Top 10 NFT Collections (2022)

What are the top 10 NFT projects and why are people so excited to own them?

Leaving out all the hype and buzzwords, let’s look at the digital assets you may have to sell your left kidney to afford.  

Who is leading the pack? Which collections are more sought after than others? The blue-chips as collectors say.

Remember that the NFT space is still very young and changes daily. With that in mind here are the top 10 NFT projects by volume as it stands in March 2022...

1. Cryptopunks 

The first NFT collection to hit Web 3.0, Cryptopunks is a collection of 10k unique characters stored on the ethereum blockchain. They remain the most traded and arguably most prestigious NFT collection to date with nail-biting sales and billions of dollars worth of ethereum exchanging hands. 

Notable names like Jay Z, Snoop Dogg and Jason Derulo have swiped up a punk!

They are pixel art, so what you see is what you get. A profile picture if you may. The pull comes from them being the first-ever generative art collection… plus community/bragging rights (with provable ownership of course!) .

Can the Punks be knocked off first place? With the current shift in the NFT market to a preference for more utility-focused projects...they may have to work hard to stay on top! With a recent buy out by Yuga labs things could remain in the Punks favour.. 

2. Bored Ape Yaught Club (BAYC)

The top utility-based NFT project - BAYC is another set of 10k collectables on the ethereum blockchain. 

Not only are these art-based, so you can set it as your profile picture just like Cryptopunks, but owning one of these also gives you access to their members-only club. 

Being part of their club gives you access to all of their future projects. They are still executing on their roadmap so we’ll see, but one part of this was releasing the Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

This turned out to be a big success in itself and holders of a Bored Ape NFT were given a Mutant Ape NFT for free (through a serum that mutated their original version) in a major and welcomed airdrop!

It was a great way to gamify their membership and deliver value back to the club! (more below) 

Who's to say what's to come from the BAYC community and with 2 successful projects under their belt, are they the ultimate VIP NFT club everyone wants to be in?

3. Decentraland 

The first 360 Metaverse project on our list, Decentraland is striving to be the biggest decentralized, virtual world out there. A full-blown alternate reality with its own economy that’s run and owned by its users. 

As with our real world, the virtual world has a number of non-fungible assets within it and Decentraland is making them all. You can buy virtual land, characters, clothes, shoes and anything else the growing community creates to populate this virtual place.

At the time of writing, you would be lucky to pick up a piece of land on Decentraland for less than $10,000 worth of ethereum. Putting it in the region of a real-life mortgage deposit. 

That’s nothing compared to some of the prices being demanded by collections on this list …but will we see a time where virtual land and real land is priced and valued the same? Depends on who's being asked perhaps…food for thought! 

4. Mutant Ape Yaught Club

Created to allow more people to enter the BAYC community at a fair price, the Mutant Ape collection is larger than the bored apes at 20k mutant ape nfts. This is because 10k went to BAYC original members and 10k was made available at a public mint so that new members could join the club. 

The mutants are part of the bored ape family. Holding a mutant ape gives holders access to the Bored Ape Yacht Club benefits ..but to a lesser extent than the original bored apes. We are yet to see exactly how this progresses but this is a club that your favourite celebs are itching to join. 

The club has said that this is their last collection drop for entry into the prestigious club. With heavy backing and big interest - we will soon see how the holders of these NFTs get rewarded!

5. Art Blocks Curated 

It’s 2022 and we’ve just got to love on-demand products! We love to get things straight away! Well, now we have on-demand artwork stored on the blockchain. 

A generative art machine, Art Blocks Curated has many different collections on marketplaces and is different from the others on our list. As the name suggests, the multiple collections created are curated from carefully selected projects with different styles and aesthetics. 

If you like a particular style you can get your own variation. You pay for the work and get a randomly generated piece of artwork using that same style and it will be sent to your ethereum wallet. You won’t be sure if it’s 2d, 3d or an interactive experience! 

