The 5 largest platforms for non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles

 Since the beginning of 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have had no holding back and the sector is setting new records almost every day. More and more artists, stars and brands are realizing the potential - NFT are well on their way to catapulting the crypto space into the mainstream. But which collectibles are currently the most popular?

What are NFT?

NFT are unique tokens that cannot be exchanged one-for-one for an equivalent token. Any asset that is tokenizable can be an NFT. This includes, for example, (digital) works of art, trading cards, game items and crypto domains. Theoretically, however, real estate or securities can also be mapped as NFT.

NFTs can be used to transparently map ownership structures on a public blockchain. This allows them to store value just like real objects, even if additional copies are easy to make. For example, the original picture of the Mona Lisa is significantly more valuable than a photo, as everyone knows which picture is the original. The revolutionary thing about NFTs is that they can for the first time create scarcity in virtual space that can be verified by anyone.

But what platforms are currently selling the most popular NFT collectibles? Below, we take a look at the five most popular NFT collectibles platforms by trading volume, using the last 30 days of data from Cryptoslam.io .

5. Art Blocks: $ 8.3 million in trading volume

Art Blocks is a platform that enables artists to publish their works as NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain. Each artwork generated only exists once on the blockchain. What is special about Art Blocks is that artists have the opportunity to continuously develop and change their works of art.

In addition, the Art Blocks platform offers artists an innovative system for interacting with fans . Since the various images can be designed interactively, fans can, for example, trigger reactions to works of art by sending money and thus actively interact with images around the clock.

This results in completely new sources of income for the entire art industry that have never existed before. Art Blocks had a trading volume of over $ 8.3 million in the past 30 days, according to Cryptoslam.io .

4. Sorare: $ 13.5 million

Sorare  is a digital marketplace for trading blockchain trading cards. The platform is already a source of income for more than 100 football clubs, including  FC Bayern Munich ,  Paris Saint-Germain ,  Bayer Leverkusen  and Inter Milan .

The goal of the Sorare team is to bring football fans around the world even closer to their clubs and idols. The whole thing runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Particularly rare cards, such as Neymar, US dollars have already been for more than 26,000 sold .

The teams and the individual playing cards are evaluated based on the true performance of the players on the football field and receive the corresponding points. As a result, the performance of the players is also indirectly reflected in the value of the virtual trading cards.

Sorare already has almost 8,000 users in Germany and since the blockchain project was invented, cards with a total value of over 20 million US dollars have been traded.

3. Hashmasks: $ 21.8 million

Hashmasks is another NFT project and was launched on January 28, 2021. Hashmasks is a collection of currently 16,384 unique digital portraits created by over 70 artists around the world and available as NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain.

At the moment it is still unclear who exactly is behind the project. Nevertheless, Hashmasks can rely on well-known supporters such as the Swiss company Suum Cuique Labs from Zug.

As the owner of a Hashmask NFT, you have the option of giving the work of art a name using so-called NCT (Name Changing Token). This function should no longer be available in ten years and the names of the portraits will then be immortalized on the Ethereum blockchain.

One of the Hashmasks NFT was sold for Ethereum worth  $ 650,000 in early February 2021 . In total, portraits with a total value of 39 million US dollars have already been traded on Hashmasks.

2. CryptoPunks: $ 90.5 million

CryptoPunks was founded by Larva Labs, an IT company that is extremely well known in the crypto space and has already participated in several projects .

The CryptoPunks are based on Ethereum and there are a total of 10,000 uniquely designed characters. However, some CryptoPunks are rarer than others and therefore more expensive. For example, the Alien CryptoPunks only have nine avatars. Users can trade their objects with other users, with each transaction being recorded on the ETH blockchain so that the owner can be clearly identified.

Quelle: CryptoPunks

According to the Crypto Punks homepage  , over 4,000 CryptoPunks were traded in the last year. In addition, the CryptoPunks are the most popular NFT collectibles on the entire Ethereum blockchain. Since they were invented, over $ 100 million in CryptoPunks have been traded. One of the most expensive was sold for the equivalent of $ 850,000.

1. NBA Top Shot: $ 275.3 million

In July 2019, Top Shot was started as a joint venture between the NBA, the NBA players union and  Dapper Labs  . The beta version went live in  October 2020 . Dapper Labs sounds familiar? The Canadian blockchain company is also behind the success of  CryptoKitties  and is the issuer of the  FLOW token . 

NBA Top Shot uses the Flow Blockchain and is an officially licensed product of the NBA (National Basketball Association). On the NBA Top Shot platform, users can purchase a snapshot of an NBA game as an NFT.

These so-called “moments” are recorded forever as a digital collector's item and mapped as non-fungible tokens via the flow blockchain. In this way, the owner is guaranteed the authenticity and ownership of the collector's item.

The “Moments” are sold in  packs  . These cost from 9.22 to 230 US dollars - depending on the contents of the pack. Later, on the secondary market, the contents of the packs reach prices in the six-figure range. In addition, NBA Top Shot is the largest NFT platform in the world to date and the demand for the “NBA Moments” is currently so great that the company can no longer cope with the exponentially increasing demand . It happened repeatedly that the release of new “Moments” was delayed due to server overload.