NFT Nostalgia: 99 NFT Collections From 2021 That Fuelled The Revolution
Mark Fielding
Writer and Podcaster | Researching & Exploring Every Corner Of Crypto @Thinking On Paper Podcast | Web3 Writer @Outlier | Book Club Host | Scriptwriter | Snowboarder | All Opinions My Own.
In 2020, NFTs were the preserve of a few enlightened owners, artists, developers, gamers and investors. I’m not saying they didn’t exist - $13.7 million worth was sold in the first half of the year, $250 million by year’s end - rather, they weren’t a big deal.
One of the first NFTs, Quantum, had been created six years earlier. CryptoPunks started their journey to immortality in 2017. In 2018 the NFT standard ERC-721 was created and became the NFT standard of CryptoKitties. Decentraland was one year old. Dapper Labs were working on NBA Top Shots, and Mike Winklemann was 4948 days in.
If 2021 hadn’t come along when it did (Editors note: when else would it have come along?), most of us would have remained oblivious. But 2021 did happen, and time compression took hold. A week felt like a year, a month a decade. The earlier months of 2021 seem like a century ago.
To keep the memories from drying out, I took a drive down Nostalgia Avenue, opened up the engine and went dancing with my old friend reminiscence.
**disclaimer ** NFTs are not just JPGS of apes and toads and punks. They are far more than PFPS and questionable art. They will become part of society, integral to finance, property, entertainment, gaming, law, and music. Hell, smart contracts will become as wrapped up in our culture as the car. They will create utility which doesn’t even exist. But this article is about flying monkeys and apes and cats and mutated squirrels and music and Jay Z changing his Twitter avatar, and the absurdity of it all.
NFTS in January 2021: No gamers, no Metaverse.
“Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.” - Karen Joy Fowler
This is a list of blockchain games which had NFTS woven into their structure back in January. It’s a long list, and proof that if anyone said “we’re early” in 2021, wasn't.
Long inhale...
The Sandbox, Six Dragons, Splinterlands, Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, Blankos Block Party, 9 lives Arena, War Riders…. Better yet, check the whole list out here on this awesome post on E-gamers.io from January.
Forgotten to the annals of time, the New Year hangover still sensitive, outside of games, January was a quiet month for NFTs. People getting on with their lives, oblivious to what was coming, many unaware that soon they would be millionaires, others a cog in the life-changing clockwork of the NFT community.
The Monstercat drop was made of two parts, the origins collection and the Constellations Pack. A collection of 500 NFTS, The constellations Pack sold out in one second.
The good will out.
And February always follows January.
NFTS in February
“February is always a bad month for TV sports. Football is gone, basketball is plodding along in the annual mid-season doldrums, and baseball is not even mentioned.” - Hunter S. Thompson
February waltzed into the room like the Bolshoi Ballet, spinning triple axels as the early crowds began to knock at the NFT door.
Notions of utility would evolve and mutate, get refined and redefined as the year developed.
In the month Decentraland celebrated its first birthday, Two Feet and FEWOCiOUS held an NFT auction. It became the fourth to top $1m in sales, Only Beeple, Pak and Trevor Jones had hit the millionaire maker milestone before February.
Of the $325 million generated from NFT sales in February, $25 million was minted via the music industry, so about as much as Elton John spends on flowers.
February saw the carriages attached to the crazy train. Everyone’s favourite flying cat sold for half a million US dollars.
Seeds. Sown.
February was the opening seventh of the 12 bar blues of 2021.
Or something.
NFTS in March
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” - Charles Dickens
Whatever else happened in March, it will be forever remembered as the month of 5000 days. Say what you will about Beeple, have you tried keeping a habit for a week? Imagine doing something every day for 5000 days and see how far you get. David Blaine slept in a glass box for three days and was heralded a saint. Beeple is an artist, make no mistake.
The fallout from a $69 million NFT sale gave rise to ‘The Explanation’.
“What is an NFT?”
“What is an NFT?”
“What is an NFT?”
“How can I buy an NFT?”
“What the hell is an NFT?”
Google had its work cut out. Non fungible analogies were rife, poets and media outlets trying their best to make the improbable sound decadent.
The BBC, ABC, CNN, Reuters, The Guardian. Fighting for cringe.
Murmurings of a bubble floated aimlessly through the cracks.
Little did they know.
March saw the music business’s participation ramp up.
March also saw the Associated Press sell an NFT entitled “The 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space,” for 100 ETH ($180,000 back then. $402,000 today). Before you throw caution to the wind, a word to the wise. The presidential election NFT now appears to be on sale for $80 on the OpenSea.
Correct me if I’m wrong. Please.
NFTS in April
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” - George Orwell
In April, CryptoPunks boasted a price floor of $34,700. Media outlets continued their complex explanations of what an NFT, juggling their errors with a bubble, as if comparing tulips in the 17th century was a legitimate reason to question the value of a Pudgy Penguin.
