7 New NFT Artists & Brands That Are Taking Off
Discover a list of top NFT creators and brands that are making waves.
Digital collectibles have never been this huge. Thanks to the invention of blockchain-powered non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital items can be rare for the first time, enabling collection in a verifiable way.
Read on to learn about the latest NFTs that have been making waves in the non-fungible token world.
NFTs Are Still Booming
The average daily NFT trading volume for the first half of 2021 was $13.8 million. In the second half of 2021, that figure has ranged from $45 million to $372 million. The most sales in a single day were on August 28, when 80,600,000 NFTs made their journies from sellers to buyers.
Whether the artist is a teenager, a computer algorithm, or a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), they never fail at making us reassess how humans perceive value.
Sales often include odd items like a collection of images of lists, wacky apes, whale characters, or even cartoons from the new Space Jam movie. The NFT art market seems to truly have it all.
New NFTs You Should (Probably) Know About
PUNKS Comics
If you love the iconic CryptoPunks, check out PUNKS Comics: an NFT ecosystem featuring comics of 16 CryptoPunks and upcoming game collectors will unlock.
Uses of Owning the NFT of Issue #1 of the PUNKS Comics
-
You may read the comic.
-
You can stake the comic NFTS (10 thousand total supply) to earn $PUNKS tokens (100 million total supply).
-
HOLDing the comic gives you a percentage of ownership of the 16 CryptoPunks in PUNKS Comics (with a total value of1,200 ETH) represented in $PUNKS tokens.
-
If you burn the issue, you will receive a Pixel Vault Founder’s DAO NFT providing proportional ownership of the Founder’s DAO.
-
You have the option to receive a physical copy of the comic, of which there are only 10,000 in total.
-
HOLDRs of the comic can purchase a mint pass which can mint a 3rd NFT: a unique avatar called a MetaHero. MetaHeroes will have a role in the upcoming PUNKS Comics game.
Pixel Vault will create and sell PUNKS Merchandise. All of the profits will go to $PUNKS token HOLDRs.
If joining this growing ecosystem seems of interest, get ready to pay the floor price of 5.2ETH ($17160.87) for the cheapest NFT in the collection.
Why are PUNKS Comics so expensive?
PUNKS Comics is increasing the value of its collection by investing in lore and scarcity and expanding the utility of the virtual assets through interoperability and gamification. 90% of platform ownership goes to the community via a DAO governance model, honoring the philosophy of blockchains and potentially increasing the value further.
Crypto Punks
We cannot mention PUNKS Comics without mentioning CryptoPunks themselves. The 8-bit images that started the NFT art movement are still rocking the industry. Punks are #1 in NFT sales volumes for the past month.
Despite the massive growth of the NFT space, CryptoPunks manage to top the charts even though they are more than four years old.
The cheapest punk is currently for sale for 82.99 ETH ($271,481.04), while the average price is 37.06 ETH ($121,233.55).
**Why have Crypto Punks become so lucrative? **Collectors anticipate Ethereum, the blockchain network CryptoPunks lives on, to exist for a long time and have immense historical significance. To them, owning one of the 10,000 CryptoPunks released in 2017 is harboring an invaluable part of history, or at least what would be history in upcoming decades.
Bored Ape Yacht Club
BAYC showcases 10,000 chimpanzee characters each, with 170 unique traits. The collection presents a growing ecosystem of utility.
Uses of Owning a Bored Ape Yacht Club Ape
-
Convert a BAYC ape into a Mutant Ape by using the Mutant Ape Serum NFTs, of which there are three varieties M1, M2, and M3. The results are visually spectacular.
-
Each BAYC holder can claim a pet dog from the Bored Ape Kennel Club, a collection of 10,000 furry companions for the apes. Each dog NFT has 170 unique traits and is now only available on the secondary market.
-
Ape owners get access to THE BATHROOM, a digital drawing board where each HOLDR gets to print one pixel every 15 minutes.
-
You become a member of the BAYC Swamp and will benefit from its future perks.
