Top 10 Most Famous NFTs
There are two main aspects that make an NFT remarkable. First is the artistic qualities of an image, video, or music. The second is the background of the file; the stories that surround its creator and creation process. It’s safe to say that the most famous NFTs are because of their background.
In this way, NFT art is a bit similar to traditional art. Paintings by Vincent van Gogh are great and everything, but their incredible price is mainly built on the artist’s personality and the stories around his works.
The phenomenon of NFT is not as ancient as art in general, but we already have quite a few absolutely remarkable tokens. They are expensive, they are famous. In a way, many of them have changed the whole industry of Non-Fungible Tokens.
So, these items deserve some attention and appreciation — and here we list them in this article on the DMarket Blog.
Quantum by Kevin McCoy
Everything starts from somewhere. And even if that beginning is rather chaotic (as usually happens), we, humans, love bringing order and proclaiming something being the first ever.
NFT history starts with chaos alright. But after a while, the community agreed that we needed the first ever token, and Quantum is exactly the first ever NFT. This historic NFT is one of the most notable — and actually, its status will remain untouchable for the whole future of NFT culture.
Quantum is a colorful animated image created by Kevin McCoy on the Namecoin blockchain. It is beautiful, but beyond being the first ever title, it’s not breathtaking, to be honest. You’ll find lots of great gifs on the Internet, but none of them is as famous as Quantum. The background of this token plays its role. It was sold for the equivalent of $1M at Sotheby’s in 2021.
CryptoPunks
Profile Pictures (or PFP) is a big NFT trend, and many who aren’t really familiar with the industry strongly associate Non-Fungible Tokens with such avatars. CryptoPunks is one of the first projects of this “sub-genre”. And it’s one of the first that introduced the art of computer-generated images.
Sure, nothing would be possible without human artists. Matt Hall and John Watkinson created a variety of elements for CryptoPunks and then let AI combine them into 10,000 avatars. There will be no more such pics, and it’s the power of limited edition brought to NFT. It adds value and boosts general attention.
CryptoPunks ARE divided into series, and some of them are more limited than others. For example, Zombie and Alien CryptoPunks are super rare, so they regularly join the lists of top NFTs. CryptoPuns #5822 was sold for 8000 ETH, which was $23.7 million at that moment (February 2022). Other rare pics are also among the most expensive NFTs ever.
Bored Ape Yacht Club
This NFT collection might seem very similar to other PFP projects (yes, such as CryptoPunks). But the Bored Apes substantially expand the usage of Non-Fungible Tokens. They even power up a new “sub-genre”.
Bored Ape Yacht Club is kind of an actual club of people. To enter this closed community, you have to purchase one of the Apes. These NFTs open access to various activities between Club members.
Sure, this project by Yuga Labs has some features from other avatar NFTs. The Apes are randomly generated from preset elements. Some of them are more unique (and more expensive) as their elements are rare in the collection of pics. Still, the idea of such NFT Membership Passes is innovative and even refreshing. It has inspired other similar projects. Bored Ape #8585 was sold in 2021 for 696.969 ETH ($2.7M at that moment).
Pudgy Penguins
Launched in July 2021, this collection features 8,888 uniquely generated digital penguins, each with its own set of traits and characteristics that make them unique. The variety in designs includes different backgrounds, facial expressions, accessories, and outfits, contributing to the uniqueness of each token.
The Pudgy Penguins project aims not only to provide a collectible digital asset for investors and enthusiasts but also to foster a sense of community and belonging among its holders. The project has managed to create a lively and supportive ecosystem around it, where members can participate in events, giveaways, and collaborative opportunities.
The collection was sold in 2022 at 750 ETH, approximately $2.5 million, to Luca Netz of Netz Capital, who has taken the helm of the project and will be the recipient of all future royalties generated from secondary sales.
