NFT remains a crypto buzzword, despite NFT transactions falling massively from the phenomenal heights of 2021 when more than $2.5 billion worth of NFTs swapped hands. However, despite the waning interest in NFTs, the tech hasn't gone away, and millions of dollars worth of NFT collections are traded daily.
What Is an NFT Collection?
NFTs, non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets that are indivisible, verifiable on a blockchain, and cannot be duplicated or counterfeited. You can check out our in-depth non-fungible token explainer to learn more about NFTs.
NFT collections are created when artists collaborate to launch a series of NFTs (issued and sold in digital forms like videos, music, and tweets). These items are stored individually on the blockchain. And each unique digital art has metadata that contains the artist's name, creation date, title, and other relevant information.
From pixelated gorillas to funny-looking wolves, an NFT collection's value depends on the art's rarity and the artist's popularity and creativity. Also, the price of one NFT increases as more people want to buy others within the collection.
These NFTs can be purchased using cryptocurrency and sold on the open market. There are several NFT marketplaces where you can buy and sell NFTs, and just like regular assets, their value follows the rule of supply and demand.
Top examples of marketplaces you can buy these collections from are OpenSea, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway. OpenSea is the largest and most popular NFT marketplace.
5 Top NFT Collections Revealed
Do you want to tap into the NFT industry? Here are the top 5 collections you should know about.
1. Bored Ape Yacht Club
Popularly known as BAYC, this project by Yuga Labs launched as a simple NFT collection before it exploded into a massive community of 10,000 cartoon apes. Many would even call them the poster child of NFTs. To further underline how much they had grown, as of April 2021, at the launch of BAYC, each Bored Ape NFT cost $190. As of March 2023, they cost about $80,000.
BAYC NFTs are mostly cloth-wearing apes with weird expressions. Each profile picture is unique, some rarer than others, making the latter more expensive. Celebrities like Eminem, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, and Neymar allegedly purchased an NFT from this famous collection.
Owning a Bored Ape NFT gives you access to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which has "The Bathroom," a virtual doodle board where you can scribble, write, and draw expletives.
2. CryptoPunks
Comprising 10,000 unique 24x24 pixelated characters, CryptoPunks is among the oldest NFT collections. They were created by Canadians Matt Hall and John Watkinson, working at Larva Labs. When the collection launched in June 2017, the CryptoPunks were almost free for anyone with an Ethereum wallet. As of March 2023, CryptoPunk NFTs sold for over $110,000.
The "punks" are pixelated images of male and female characters, but other not-so-human life forms exist, like zombies, apes, and even aliens. The NFTs in this collection have attracted impressive price tags, with the most expensive punk ever sold, CryptoPunk #5822, going for $23.58 million.
CryptoPunk NFT sales have crossed the $1bn mark and are still rising.
3. Azuki
Chiru Labs launched Azuki in Los Angeles by Chiru Labs on January 12, 2022. Zagabond was the project's founder; the other three members went by pseudonyms– Location Tba, Hoshiboy, and 2pm.Flow.
Azuki, the first anime-themed NFT collection, gave old dogs like BAYC and CryptoPunks a run for their money. Though not as expensive as some pioneer NFT collections, Azuki's popularity is almost unmatched. The creators put up 8,700 collectibles for sale after the launch and sold out in four minutes. Also, Azuki's "Golden Skateboard" NFTs hold the record for the most expensive skateboards in history—digital and physical. The nine NFTs fetched $2.5 million.
Buying an Azuki NFT gives you access to "The Garden," a community of Azuki NFT owners, regular airdrops, live events, and exclusive streetwear collaborations. And that's not all. Azuki also offers its NFT owners non-exclusive rights to commercial use. This means you can print your NFT on merchandise and sell it online.
4. MoonBirds
The Moonbirds collection launched on April 16, 2022, and is now one of the hottest NFTs. The PROOF collective, a private community of influential NFT owners, created the collection. MoonBirds NFTs were minted at 2.5 ETH each, with 5% royalties on every secondary sale paid to the creators. A week after minting, the floor price surged to around 36 ETH, valued at over $100,000.
Moonbird broke a lot of records in its first week after launch. Generating $191 million in trading volume that same week, it surpassed the likes of Clone X and Azuki, which had $120 million and $122 million, respectively. Unlike Azuki, which took two weeks to reach a trading volume of $122 million, Moonbirds broke the record within hours.
Ownership of a pixelated owl Moonbird NFT grants you perks. First, you'll receive intellectual rights over your Moonbird NFTs. Then, you will gain entry into an NFT-gated discord server, where you will be updated on incoming airdrops and community events. Also, Moonbirds offer "nesting" benefits to their owners.
Nesting involves "locking up" your NFT in your wallet. And as the total nested time increases, your NFT will reach new tier levels, each having its benefits.
5. Mutant Ape Yacht Club
BAYC launched Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)—new NFTs—to give back to its community members. MAYC has 20,000 art pieces, double what BAYC has in its collection.
Yuga Labs created the MAYC collection on August 28, 2021. 10,000 MAYC NFTs were sold, while the remaining were randomly airdropped to Bored Ape owners. The public sale was a stealth drop, as a precise launch time was not announced. However, many believe the secrecy around the launch contributed to its success, with the 10,000 NFTs sold raking up to $96 million.
After a meager initial launch price of 3 ETH, MAYC reached an all-time high of $132,000 around April 2022.
There are two ways to become a member of the MAYC community. You could buy a MAYC NFT directly or purchase a Bored Ape and inject it with a serum, turning it into a mutant.
A mutant is a jacked-up, edited version of a Bored Ape that maintains some of its original features. And as for the serum, it is a digital tube injected into the apes, converting them into Mutant Apes. Purchasing a serum and mutating a Bored Ape doesn't make you lose your NFT. Instead, you will now own the original Bored Ape and a Mutant Ape!
What's Your Favorite NFT Collection?
The prices of NFTs started to dive after the 2021 rush. This decline was primarily due to the cryptocurrency price crash and the many scams and shady practices within the NFT market. As a result, the initial rush for NFTs, driven by the fear of missing out on what seemed to be the next best thing, has plunged.
But even with all these, there are still successful NFT projects. Given crypto's volatility, NFTs might become the next best thing again.