The base price for an ape is 33.6 ETH ($111,409). Meanwhile, a pet dog from The Bored Ape Kennel Club will cost you at least 2.63 ETH ($8,730). The project is still growing with the potential for more appreciation.
Why are Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs so expensive?
The founding team focused on utility for their apes to the extent of even creating a yet-to-be-launched treasure hunt. Admiring the artistry, scarcity, and growth of utility in the ape ecosystem, collectors speculate the price of the apes to appreciate in the future.
Loot (for Adventurers)
Loot is randomized adventurer gear generated and stored on-chain. Stats, images, and other functionality are intentionally omitted for others to interpret. Feel free to use Loot in any way you want.
Are you looking for an open-ended NFT you can interpret however you like? Loot is just that: a collection of lists, called bags, each with the name of eight adventure items inside.
Only 8,000 different bags exist.
Items can range from Hard Leather Armour and some Silk Gloves to a Titanium Ring of Giants and the Necklace of Enlightenment.
The price of the cheapest bag is 8 Eth ($26,781) and the lifetime sales volume is 63,300 ETH.
Why is Loot so popular?
Collectors anticipate a growing ecosystem for this project built by the community with the potential for price appreciation. With no company or team running the show, the community can use the 8,000 bags in any way they like. It will be interesting to see which adventures these bags can take you on since their destiny is open to interpretation.
Degenerate Ape Academy
Like gorillas more than chimpanzees? No problem. Check out these 10,000 apes ready for some pizza-munching, crayon-eating debauchery on the Solana blockchain.
Each ape has 137 unique traits each, falling in one of five different rarity tiers.
Much like the other collections mentioned, DAA also has a growing ecosystem of utility.
Planned by DAA:
-
A racing game called Ape-Kart
-
The release of DAA lore
-
Swag for the apes
-
High-res ape pics
The floor price of a DAA ape is 70 SOL ($12,291) and, the total sales volume is 852.5 thousand SOL!
How did Degenerate Ape Academy gain popularity?
These apes are of the few projects on the Solana blockchain on the same tier as the Ethereum projects mentioned. Collectors who are fans of Solana and anticipate its expansion believe these apes will have a corresponding appreciation in value.
Pudgy Penguins
Want to huddle with cute penguins who eat too many fish? If so, join The Huddle, a community composed of 8888 unique NFTs of penguins from the freezing arctic region of the metaverse.
Each NFT features a penguin with a unique clothing style, skin color, hair, accessories, and personality.
The warmth of The Huddle is only accessible to those willing to pay the floor price of 2.22 ETH ($7,603 ETH) for a single penguin.
Why are Pudgy Penguins so popular?
With a trading volume of 35.6 thousand ETH, these penguins prove to be very popular. Collectors appreciate the scarcity and the artistic value of these penguins.
Each penguin allows the holder to claim a present NFT they may open once the upcoming holidays arrive. The anticipation of these gifts further contributes to price appreciation for these NFTs.
Ether Rock — Pet Rocks On The Blockchain
If neither punks nor animal characters float your boat, consider adopting a digital pet rock. Although identical aside from a variance in color, the prices of these rocks are in the millions.
Unlike the other projects, these rocks are only available from etherocks.com and not any secondary markets.
The cheapest rock sells for 549 ETH ($1,877.779) **and, **the current most expensive listing is for 10,000 ETH ($34,206,545).
Why are Ether Rocks selling for millions?
These rocks are one of the original Ethereum NFT projects from 2017. Plus, only 100 of them exist and, it will remain that way forever. Collectors see these rocks as an iconic part of blockchain history.
Securely Buy, Sell, Store, and Collect NFTs using Trust Wallet.
The NFT space is splurging in creativity. NFTs are growing fast and, interoperability between NFTs and a growing ecosystem for a collection is slowly becoming the standard.
But as fast as the space is growing, keeping up is easy with Trust Wallet.
Featuring a dedicated display section for your OpenSea collection, a built-in DApp browser to access NFT marketplaces, and compatibility with multiple blockchains in the DApp space, Trust Wallet is ready for your command.