Right-click and Save As guy by XCOPY
Do you agree that NFT is a specific art style and that it has its future in human culture? Surprisingly or not, not everyone does — you’ll find lots of skeptics, who do not believe in the concept of uniqueness and ownership of a digital asset. They often say something like “right click that image and choose Save As”.
Well, this specific NFT is based on different opinions about such tokens. The image reflects how the digital artist XCOPY sees “Right-click and Save As guy”.
The value of this token is powered by the whole NFT argument, which is not becoming less emotional. Some learn How to earn money with NFT, and others blame the industry for being pointless and harmful. Thus, “Right-click and Save As guy” by XCOPY becomes more than just an image. In 2021, this NFT was bought by Snoop Dogg for 1600 ETH ($7M at that moment).
Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Beeple
With this token, we make a move towards the artistic value of NFTs — even if “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” also has a unique background.
The image consists of 5,000 artworks made by Beeple over 5,000 days. It was quite a marathon, don’t you think? You need to make the picture significantly larger to see what this colorful mess consists of. But the process of creating pieces for this collage amazes people deeply.
Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Beeple was sold in 2021 for 38,525 ETH ($69.3M at that moment) by the famous art auction house, Christie’s.
CryptoKitties
This game gives players an interesting opportunity to create unique NFTs. Sure, you don’t get a brand new image — the concept always whirls around a digital cat — but the color patterns differ and create more unique or rather common NFTs.
CryptoKitties is a big project that successfully brought many new people to the industry. To become a player, you have to purchase your own kitties and then breed a new cat with them. The process is again based on a random mix of various elements. Will your kitty be greatly unusual and therefore super expensive?
The gaming mechanic makes the CryptoKitties project remarkable. Thanks to the straightforward creation process, this is one of the top NFTs by popularity.
Nyan Cat by Chris Torres
Imagine owning a popular meme! Well, this idea turned out to be appealing for the NFT community, and at some point, memes as Non-Fungible Tokens got their wave of success.
There are countless memes in the Internet wilderness, and many of them were written into a blockchain. Some of the most famous are Pepe the Frog (with Rare Pepes as a collection of NFT cards), Disaster Girl, and Bad Luck Brian. But for this list of famous NFTs, we’ve chosen Nyan Cat. It’s an absolutely iconic animated image, well-known around the world.
Nyan Cat is a great symbol of connecting popular modern culture and the fresh tradition of NFT.
This meme was converted into NFT for Nyan Cat’s 10th anniversary. The token was sold in 2021 for the equivalent of $590,000.
Forever Rose by Kevin Abosch
Different art works are present on NFT marketplaces, and photography is among them. Basically, any digital photo is just an image file, which certainly can be added to a blockchain. But someone had to reveal this opportunity to many photographers, and Kevin Abosch is one of the pioneers in this area.
Profile pictures, digital paintings, game cards, and even memes — these are things most people associate NFT with. But here we have a shot of a beautiful red rose. It is good and attractive on its own. And also, “Forever Rose” by Kevin Abosch kind of highlights a new dimension for NFT creators and traders.
Forever Rose was sold for the equivalent of $1M in 2018 (on Valentine’s Day). It is also interesting that there were 10 buyers, and they got 1/10 of the token each.
The First Twitter Tweet by Jack Dorsey
Can you believe that there is such a thing as the first ever tweet? We all have been using this social platform for ages — thanks to its popularity and potentially many years of existence, something as unique as the first tweet becomes significantly valuable. To convert this value into real money, Jack Borsey, the founder of Twitter, turned his fist “Twitter Tweet” into a Non-Fungible Token.
It’s another example of a historic NFT. This token is absolutely unique. And in addition to that, it proves once again that anything can be an NFT, even a tweet.
The First Twitter Tweet was sold in 2021 for the equivalent of $2.9 M.
To find more info for newcomers, check out our guide on how to invest in NFT.
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This list of the most famous NFTs could be much bigger, as the community has created lots of notable items. Do you think we have to add a specific token? Please, let us know through DMarket’s social pages on Facebook and Twitter.
