January 6, 2022 · 5 min read

Ethereum Co-Founder Spends $3.6M on a Picture of a Toxic Waste Barrel - Here’s Why He’s Not Insane.

Ethereum (ETH)

Estimated ETH NFT Market Cap - 5.67M ETH ($22B)

Having birthed the DeFi space, Ethereum still leads the way in NFT valuations. The ERC-721 token sets the standard for token non-fungibility and has been emulated on various other blockchains such as Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX). 

NFTs can be troublesome to ‘rank’ as there are several aspects to their value. Factors such as volume, floor price, public profile and market cap are taken into consideration to rank the following collections. Currently, the most highly valued Ethereum-based NFT collection is BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) closely followed by Crypto Punks. 

MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club) is the product of combining a Bored Ape YC with a ‘Mutant Serum’ NFT. Mutant Serums mint a new NFT based on the original Bored Ape with new mutant traits. The serums themselves are a valuable collection and are available in three ‘tiers’: M1, M2 and M3 (Mega). Individual Serums, particularly M3, can frequently sell for upwards of $1M

Ethereum co-founder Taylor Gerring just spent 888 ETH (almost $4M) on an M3 barrel, which has the potential to be a highly successful investment if it creates a more valuable Mutant than its original Bored Ape. 

Top ETH Collections

Info gathered from nftpricefloor (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Top ETH Movers (7D)

Info gathered from nftpricefloor (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Solana (SOL) 

Estimated SOL NFT Market Cap -  3.6M SOL ($627M)

The success of Ethereum-based NFTs has given rise to popular NFT ecosystems on other blockchains. High-speed layer-1 protocol Solana (SOL) is one such chain. The highest ranked project by market cap is Solana Monkey Business, followed by the Shadowy Super Coder DAO  project by  GenesysGo - a company that provides Solana validator node infrastructure (nodes which notoriously require extremely high specs to run). 

The Solana Monkey Business and Degenerate Ape Academy collections are examples of collections heavily inspired by the hugely popular BAYC on Ethereum.  Similar emulations of popular Ethereum NFT collections like Crypto Punks can be seen on other blockchains such as Avalanche and Stacks. 

Top SOL Collections

Info gathered from Solanalysis (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Top SOL Movers (24H)

Info gathered from Solanalysis (Updated 5 Jan 21) 

Avalanche (AVAX)

Estimated AVAX NFT Market Cap - 0.4M AVAX ($42M) 

The top 5 collections on the L1 Avalanche (AVAX) chain now boast an impressive collective market cap of over $37M. Ethereum’s BAYC and Crypto Punks are referenced by Avalanche’s AVAX Apes and AVAX Punks collections - which are amongst the most highly ranked. 

This week’s fastest climbing competitors to these top collections are the play-to-earn racing game Race X, and Bitpixels - a meta-mosaic of pixels which can be minted individually, or joined together into larger NFTs for higher costs.

Top AVAX Collections

Info gathered from Avaxnftstats (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Top AVAX Movers (7D)

Info gathered from Avaxnftstats (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Stacks (STX)

Estimated STX NFT Market Cap - 2.2M STX ($5.5M) 

Stacks is an L1 chain that brings DeFi capability to Bitcoin. As such, it is also facilitating a thriving Bitcoin-based NFT ecosystem. Inspired by BAYC, the pixel-art Megapont Ape Club is by far the most highly valued collection.  

Similarly to Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Megapont Robot factory allows owners of Megapont Ape Club NFTs to mint a robot chassis NFT, which can then be customised by attaching Megapont Robot Components to increase its value. Unlike MAYC however, the robot variant that Megapont Ape Club owners are entitled to is free.  

Top STX Collections

Info gathered from Stacksonchain (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

Top STX Movers (7D)

Info gathered from Stacksonchain (Updated 4 Jan 21) 

And Beyond…

The market cap of the entire NFT space across all chains is currently estimated to be somewhere in the region of $45B - a staggering figure if you consider that the space simply did not exist a year and a half ago. Ethereum co-founder Gerring has not only given the space his endorsement, but has indicated his belief that the value of the space will continue to grow. 

There are some who believe that despite the enormous prices they are already trading at, the NFT space has not even begun to achieve its true valuation.  While the future is uncertain - arguing to the contrary is becoming increasingly difficult.

Written by Rob Henderson for Novum Insights

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