The best of the worst NFTs were marked in 2022
Love them or hate them, NFTs have created a buzz around blockchain in 2022. Unfortunately, they have also ushered in a wave of tasteless, corrupt, and in some cases downright crazy NFT projects – resulting in a colorful year, to to put it mildly.
The one color it apparently lacks, however, is green. NFT trading volume has fallen 97% since the peaks in early January. The numbers for NFT marketplace OpenSea are bleeding: active traders, sales and monthly volume are down 61%, 75% and 96% respectively since January. In fact, around six-figure NFTs are down almost 99% this year.
To celebrate the wild ride, here’s a roundup of some of the year’s most ridiculous NFTs.
2022 will go down as the year of tacky Trump NFTs
Former President Donald Trump recently announced a set of NFT trading cards intended to celebrate his career. However, users on Twitter highlighted the uncanny resemblance that Trump’s NFTs share with existing images online. The project seems to share a similarity to images from Amazon. Some still show Adobe Stock watermarks in the background.
To make matters worse, it appears that 1,000 of the rarest Trump NFTs had been minted directly into Trump’s own wallet, raises alarms about potential laundering. The NFTs have since fallen in price.
A similar grief was pulled by his wife earlier this year. Former First Lady Melania Trump released an NFT of her wearing a particularly large hat, which was worn during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. The piece did not attract much attention, but eventually sold for $170,000.
Trump herself was reportedly the actual buyer, after an investigation revealed she shared the same wallet address as the winning bidder.
God save the skeleton queen
Queen Elizabeth II’s passing was of course immortalized through many NFT projects. However, they pushed the boat a little further by portraying the queen as a skeleton.
While the many hundreds of NFTs minted that day were all variably bland, this one takes the cake. The winning bidder eventually paid 0.217 ETH for the skeleton piece, worth $265.
Historical art? Burn it
A Frida Kahlo painting was destroyed by fire at a house party in Miami. Crypto millionaire Martin Mobarak celebrated the launch of his Frida.NFT project at the end of July, minting 10,000 digital copies of Fantasmones Siniestros (Sinister Ghosts), a colorful work of art by Kahlo.
Mobarak burned the original by placing it on a martini glass filled with dry ice and fuel.
The public bonfire, filmed and uploaded to YouTube, requested questions about the artwork’s authenticity as well as an investigation by Mexican authorities.
“In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime under the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Monuments and Zones,” stated Mexico’s National Institute of Arts and Letters, the country’s leading cultural authority.
Web3 The Islamic State
In September, an NFT project by supporters of the Islamic State was released to promote the group. The NFTs reportedly served as a test to determine whether the technology could be used as a reliable conduit for ISIS recruitment and funding. NFT marketplaces were slow to take down the images.
Madonna’s clitoris debut
In May, Madonna released a series of NFT videos in collaboration with Beeple. Animations of her naked body drove out butterflies and gave birth to robotic centipedes.
A surprising news day to say the least, Protos fondly recalls spending an entire morning watching videos of wildlife and nature crawling out of Madonna’s fanny while her own ominous voice provided poetic insight into the further significance of technology and society. In case you’re reading this publicly, we won’t be posting the videos here – but we highly recommend you check them out when the coast is clear.
The most expensive NFT was sold for 170.5 ETH, worth $346,000 today, with proceeds going to a women’s charity. Some users have still made offers for NFT, but so far none of them have exceeded 0.1 ETH, or $122.
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