various software and NFT insurance coverage in September 2020.
If you’re wanting to look for rare single edition digital artwork then SuperRare is the place for you to invest in. Founded by John Crain in 2017, artists and creators can buy and sell their single edition artwork easily.
With each artwork equating to a standard NFT ERC-721 token, the art is secured and traceable via the blockchain so there are no chances of duplication.
Buyers can choose to keep the art or they can resell on alternative marketplaces such as OpenSea. As the artwork is logged on the Ethereum blockchain, there is no chance of forgery as well as access to the complete transaction history.
Transactions made on SuperRare can only be made using Ether and a fixed transaction fee of 3% is applied to all purchases as well as a commission rate of 15% with 85% of the final revenue going to the artist.
If the work of art is resold, the artist will receive a 10% royalty fee. With over 20,000 of digital art available, SuperRare has made total sales of 28,913 ETH which is around $48.6 million.
Lastly, Ethereum Name Services is another hugely popular NFT as it is the leading NFT in domain names. Founded in 2017 by the Ethereum Foundation, this site is naturally developed on a system supported by the Ethereum blockchain.
Selling top level domains such as .ETH or .ENS, these sites are available to buy and sell on NFT marketplaces including OpenSea and Rarible and only show signs of increasing.
Domains sell for tens of thousands of dollars. For example, degengod.eth sold 3 months ago for $47,524.75 showing the high demand for domain ownership.
What is the biggest NFT marketplace?
So now you know the most popular NFTs you should be looking into but what are the biggest and best NFT marketplaces where you should buy and sell NFTs.
OpenSea is an NFT platform that you will soon become acquainted with if you decide to enter the world of NFTs. Selling everything from CryptoPunks to virtual real estate to digital sports trading cards, OpenSea has over 4 million items available spread across over 200 categories.
Known as “the eBay on the blockchain”, OpenSea has made buying and selling NFTs as easy as buying and selling physical goods on the internet.
With a lot of known brands and sites such as Decentraland working in partnership with OpenSea, you can also have the convenience of keeping track of all your transactions within one place.
It comes as no surprise that in this growing industry, OpenSea is making a remarkable $28 million on a weekly basis.
Conclusion
When you are doing your research into what kind of NFT you are wanting to invest in, always think about how you are planning to pay for it i.e cryptocurrency or credit card and also what your intentions are.
With some people purely investing for entertainment purposes such as collecting in relation to a hobby or interest and other investing to resell in the future, it’s important to do the research into how much you can realistically gain from your investment as well as how much you are wanting to invest.
The demand for NFTs is rising exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down or stopping as of yet but it is important to look into the trends on the marketplaces and sites that you plan on using.
So whether you are purchasing a CryptoKitty for $1 or splurging hundreds of thousands of dollars into a unique piece of artwork, always think about the pros and cons that come with this investment.
