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Most people would say that 2021 was an incredible year for the non-fungible token market. We witnessed this technology gain widespread adoption, and many NFT projects exploded in value.
The market is poised for continued growth this year. Here are some of the NFT projects that may be among the top in 2022.
What Makes a Good NFT Project?
Many factors that play a large role in the success of an NFT project. Here are a couple factors that are known for being important.
The community behind an NFT project can make a very large impact on the NFT project’s success. Successful NFT projects will have a healthy and passionate community supporting them.
A passionate community is much more likely to hold their NFTs and raise the floor price. Active community members are more likely to talk about the project and share the project with others, which will help it grow in popularity and awareness.
A large amount of engagement within the community is always a good sign for an NFT project. A healthy community will make owning an NFT much more valuable than just a JPG since it is your ticket for your acceptance into an exclusive community.
A good way to check for a healthy community is by looking at an NFT project’s Twitter and Discord accounts. Here, monitor not only the number of followers following these accounts but more importantly the engagement.
Utility
Utility for NFTs can come in all shapes and sizes. An interesting example of NFT use cases is the LinksDao. LinksDao is a decentralized autonomous organization that aims to purchase and run golf and leisure clubs.
Owning a LinksDao NFT grants you the ability to enter into LinksDao fantasy golf leagues and gives you the right to purchase a membership to the physical clubs it acquires.
Another example of an NFT use case is the Ethereum Naming Service (ENS). Ownership of an ENS domain will allow you to link your ethereum wallet to a human-readable domain name.
An additional example is the ownership of digital land in the metaverse. The Apes in Space NFT project created by rapper TakeOff will provide holders with a percentage ownership of land in the Sandbox metaverse, as well as admissions tickets to his future metaverse concerts.
Some other popular use cases are airdrops and governance. NFT projects that provide utility to their holders are much more valuable and likely to succeed than projects which do not.
Revenue and Ownership Rights
Certain NFTs will provide their users with revenue as well as ownership rights. However, these NFTs bear the risk of being considered securities in the future. One example of this is Uniswap V3, where users can provide liquidity to earn trading fees from investors on the platform.
Mutant Ape Yacht Club
Mutant Ape Yacht Club is the second PFP collection made by Yuga Labst of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project. This project aimed to reward the holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, as well as to provide a way for people to enter the Bored Ape ecosystem for a lower price point. This project was launched in August 2021, when members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club were airdropped “Mutant Serums.”
These mutant serums could be used to generate a new Mutant Ape NFT, and the serum would be burnt when they were used. The original Bored Ape remained unchanged and unharmed in any way during the process of creating these Mutant Apes. The Mutant Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 20,000 NFTs.
Mutant Apes may perform well in 2022 for a wide variety of reasons. It is no secret that the Bored Ape Yacht Club is among the best NFT collections in the world. It has what may be the best community of any NFT project. Owning a Mutant Ape will allow you access to an exclusive community.
The holders of Mutant Ape NFTs will be able to earn tokens in Bored Ape Yacht Club’s not yet released blockchain game. Considering the notoriety of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, there is a good probability that their upcoming blockchain game will be a success and gain a lot of users.
Alien Frens
Alien Frens is an NFT project that was launched on December 20, 2021. It is a collection of 10,000 cartoon NFTs and had an initial mint price of 0.02 Eth. Alien Frens is an example of a profile picture NFT project.
According to its website, the goal of Alien Frens is to “build the biggest group of frens in the Metaverse.” Ownership of an Alien Fren NFT provides many benefits such as invitations to IRL events, exclusive merch, comic books, staking of $FRENS TOKEN and invasions (giveaways). The team is fully transparent and has doxed itself.
Alien Frens will be a good pick for 2022 due to its strong community. This theme of friendship is important to this NFT project. Its website states that owning an Alien Fren will introduce you to “a lifelong frenship with 10k other Frens.”
The project currently has over 52k Twitter followers, as well as over 24k Discord members. The project also has very notable celebrity backing, including Gary Vee and Meek Mill.