Whether you can use that NFT for any commercial work depends on the licence set by that collection however It’s a great way to gamify generative art for people that love digital artwork!

But Is the trading volume based on the pure number of collections Art Blocks Curated has? There is quite a number of NFTs and as an ongoing service, the supply will increase always. There are larger collections that have done worse off so it certainly seems like the market wants Art blocks Curated to be a player in the years to come. 

6. The Sandbox 

Another full-blown metaverse, The Sandbox has just opened up its virtual universe for season 2 of their Alpha (test) phases. 

As with Decentraland, The Sandbox is a full virtual experience not so different to any popular pc game you can imagine. A place where you can experience a world owned and built by its users. The Sandbox chooses to use voxels (type of imaging) to build their world. If you don’t know what that means then think of Minecraft ..or pixelated cartoons if you’re a non-gamer. 

You have a playable character that you use to explore different locations with your friends/ other sandbox users. The experiences are built by other users! You could build your own experience in the sandbox for example if you were to buy land yourself. 

With full-scale metaverses coming into popularity and a lot of big players seeing these complete virtual worlds as successors to social media., Who's to say The Sandbox is not the virtual world to dominate?

7. CLONE X - X TAKASHI MURAKAMI

A big drop with big players the Clone X NFTs are detailed next-gen 3d avatars. They were produced by an already established artist TAKASHI MURAKAMI and NFT studio RTFKT (bought over by Nike) 

The pull here comes from the names involved and detail of avatars. 

“RTFKT is a studio that roared into web 3.0  using the latest in-game engines, NFT, blockchain authentication and augmented reality, combined with manufacturing expertise to create one of a kind sneakers and digital artefacts”

Whether they hold their value we will see but they certainly have a great team behind the project and thus a fan-like pull to owning one.

8. Azuki 

My personal favourite - Azuki burst into the scene with its unique NFt style -a Japanese inspired artwork - definitely a great buy if you’re a fan of anime (art-wise). 

There are 10k metaverse ready Azuki characters and just like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, holding an Azuki character gives you access to their membership club - which includes a virtual space called “The garden”

The Garden is a place where members can access their perks.. which Azuki creators have said include streetwear collabs, Future NFT drops, Live events and a lot more! They are aimed at artists, builders and enthusiasts that believe in a web 3.0 future! 

Will Azuki remain blue chip? Their unique art and utility token has proved immensely popular among holders...

9. Cool Cats 

Another utility-based project proving the popularity of utility in the metaverse, Cool Cats are 10k NFT allowing holders to participate in activities such as Airdrops, giveaways, raffles and more. 

Cool Cats have created their own ecosystem using their own token called $milk and you can even get a cool cat pet! This community-led project is pushing the boundaries of gamifying communities within the metaverse in a completely decentralised way. 

Personally, the vibes remind me of Facebook Farmville, and let me add that my mum and her friends absolutely loved that game! It’s what really got them into social media! 

With its cute in nature and simple but fun community games - will Cool cats move up the ranks as more people are onboarded into crypto?  

10. Doodles

Another gamified, community-led project on the blockchain, Doodles are hanging onto our top ten list... another utility-focused collection. 

Holding a Doodle gives you voting rights to the direction of the project - including what’s to be done with the community funds! They are also another project with a popular artist on their roster (is this the killer combination for a sweet NFT snipe?) 

Doodles are expanding their metaverse based on their community's direction including a recent drop for their holders - Space Doodles! Will you be joining them on their journey on taking over web 3.0 with doodle art? 

Conclusion

And there you have it. The Top 10 NFT collections by trading volume as of March 2022. We are seeing some trends but nothing solid. What’s for sure is there’s a big demand for good artwork combined with an excellent community. As these collections pave the way and other brands learn from their templates, will our top 10 be knocked off their spots by fresher brands with bigger utilities? A close runner up was Meebits who is contesting for a top 10 spot!

Only time will tell.