- The popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has propelled to new heights in 2021.
- NFT projects that were on the fringe of the crypto universe are now some of the most popular names in the market like Decentraland and Bored Apes.
- In 2021, NFTs sales clocked in a grand total of $14.4 billion.
The
cryptocurrency boom in 2021 didn’t just bring new tokens into the limelight, but also new markets — like the one for digital collectibles or
non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This past year has been a breakthrough year for the industry with these unique digital items selling for millions of dollars a piece.
In 2021, sales of NFTs hit $14.4 billion, according to data from
NonFungible.com. This included stand-alone works of art, such as the
disaster girl meme sold for half a million, and the
Beeple NFT that sold for $69 million at the Christie’s auction house. But the biggest winners were collections of thousands of NFTs, and the
projects behind the curtain like the avatar-generating CryptoPunks, metaverse Decentraland, or play-to-earn blockchain game Axie Infinity.
All-time trading volume on
OpenSea, the biggest
marketplace in the world for NFTs, is now at
$13.25 billion as compared to just
$24 million seen in all of 2020. It is home to 1.25 million traders and the all-time average price of NFTs sold on the platform stands at $933, which is around ₹70,000 — more than most people’s monthly salary in India.
From Pokemon-like pets being made to battle, to pixelated avatars that don’t discriminate, here are the 13 most valuable NFT collections of 2021: