Non-Fungible Tokens, also known as NFTs, can be anything from video clips and GIFs to memes and even your favourite sports moment.
Even the world’s first tweet sold for $2.9 million so anything can be an NFT. Currently the value of this digital space is $3 billion but will increase to a $13.6 billion valuation by 2027.
Like art and collectibles, a digital assets value is based on the value the buyer and community gives it.
With NFTs being traded everyday and the most expensive sold for $69.3 million, let’s take a look at the different types.
What are the Best Types of NFTs?
- Digital Art – Highly recommended is SuperRare, an NFT marketplace dedicated to digital art.
- Music NFTs – The standout platform is Royal, solely dedicated to NFT music.
- NFTs for Gaming – Ideal for developers, gamers, etc. DMarket for trading NFT virtual items.
- Event Ticketing – Secure, safe and benefits both artists and fans with NFTs. YellowHeart stands out.
- NFT Domains – Simple, user friendly with website templates. Unstoppable Domains.
1. Digital Artwork NFTs
Highly recommended is SuperRare, a marketplace dedicated to digital art.
Overview
One of the most popular and best selling types of digital assets on the market, accounting for 99% of all NFTs. From paintings and drawings to digital pictures and GIFs. Alot of the most expensive NFTs are in this category.
The main reason for this being that artists were quick to adopt the concept of NFTs. Benefiting the creator by reaching new audiences and preventing forgeries by the original artist having ownership of the work.
Highlights
- The Merge: By the pseudonym Pak, on Nifty Gateway. Fragmented art held by 28,983 collectors. Sale ended on 4 December. USD 91.8 million
- Everydays – The First 5000 Days: By Mike Winklemann, aka Beeple, at a Christie’s auction on 11 March 2021. Credited as the NFT boom. USD 69.3 million
- Human One: By Beeple at an auction hosted by Christies on 9 November 2021, his second-most successful NFT artwork sale. USD 28.9 million
- CryptoPunk #5822: Created by Larva Labs by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, in 2017. One of the earilest and most sought-after NFT tokens. USD 23.7 million
- CryptoPunk #7523: On 10 June 2021 at a Sotheby’s auction. The second-most expensive ‘punk’ of all the collections. USD 11.75 million
Market
The Investment bank, Jefferies, increased its market-cap for NFTs for 2022 $35 billion plus. Also estimatesing the market to hit more than $80 billion as soon as 2025. With $100 million more being spent on NFTs in 2021 by collectors, compared to 2020.
Recommendation
For NFT Art, SuperRare is a marketplace dedicated to digital art. Run on an Ethereum blockchain, has a primary and secondary market and operates on a DAO system.
2. Music NFTs
The standout platform is Royal, solely dedicated to NFT music.
Overview
Music NFTs benefit music artists by giving them true ownership of their music, directly reaching a new audience and providing loyal followers to a premium listening experience.
This allows them to keep nearly 100% of earnings without a record label and streaming platform taking a cut.
Artists, DJs and bands even plan to launch upcoming albums as digital assets. Some are even earning millions of dollars in a matter of hours compared to before.
Highlights
- 3LAU: DJ and producer. Early mover and proponent of NFTs, starting in 2020. His $11.7 million Ultraviolet collection has 33 NFTs; a special edition vinyl copy, digital unreleased songs copies and custom songs produced with inputs from the buyer.
- Steve Aoki: 2X Grammy nominated DJ and producer. Makes more money from NFTs than streaming royalties. Worked with digital artists, Atoni Tudisco and Jason Ebeyer, to sell his Dream Catcher collection for $4.25 million.
- Kings of Leon: First music artists to drop both an album on streaming services and an NFT bundle. “When You See Yourself,” a $2 million collection of three tokens; a unique exclusive album version in vinyl, digital artworks and a lifetime concert pass.
- Curren$y: An innovative rapper. 420 culture being the main theme for his $150,000 NFT drop. Tokens for ownership of digital models of low-rider cars, exclusive unreleased EPs, real life hangouts and virtual smoking sessions with collectors.
- Mig Mora more famously Spottie WiFi: the world’s first CryptoPunk rapper, releasing music as a CryptoPunk NFT he purchased. Releasing 2,000 NFTs of a 7 song EP with master recording synching rights, sold in 60 seconds for $192,000.
Market
The market size for NFT music as of 2021 was estimated to be $1.24 Billion which is forecasted to increase to $42.38 Billion by 2032.
Recommendation
For NFT Music, the standout platform is Royal, which is dedicated to NFT music with artists such as Nas, Big Boi, The Chainsmokers and 3lau who is also one of the founders.
3. Gaming NFTs
Ideal for developers, gamers, etc. DMarket for trading virtual items.
Overview
NFTs in the online gaming industry allows players to buy, collect and trade digital assets for Blockchain games, not the game itself.
Items are sold as in-game content like characters, virtual weapons, skins and in-game accessories.
General downloadable content is sold to players but an NFT will be a limited edition version, unique and only for one buyer.
The most popular gaming NFT in 2021 was Axies, which are characters from the Axie Infinity game.
