Non-fungible tokens have become a buzzword in 2021, with the Collins Dictionary even declaring the acronym NFT the word of the year and NFT searches exploding on Google at record levels.

The term hides a $ 17 billion market. Of these, the OpenSea NFT marketplace handles the majority of transactions, with a volume of more than 10 billion US dollars most recently.

NFT’s potential is not limited to art such as music, sports collectibles, and video games, but to amenities such as ownership and exclusive access to exclusive functions and features.

From CryptoPunks and Beeples to NBA Top Shot and RTFKT, the following collections stand out not only because of their number, but also because of their growing community. At the close of 2021, let’s take a look at the top 10 collections and top NFT sales of the year.

CryptoPunks – Larva Labs

CryptoPunks is the iconic project of the NFT space, according to DappRadar, and was created on the Ethereum network. The collection debuted in 2017 before the NFT ERC-721 standard. Larva Labs has released all 10,000 punks for Ethereum users for free. Since then, the popularity and value of CryptoPunks in the secondary market have exploded.

Source: Larva Labs

In June 2021, an alien punk sold at Sotheby’s for $ 11.75 million. In August, Visa bought a $ 150,000 CryptoPunk for the corporate collection, and the United Talent Agency, a leading Hollywood management firm, signed an agreement to use CryptoPunks in mainstream media. This was a record month for CryptoPunks with $ 400 million in revenue. In September, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian attended the Met Gala with a CryptoPunk badge on his shirt.

CryptoPunks has reached the highest trading volume on OpenSea with 756,984 ETH (3.03 billion US dollars). Its growing value and relevance throughout history make it the premier NFT collection.

Bored Ape Yacht Club – Yuga Labs

The second highest trading volume collection in history is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) with 266,843 ETH ($ 1.07 billion).

According to their website, the core team at Yuga Labs consists of four people who are friends. In 2021 they want to “make some stupid monkeys, test our skills and try to do something ridiculous”. BAYC’s main artist is All See Seneca. As the owner of one of 10,000 Bored Apes, an NFT can become a Yacht Club membership as well as grant members only access to THE BATHROOM, Bored Ape Kennel Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).

In September, Sotheby’s sold a collection of 107 NFT BAYCs for $ 24.4 million, including 101 Bored Apes and 6 Mutant Apes. This is the third highest sale of off-chain NFT artwork on an auction house to date after Beeple’s NFT works. In November, the surge in OpenSea sales appears to be related to NFT BAYC and MAYC sales volumes increasing by over 900%, possibly thanks to well-known buyers like Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone introduced NFT BAYC in a Bored Ape photo and music video, Mutant Ape on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Most recently, BAYC entered into a four-way partnership between PUNKS Comic, Gmoney and Adidas Originals in order to start the NFT project “Into the Metaverse” by Adidas.

Excited to work with @Rolling Stone on their very first NFT covers. Auctions for these two 1 of 1 close on Monday @Very rare:

BAYC: https://t.co/MrW9yK2w1P
MAYC: https://t.co/lk7WxZP5jK pic.twitter.com/lU9kbsWnje

– Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) November 13, 2021

On Tuesday, the NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club exceeded the minimum price of CryptoPunks for the first time, showing the public’s optimism about the future of BAYC.

Beeple

NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple and calling himself “a bastard”, holds the record for the first and second most expensive digital artworks sold in public auctions and off-chain from November 2021, according to Art Market Research.

After the British auction house Christie’s sold Beeples “Everdays: The First 5000 Days” for $ 69.3 million in March 2021, Beeples “HUMAN ONE” was sold for $ 28.9 million in November. “Human One” is a 2.13 meter high box made of LED screens and plays a video of a person wearing an astronaut suit walking on an alien-inspired background floor. It can be viewed physically, unlike most NFTs that exist in digital wallets. According to Christie’s, screenshots are regularly edited and updated by Winkelmann with blockchain in response to current events.

Beeple became a household name in 2021, especially after winning GQ’s Maddox Gallery Artist of the Year award in September and speaking to Jimmy Fallon on the late-night television talk show The Tonight Show.

