Most impressive NFT projects in 2022

After the market skyrocketed in 2021, NFTs became even more ubiquitous in 2022 as creators, brands and celebrities embraced Web3. But amid the sometimes overwhelming amount of projects, only a handful stood out as truly impactful and memorable for more than just headline-grabbing dollar figures.

Which NFT projects were the most innovative, leveraging the technology in unique, out-of-the-box ways? Here are our picks for the outstanding projects in 2022.

QQL

QQL is an Ethereum generative art NFT collection created by Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist. Hobbs is best known as the creator behind the Art Blocks project Fidenza, which saw a number of seven-figure (USD) sales in 2021, and his next move was exciting. sure enough, it is old 17 million dollars value of NFT coin passes at launch despite ongoing crypto bear market.

As with Fidenza, QQL artwork is generated using a fine-tuned algorithm distributed to the blockchain, and in this case, it turns out mesmerizing waves of colorful circles, large and small. But there’s a twist: buyers of the coin pass get to shape the final artwork that they turn into an NFT. Anyone can play with the QQL algorithm and produce potentially dazzling results, but only mint pass holders are allowed to add an NFT to the official collection.

This engagement and interactivity with collectors established a new paradigm for NFT creation and ownership, gamifying the NFT minting process and giving holders the chance to become artists themselves. Also interesting: the person who generated the particular artwork seed (typically the NFT coiner) gets a small share of the royalties when the art is resold.

Evidence of merger

The Ethereum is merging was one of the most anticipated crypto developments this year. As a side project, Andreessen Horowitz employees Mason Hall and Michael Blau created “Evidence of merger” dynamic Ethereum NFTs to celebrate the event. Each NFT acts as a kind of “proof of attendance” proving that the user who created it participated in Web3 before the merge took place

Hall and Blau’s NFTs automatically changed their metadata via the collection’s smart contract—which contains the code that powers autonomous decentralized apps (dapps)—thus evolving the appearance of the NFT to match the state of the real-time merging process.

Each NFT began as a static image of a separate black and white circle. When the merger began, the NFTs were updated to be partially merged circuits. Once done, the NFTs updated again to the final phase: a Yin-Yang symbol that pays tribute to an Ethereum panda bear meme, where the blockchain’s execution layer (black bear) and consensus layer (white bear) combine to form the adorable mammal.

Noun

Launched in 2021it Noun NFT project and correspondingly DAO continued to build on their premise of community management and the creation of open source IP. The collection, which auctions off one pixelated noun profile picture (PFP) NFT per day, has amassed a massive war chest of 29,150 ETH in its treasury at the time of writing – roughly $37.8 million worth.

Noun holders vote on project proposals and have used their collective funds on a number of different initiatives, such as promoting nouns on crypto conferencessupportive Web3 education in Braziland bring the nouns to New York Fashion Week. Additional efforts include charitable endeavors, physical collectibles, and even a professional esports team.

Even mainstream brands are in the mix – Bud Light was awarded a noun earlier this year and used its boxy “noun glasses” in a Super Bowl commercial, for example. Substantive was also among the first notable NFT collections to use a Creative Commons CC0 license, meaning that Substantive IP can be used by anyone to create and sell anything they want. The idea is that in the end the value still accrues to the NFT holders.

Shibuya

Artist Emily “pplpleaser” Yang has a new vision for the future of cinema—and she’s using NFTs to fund it. Shibuya aims to become the “A24 of Web3” by selling NFTs as a sort of voting token, providing a community that collectively decides how stories evolve while funding future projects in the process.

In December, Shibuya raised $6.9 million in seed funding, led by a16z and Variant Fund, to advance its mission. The first project is the anime series “White Rabbit”, which follows a young person who explores a mysterious crypto world. Pplpleaser wants to help Web3 get some flavor, says Decrypt that “Content in Web3 right now is just bad. There’s a lot of money in Web3 to create content, but there aren’t many tastemakers.” Here’s to changing that!

Goblintown

Who loves to moan incoherently and (hopefully pretend to be) drinking piss? That’s right: a Goblintown NFT holder. These Ethereum NFTs went viral in late May when the crypto bear market began, shortly after collapse of the Terra blockchain. When NFT-dealing “degenerates” began to lose hope, they fell in love with NFTs who reveled in idiocy, fecal matter and insanity.

The Goblintown NFTs were a huge hit – and while the art was certainly ugly, the launch was smart and deliberate. The NFTs were launched with “No roadmap. No discord. No use,” according to the project, and from a free coin came trade worth $96 million on the secondary market. The irreverent humor brought much-needed levity to the struggling crypto community – sparking one of the 2022 wildest NFT trends.

Reddit collectible avatars

After one summer launch, Reddit’s NFTs — which it calls “collectible avatars” — exploded in popularity this fall. Some of the Polygon NFTs stayed highly sought after and popularas users across the online forum platform sported Snoos in different colors and designs, which Reddit had dropped too many free.

As of now, over 7 million Reddit NFTs have been minted on Polygon, with more than 5.3 million unique holders in the mix. Holistically, Reddit’s NFT launch is probably one of the biggest to date. That is a huge win for both the use of the Ethereum sidechain Polygon and for the NFT industry as a whole.

DeGods

While Ethereum NFTs still dominate the market by total traded volume, Solana NFTs are making waves and gaining traction thanks to lively NFT collections that DeGods. Created by the recently deceased entrepreneur who goes by “Frank,” DeGods is a collection of profile picture NFTs on Solana that offer a number of different benefits to holders.

After a fumbled launch in late 2021, Frank and team stepped up the “social experimentation,” as he likes to call it, by rolling out upgraded artwork to owners, offering daily accrual DUST tokens to long-term holders, and even acquired a controlling stake in a team in Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league using DAO’s own funds.

These moves and others propelled DeGods to become the most valuable Solana NFT project this summer, ranking close to Ethereum heavyweights in terms of USD value – and then they parlayed that hype into the even buzzier y00ts project this fall. Dust Labs, an associated technology company, also picked up 7 million dollars to help build an ecosystem around the projects.

DeGods and y00ts helped elevate the Solana NFT spot in 2022, though Frank dropped a big twist ahead for 2023: DeGods will be bridge to Ethereum while y00ts is bridged to Polygon, it no longer confines them to their native ecosystem. Once again, Frank subverts expectations in the NFT space, although time will tell if the moves hurt or help the projects (and Solana).

Pudgy penguins

Many NFT collections struggle to maintain steam and eventually fade into oblivion – especially if a founder’s reputation is called into question. But this was not the destiny Pudgy penguins on Ethereum. Launched in July 2021, it lost traction after a few months, but enjoyed a major renaissance in popularity this year after the collection was purchased by young entrepreneur Luca Netz for 2.5 million dollars in April and the original founder left the project.

At the time of writing, Penguins have increased in value to near a floor price of 7 ETH (ie the cheapest listed NFT), which is over $8,000 each and a significant increase from earlier this year. Under Netz’s reign, the gathering made plans for merchandise, a children’s book and more, and held one auction at Sotheby’s. The Penguins also captured an advisory board of Web3 and retail people, with executives from Nansen, Saks Fifth Avenue, Hasbro and Meta joining to help the project further shape the comeback story.