Highlights
- 9 Genesis Land plots on Axie Infinity: Buyer, Flying Falcon. Seller, well known NFT owner @seedphrase. Sold for 888.25 ETH / $1.5 million at time of sale.
- Australia Edition 2020 on F1 Delta Time: Animoca Brands sold the ‘Australia Edition 2020’ car for 1.2 million REVV / $430,000 at the time of sale.
- Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2020 1A on F1 Delta Time: Sold by Animoca Brands for 9,081,752 REVV equal to 375.6 ETH / $223,000 at the time of the sale.
- Dragon on CryptoKitties: Widely regarded as a mistake purchase as it has no features or rarity value. Sold for 600 ETH / $170,000 at the time of purchase.
- Angel on Axie Infinity: Currently only 17 Triple Axies and 3 Quad Axies exist. Sold for 300 ETH / $130,000 at time of purchase.
Market
According to my research NFTs related to gaming brought in about $4.8 billion in revenue (2021). But NFTs related gaming assets hit a revenue of $1 billion in January the very next year, in 2022.
Recommendation
For NFT gaming, DMarket is ideal for developers, gamers and the community to trade virtual items and build the metaverse. Increasing revenue, growing followers whilst rewarding fans.
4. Event Ticketing NFTs
Secure, safe and benefits both artists and fans. YellowHeart stands out.
Overview
NFT ticketing prevents resellers buying most tickets online just to resell and unfairly increasing prices. Therefore more control over secondary ticket sales and $15 billion dollar more market for ticket sellers.
Event organizers have access to data identifying when and where tickets are sold and who purchased them by tracking all ticket transactions on the blockchain.
NFT ticketing prevents the sale of fake tickets, which is roughly 12%, with all transactions being on the blockchain.
Highlights
- Yellowheart: An NFT event ticketing marketplace for music and entertainment. Already featured Kings of Leon, Maroon 5, and XXXtentacion. Also a collectible NFT marketplace coinciding with upcoming events. Polygon blockchain based system.
- GUTS: The biggest ticketer in the Netherlands and expanding. Over 600,000 NFT tickets sold on the GET protocol. Offers digital smart tickets, fraud prevention, reselling and ticketing for theatres, concerts, live streams, festivals and more.
- WICKET: An Italian NFT ticketing platform offering digital smart tickets, selling & resale and analytics for theatres, nightclubs, concerts, festivals, business events and more. Using dynamic QR codes, online ticketing, NFT tickets, built on GET protocol.
- NFT TiX: A platform with a user-friendly front-end website interface, backend infrastructure and an audited and optimized smart contracts system. With no tokenomics and all transactions done with either ETH or fiat via Credit Cards.
- Seatlab: An NFT marketplace launching soon. Taking on the secondary ticket marketplace to increase revenue for organizers by reselling with royalties. Offering NFT collectibles via airdrops and the marketplace. Based on the NEAR blockchain.
Market
The chief operating officer of Oveit, which is a ticketing NFT marketplace stated, that by 2027, NFTs will take over 25% of the ticketing market. That’s roughly $18.5 billion of revenue in the live events industry.
Recommendation
For NFT event ticketing, YellowHeart stands out. Secured via the blockchain, artists secondary sale royalties, fraud prevention, exclusive NFT membership perks and more.
5. NFT Domains
Simple, user friendly with website templates. Unstoppable Domains.
Overview
NFT Domains allow you to buy and sell domain names. Cutting out the middleman by buying directly from the NFT market, claiming exclusive rights on the ownership of the name without having to pay a third party to manage your domain.
These domains are on the blockchain allowing you to own the data and making your crypto transactions simpler by replacing wallet addresses with the domain name then easily creating and hosting websites on web3.
Highlights
For NFT domains I recommend Unstoppable Domain:
- No Renewal Fees Ever so you fully own and control your domain, buying it once and owning it for forever.
- Crypto Payments become seamless without worrying about losing your wallet address. Now your username stores your wallet addresses for sending and receiving crypto.
- Very Compatibile so you can receive over 275 supported coins and tokens, with more to come. Navigate crypto transactions on any blockchain network.
- Make Decentralized Websites easily with pre-made templates. Create a gallery-style website for your favorite collectibles. More features and templates to come.
- Your Identity is your own on Web3 to help progress the digital world and make sure your identity is secured for the next wave of technology.
Pricing
The cost depends on domain length, the demand, the top-level domain you use plus more. For a standard domain, you pay about $5 to $20 in Ethereum or Solana.
Recommendation
Another domain name NFTs provider is Ethereum Name Service (ENS) but I recommend Unstoppable Domains as a more user friendly decentralized domain name service.
What are NFTs?
NFTs aka Non-fungible tokens is digital media on the blockchain. Unique and in different forms. One type not mentioned but equally popular and one to watch is metaverse land.
Yes, NFTs can be copied and posted on your social media but the buyer will have the original ownership and proof.
Wrap up
It’s still early in the NFT market with a lot of growth yet to come. From digital baseball cards to virtual Versace handbags.
Now is the time for the digital asset space with people still purchasing and trading different NFT items everyday. The opportunities for brands, creators and collectors are ripe.