People were asking Google if NFTs were hype.
Fortunes were made. Inheritance lost.
“Should I invest my daughter’s college fund in an Art Block?”
The real fun had not even begun.
Meanwhile, the musical madness of March wasn’t a mirage, merely a mesmerising prelude for April and the laying down of a big fat bass line of utility for NFTS.
Spotify pay $0.0032 per stream?
Oh, right.
Talking ‘bout a revolution.
First quarter sales hit $2 billion.
The silly train was gathering steam.
April… April. There was another NFT mint in April. What was it?
And it wasn’t the biggest drop of the month.
Not in the annals of history at least.
Google spiders lost their collective algorithm.
“How to mint your first NFT?”
“Where is my NFT?”
“What is an NFT?”
You asked that already.
“How can I make a billion with NFTs?”
“Who invented NFTS?”
领英推荐
“Does the Queen have an NFT?”
“Oh shit, why did I click on that?”
“Where has my NFT gone?”
Because they soon would.
Oh yes. I remember now.
On 23rd April, unbeknownst to the world at large, an NFT collection was about ready for mint.
It would remain unsold for days.
Imagine that world.
Welcome to the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
And the sun came out.
NFTS in May
“Winds of May, that dance on the sea, / Dancing a ring-around in glee / From furrow to furrow, while overhead The foam flies up to be garlanded.” - James Joyce
In May Carmen Electra and Gary Vaynerchuck released NFTS. The former worked with NFT collector JeffBezo4Skin to auction off a piece of her body for advertising purposes (and honourable charitable donations), the latter released VeeFriends.
Sometimes, when I am drunk, I show my non NFT friends right-click saves of VeeFriends.
It’s cruel. I know.
As my non NFT friends laughed their way home, Elon Musk was gearing up for Saturday Night Live, the world waiting for some kind of rupture in the space / crypto time continuum, a 1 dollar Dogecoin, a 100K BTC and uncle Dave buying NFTs for Christmas.
Non of it happened.
I mean, Elon went on SNL, but the other stuff didn’t happen.
Maybe next year.
Enough of the meme-coins.
What about….
Ownership?
And,
NFTS?
Music, aside.
Removal of uncertainty. Which is sublime for house deeds and the last will and testament.
Because smart contracts.
Like, real, thinking contracts.
Programmable contracts.
And once programmed,
They can’t be altered by nefarious uncles and step sisters.
But we can save the serious conversations for Autumn.
Because summer was about to arrive.
And things would never be the same again.
NFTS in June
“If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.”
June was the month when the summer of NFTs became a living, breathing, monster. The stress of storing your life’s savings and investments on a fancy memory stick in a drawer next to your bed became a terrifying time bomb.
Bots don’t wait for tomorrow.
Ma?ana.
Elon Musk keeps his keys in a time capsule on Mars.
Not your keys, not your crypto.
Not your keys, not your NFT.
“Where the hell did my NFT go?”
Let’s go to the races with the NFTs of June.
Call me cynical.
Dolorean were followed to 88 mph by a brand machine gun of names.
Krigler?
“That’s a brand?”
“Yes, they make luxury perfume.”
“And they released an NFT?”
“Yes.”
“Of perfume?”
“Yes.”
“Like, a sniff-an-NFT?”
Krigler were followed by Dominos….
“Dominos? The pizza company?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. Shit getting crazy.”
Porsche.
A CryptoPunk Alien sold for $11.8 million.
All hail Silly Season.
Over to you, professional sports teams and athletes.
And the crowd goes wild.
The Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks were just two teams in a tidal wave of sports NFTs which hit the market in June. They weren’t the first, and they certainly won’t be the last. Especially with French football card game Sorare is valued at the same price as Neptune.
The Celtics and the Bucks were joined by Jerry Jeudy and Kyle Lowry and their own personal collections.
Greatest hits.
Greatest shots.
Greatest field goals.
I don’t know who they are, I support Aston Villa.
Where are the Norwich City NFTS? Hey Delia Smith, NGMI!
It’s hard to believe Floyd Mayweather left it so late.
Joey the Tiger Prawn was selling NFTs from prison and you could buy a 150 NFTs of Ian MacShane out of Lovejoy.
Which has nothing to do with sport. But was maybe the inspiration Jay-Z needed to change his Twitter avatar to a CryptoPunk?
“Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude.” - Julius Caesar
And on that note, I’ll see you in July.
For Part Two.
Writer and Podcaster | Researching & Exploring Every Corner Of Crypto @Thinking On Paper Podcast | Web3 Writer @Outlier | Book Club Host | Scriptwriter | Snowboarder | All Opinions My Own.
2 年NFThours NFT Thought Leaders Team GaryVee any NFT collections I have missed? I'd love to add to this. Appreciate everything you do.