Another reason Alien Frens may be a good pick for 2022 is their ambitious roadmap. It is doing a streetwear drop on January 30, releasing a 30-page comic on February 15 and introducing the $FRENS token on February 28.
Proof of Beauty Studios: $Hash, $London, $Embers
Proof of Beauty Studios is among the most unique and underrated projects in the entire NFT space. Its first collection, $HASH, allowed users to take Ethereum transactions and turn them into unique art pieces. The details of the transaction were reflected in color pallets, shapes, complexities and more.
When Vitalik Buterin began selling his Shiba Inu to donate to COVID relief, the market went nuts. The $HASH for this unique Ethereum collection was quickly scooped up by a member of the Historians DAO, who use proof of beauty to document and collect Ethereum’s history.
Proof of Beauty Studios is entirely self-funded and has dropped several other collections to reward its early adopters. Check out our interview with the creators of POB on Benzinga’s YouTube show Moon or Bust.
Pick 2: Art Blocks
Art Blocks is an NFT platform built on the Ethereum blockchain that is for generative art collections. These collections can span a wide array of different artists, all with their unique touch and style.
The platform currently has three tiers of collections: Art Blocks Factory, Art Blocks Curated and Art Blocks Playground. The Curated Collection is the most prestigious collection, and only features artists handpicked by the platform’s curation board. Art Blocks Playground is another tier where existing curated artists may release projects with less oversight. Finally, the Art Blocks Factory is the least prestigious tier and has the least oversight and requirements from the platform.
To understand Art Blocks, it’s important to understand generative art. Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. Artists may choose different types of materials and tools to create their art. Generative art refers to art created by artists who choose computer code to be their tool of choice.
Every work of art on Art Blocks is generated on the Ethereum blockchain. The artist will create an algorithm and deploy it to the Ethereum blockchain.
Then, during mint, the hash string of the NFT is fed into the algorithm to create a unique one-of-a-kind work of art. The different pieces of art will contain similar elements and motifs, but each will be unique in some way due to the different hash strings provided for every one of the NFTs.
You should join the Art Blocks discord chat to find out about upcoming Art Blocks projects.
Bacon Protocol: NFT Mortgages
The Bacon Protocol is a decentralized mortgage lending protocol. This project allows people to trade a lien of their home for an NFT that is representative of the home’s value.
The Bacon protocol allows small investors and borrowers access to the residential mortgage market, which historically has only been available to large financial institutions and the government. This is because financial regulations and high capital requirements have made it difficult for retail investors to get involved in what is widely considered a very low-risk and profitable asset class. The protocol has been audited by BlockHunters and has passed its audit with the highest rating.
The Bacon Protocol works by minting NFTs that are tied to individual mortgage liens. A mortgage lien is the property ownership rights that is used as collateral for mortgage loans. So far, the protocol has minted 12 of these mortgage lien NFTs.
These NFTs are then used to back their bHOME token. The bHOME token will grow in value as mortgage payments are made or if the property appreciates. This growth in value in the token should provide retail investors a ROI which is similar to what a bank would receive as a mortgage provider.
Will NFTs Grow in 2022?
Mason Nystrom is a senior research analyst at Messari, a cryptocurrency analytics company. According to Nystrom, the NFT market is ”surprisingly interesting over the recent downturn as the NFT market has continued to increase in volumes. OpenSea has recorded $2.3 billion in NFT volume in January so far, on pace to break its monthly volume record if volumes continue.”
The NFT market is expected to grow in 2022. This is due to the mass adoption this technology is continuing to see. Coinbase is expected to add NFTs to their service, which will help onboard many novice cryptocurrency investors into the world of NFTs.
Many NFT platforms like Opensea are working to make the platform more user-friendly to non-technical users by allowing fiat onramps. NFT gaming will continue to develop and become more popular with the masses, and the development of Ethereum 2.0, Layer 2 solutions and other Layer 1s will allow for lower gas fees and also reduce concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs.
Are NFTs a Good Investment In 2022?
If the NFT space continues to gain mass adoption, NFTs will most likely be an excellent form of investment in 2022. However, not all NFT projects are alike. Be sure to thoroughly research any project before investing.
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