Axie infinity – Sky Mavis

Axie Infinity broke records when the game became the first DApp (decentralized application) to exceed $ 2 billion in NFT transaction volume that year, according to DappRadar’s Q3 report. Axie ranks second after CryptoPunks in terms of trading volume. The game recently switched to the Ronin sidechain solution and had sales of over $ 776 million in the third quarter.

Source: Axie Infinity

Axies are creatures used to duel other players, fight enemies, and complete daily quests. These NFTs can be bred (minted), bought, sold, and rated for rarity and in-game benefits. In November, a lot of land in this monster battle NFT game was sold for up to 550 ETH ($ 2.3 million).

Axie Infinity Co-Founder Jeff “Jiho” Zirlin spoke during a panel at the NFT BZL conference earlier this month about his belief that “we are in a battle for the future of the Internet and communities.” Corporations ”that refer to corporations like Facebook and Apple.

Axie Infinity was first founded in 2018 and is currently leading the gaming industry as a pioneer in the play-to-earn (P2E) movement. And since the inception of a staking program that allows users to hold governance tokens from Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), trading games have been attracting more and more players.

NBA top shot – Dapper Labs

NBA Top Shot is a popular fantasy basketball NFT game that first launched in late 2020. As the first sports collecting game of its kind, users are allowed to collect, trade and sell tokens under digital tokens that represent their favorite NBA players and moments. The highlight is that users can use it to master challenges or organize them in display elements in order to present them to the community.

Source: NBA Top Shot

This summer, top shot collectors who personally attended NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas were able to purchase moments live in the arena. The WNBA (National Women’s Basketball Association) is also welcome to Top Shot and is introducing its first WNBA Pack Drop.

Officially licensed by the National Basketball Association (NBA), Dapper Labs developed the NBA Top Shot and built it on the Flow blockchain. According to DappRadar, the historical trading volume is $ 750.4 million. The three best-selling NFTs were LeBron James NFTs from the 2019-2020 Los Angeles Lakers season.

VeeFriends – Gary Vaynerchuk

Behind VeeFriends is businessman Gary Vaynerchuk (also known as Gary Vee), who is both an artist and a creator. Vaynerchuk said his animal doodles in one of the podcast episodes sold for $ 51 million in the first week of auction in May. After 90 days, VeeFriends had total sales of $ 91 million. For the subsequent $ 40 million in his pocket, Vaynerchuk received 10% royalties on each secondary transaction. In October, Christie’s auctioned five works of art created by businessman Gary for his NFT series VeeFriends for more than $ 1.2 million.

The VeeFriends collection consists of 10,255 NFTs and each NFT represents an intellectual property. Token holders also take part in an annual business event called VeeCon exclusively for 3 years after purchasing NFT. The NFT called “Hangout Hawk” even offers the opportunity to get counseling sessions with Vaynerchuk. A collector, YouTuber Dan Markham, swapped his Tesla Roadster for an NFT “Positive Porcupine” from the graphic novel Eli Burton. In the following Twitter thread, VeeFriends announced its latest partnerships with companies like card game maker Uno and department store Nordstrom.

FLUF world

FLUF World is a collection of metaverse-enabled 3D avatars called FLUF that work as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. FLUF is a program-controlled, generated rabbit avatar. In an interview, the New Zealand-based founders of FLUF World shared their approach to joining the Metaverse:

“We strongly believe that Metaverse Web 3.0 is an innovative, community-led vision. When you start with stories and weave them into characters, people fall in love with those characters. We really purposely built them to be dynamic and engaging. It’s not a static work of art. You can name them, change the wallpaper, or add new music to whatever you like. All of this data is stored in the chain. And the users are part of our co-creation journey. “

During Miami Arts Week, FLUF World hosted the FLUF House Event to showcase FLUF’s pop star AngelBaby. AngelBaby performed the first ever live Metaverse concert for both real and virtual attendees. The FLUF House hosts events that bring real world artists into the metaverse and is FLUF World’s way of staying connected to the real world.

The source: FLUF world

Users can buy virtual real estate called burrows that will serve as a meeting place for other FLUFs and avatars. The newest addition to FLUF World includes 9,669 party bears that meet within 10 minutes of …