NFT Craze In 2022: Top 5 NFT Drops Of The Year
The NFT market was much quieter in 2022 than in 2021 as the crypto sector entered what some have called its harshest winter yet. But several recent events give NFT supporters new reason for optimism. Many promising new competitors have entered the market since OpenSea, one of the big winners of last year’s surge, but none have yet managed to unseat it.
In this review, we selected five of our favorite drops that influenced the market during the year. In 2022, generative art had a successful run, the market flocked to the most famous avatar coins, and Yuga Labs showed that the Bored Ape craze is still alive.
goblintown.wtf
NFT collections like goblintown.wtf can shock the market even in the middle of a bear market. It consists of 9,999 ugly goblin avatars that were released on May 21st as a stealth mint for free.
Due to a mention of goblins in a leaked pitch deck, many members of the crypto community speculated that the collection may be linked to Yuga Labs. Others noted that the troll voices and images from a mysterious Twitter conversation reminded them of Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead, fueling rumors that he was at least partially to blame.
The prices of goblin NFTs on the secondary market increased along with the excitement and fervor of speculation. At their height, goblins were worth up to 10 ETH, or around $20,000. The collection’s rarest item, “Crustybutt da gobblin king,” sold for 69.42 ETH and remains the highest secondary sale price.
Otherdeed for Otherside
The hype peaked with the release of the Otherside, Yuga’s long-promised Metaverse world. A landmark acquisition of Larva Labs’ CryptoPunks and Meebits collections and the massive ApeCoin airdrop accelerated the hype.
In April, a long-awaited coin for virtual real estate called Otherdeeds marked the beginning of Otherside. The 55,000 digital real estate packages were in such high demand that gas bills soared into the hundreds of dollars. After all, Yuga had made nearly $310 million in ApeCoin, making this dip the most successful in NFT history.
As with any significant drop like this, there was a buzz around Otherdeed’s NFTs. The 10,000 plots of the distinctive alien-like “Kodas” and the far more unusual “Mega Kodas”, which play leading roles in Otherside, skyrocketed on the secondary market. However, prices have since calmed down as crypto winter reigns.
Moonbirds – PROOF_XYZ
10,000 pixel faux owl avatars from art collective PROOF’s Moonbirds collection were uploaded to the Ethereum blockchain in April. The most anticipated collection of the year, Moonbirds, stood out because of how easy it was for coiners to quickly earn huge sums.
The pool charged a hefty 2.5 ETH ($7,600 at the time) right out of the gate, but demand far outweighed the pool’s 7,875 public supply. Naturally, Moonbirds slowly fell on the secondary market as interest in NFTs waned as crypto winter set in.
The PROOF team conducted a raffle to select the winners of the award process to ensure fairness. Interested parties had to submit a wallet containing 2.5 ETH to be eligible. When all the submissions were received, the team revealed that each available NFT had received approximately four submissions to the approval list.
QQL—Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist
The work of American artist Tyler Hobbs, QQL, may be his most influential for years to come. For QQL, a collaborative experiment invites the collector to assume the role of creator. By experimenting with different settings, fans can learn more about the QQL algorithm and produce their own results.
Co-creators can wait to produce their best work because the collection is collaborative, and the depth of the algorithm creates unexpected variety in each piece. At the foundation, the QQL has recognizable ring shapes in various color schemes similar to the Fidenza. The algorithm is nevertheless far more sophisticated and deeper than the one that made Hobbs famous.
999 QQL coinpasses were offered for sale at 14 ETH in a Dutch auction in September. Only 150 passes had been used at the time of publication, suggesting that collectors intended to keep their keys for some time. QQL could play a significant role in the history of generative art if Hobbs continues to be at the forefront of it in the future.
Memories of Qilin — Emily Xie
Emily Xie is an important player in the generative art community, an Asian-American generative artist based in New York. Following the release of Memories of Qilin in 2022, which pays tribute to traditional East Asian painting and has the look and feel of something that might have been done by hand, her profile rose.
Xie produced a collection of 1024 eye-catching outputs that evoke realistic images using p5.j’s geometric design and masking techniques. Memories of Qilin is a folklore exploration whose title refers to a unicorn-like creature from Chinese mythology.
Memories of Qilin was initially ignored outside the relatively small generative art scene and was released in March when the market went down.
However, the floor price later increased and has continued to hold steady as interest in NFTs wanes.
