The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has grown at unimaginable rates over the past two years. According to data from Nonfungible.com, the NFT marketplace generated $7.5 billion in the past year, representing over a 1,000X increase from 2020’s numbers ($72 million). As we usher in a new year, the same narrative of NFTs seems to be catching on, with new projects coming up by the day. In this piece, the focus will be on the hottest NFT projects you should have in 2022, given their potential growth, uniqueness and value proposition.
1. EQIFi NFT Card
EQIFi, a decentralized finance banking ecosystem, announced its partnership with Polka City, an NFT project offering 3D & AR NFTs on multiple chains and video games in decentralized worlds. The partnership is set to leverage EQIFi’s DeFi and banking card allowing investors to directly buy NFTs using fiat currency or crypto. As the NFT platform to watch in 2022, the EQIFi community and users are able to take ownership of an EQIFi NFT card, with a number of benefits at stake.
First, the NFT card offers users the opportunity to apply for a free bank account with EQIBank, offers real debit & credit card facilities for investors with NFTs and users are able to spend the native $POLC token in the real world. The NFT card also acts as a staking service guaranteeing users 50 $POLC every week. The cards are limited to 2,000 cards, each costs 6,000 EQX. Such a limited number shows there is massive room for growth for the NFTs with all the advantages the NFT card offers.
2. Doodles
Launched in mid-October 2021, these NFTs have shown one of the largest potentials for growth in 2022. After a slow start to its lifespan, selling only $32 million worth of assets in the first week, Doodles has grown magnificently, witnessing sales of over $200 million every week, data from Nonfungible.com shows.
These NFTs bank on providing colorful, fun and funky "doodle-like" art that comes in a joyful range of colors, traits and sizes with a collection size of 10,000. Holding a Doodle allows you to participate in coordinating the Doodles Community Treasury, hence the sudden adoption of Doodles across the NFT community.
3. The Sandbox
Virtual reality (VR) is set to play a big role in the NFT market across 2022. After a wild ride towards the end of 2021, VR marketplace, The Sandbox has started the year a bit off the pace but still shows massive promise. At the start of 2021, Sandbox VR raised an eye-popping $68 million dollars from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and an additional $11 million from top celebrities such as Kevin Durant and Justin Timberlake, showing the potential of the platform.
Launched in 2020 at a price of $0.05, Sandbox native token, $SAND has experienced a wild 10,000% increase to today’s price - after reaching an all-time high of $8.80 in November 2021.
4. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
Another top NFT performer of 2021. Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, is the largest NFT collection in the world today. Over the past week, BAYC assets completed nearly $126 million in sales, with 1,529 pieces changing hands. This collection of NFTs includes 10,000 unique and rare Bored Ape NFTs with a colorful background and complexion - with a 75 ETH floor price.
Recently, BAYC has airdropped a collection of pet dogs (Kennel Club) and mutants (Mutant Apes)to NFT holders. The BAYC community has grown as a result with top celebrities and athletes such as Steph Curry, Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton owning them.
5. World of Women
While ranked as the third-largest NFT platform on CoinGecko, only behind BAYC and Mutant Ape, World of Women is yet to gain the same attention the latter have experienced. The platform features a "collection of unique, cool and diverse women, ready to leave a mark in the NFT space," the website reads. World of Women aims at bringing more diversity and representation in the NFT ecosystem via 10,000 uniquely designed and generated digital collectibles built on Ethereum.
The current floor price is 3.5 ETH (~$13,000), which gives the project room to grow across 2022.
Final Words
The above five projects are our picks to shock the NFT cryptoverse in 2022. Nonetheless, the adoption of NFTs needs to keep up with last year to give the industry the boost needed to push it onto the mainstream population. Today, NFTs are yet to achieve the mainstream status of TV or smartphones but these assets have shown their prominence across the technology field, just not the cryptosphere. NFTs have a big 2022 ahead!