What are the Top NFT Projects so far?

Some NFTs have sold for truly ludicrous amounts. So far, the most expensive ever sold was a digital collage created by artist Beeple that sold for $69.3 million.

On the other hand, Alien Cryptopunks are uniquely generated pixel art characters, of which #7523 was sold for $11.75 million.

What have been the top NFT projects ever sold from the beginning? Let’s take a look:

Axie Infinity

With an all-time sale of $3,697,269,536 (roughly 1 million ETH), Axie Infinity is an online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis.

It’s a play-to-earn game that rewards players, with animated characters known as Axies being the game’s primary focus. You breed Axies, sell them on the Marketplace and use that money to purchase rarer ones, rinse and repeat. Playing the game mints new SLP, the in-game currency used to breed new Axies or sell them to other people.

Axie Infinity is an exciting gaming economy because it decentralizes gaming. In games like WoW or League of Legends, players play the game and make the company profit. Here, they rake in the profit, giving them power over development decisions by staking AXS.

Cryptopunks

Could a few lines of code translate into a feeling of value?

The answer to that question was what drove two software developers to create Cryptopunks, an NFT project with an all-time sale amount of $1,785,090,733. What began as an experiment of 24×24, 8-bit-style pixel art images with different faces, skin colors, accessories, personalities, and transaction history is now the face of the NFT movement.

What makes Cryptopunks so valuable is their scarcity and hedonic value, being known by some as the digital Mona Lisa. No two Cryptopunks are alike, and the original collection is final and unalterable.

Cryptopunks are old NFTs, being some of the first-ever released, making them highly desirable. Their metadata and transaction history exist in the Blockchain, and their time available has also helped increase their popularity. Even Visa purchased Cryptopunk #7610 for $150,000 

RTFKT CloneX Mintvial 

At the time of writing, CloneX is at the top 5 of NFT project sales, with the floor price of the collection being currently at 6 ETH. CloneX is equipped for the Metaverse, employing high-end avatars that you can use for social media, video games, and movie content. CloneX features a unique backstory, background, and high-quality products. It’s no surprise that their sales have reached $12,644,856 as of December 2021.

Nike has even gone ahead and purchased RTFKT Studio, the NFT studio in charge of producing these avatars. Their purchase of the studio is their first step towards joining the Metaverse.

With all these NFT projects being sold for such ludicrous prices, we can understand why so many people are hyped with producing their NFT projects. 

While not every pixelated illustration or videogame that’s being promoted on Twitter (#nftgiveaway anyone?) will fetch millions of dollars in sales, it’s crazy to think that some of these cost more than my house.

At the rate we’re going, true wealthy symbols will soon be NFTs and not luxury items.