Non-fungible tokens are becoming more and more popular steadily establishing a range of trends in digital ownership.

These tokens are unique and provide real financial value at the same time. Thus, unique things easily become tokens: works of art, music, autographs and everything that can only be of any value. By purchasing an NFT token, such as the James LeBron clip on the NBA Top Shot, the user does not receive print rights to the clip, or possibly a physical copy of it. He owns only a few traces of the code, which shows that he’s the owner of the only digital asset.

Today, high-profile companies like Visa, Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, Asics try to dip their toes into the NFT market while experimenting with NFTs in their industries.

Consider the possible scenarios for NFTs development in 2022, 2muchcoffee elaborates on the main trends in non-fungible tokens.

1. Club Membership: Bored Apes Yacht Club

Being the first non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, CryptoPunks are no longer the main brand in NFT. This month there was emerged a new one and the NFT world is going crazy for Bored Ape Yacht Club - a collection of 10,000 unique NFT digital collectible ape avatars with different facial expressions.

Each Bored Ape was generated based on various traits, like background color, style of clothing, fur, earring, eyes, hat, or mouth. Each Bored Ape costs 0.08 ETH (with is around $245 USD). In addition, Bored Ape NFTs are currently up for auction at Sotheby's, with an estimated haul of up to $18 million once it's all said and done.

Owners of Ape NFTs have their own Twitter profile and other perks with their membership. For example, access to owner-only merchandise drops (like from hot streetwear brand The Hundreds); access to a Discord chat for other owners (including the likes of NBA star Steph Curry); and free additional NFTs from BAYC, like Mutant Apes and Bored Ape Kennel Club.

Bored Apes create a status around their NFTs and a strong sense of community. As a user having the feeling of belonging to the membership club that drives users to exchange their experience and continue buying NFTs.

2. Unusual NFT Items: EtherRocks

If you think that the image of a stone could not be a valuable digital collectible, you are wrong. EtherRocks was launched in 2017 shortly after CryptoPunks. IT is a series of 100 crypto-collectibles NFT-type pictures depicting rocks. Except for the color, the rock pictures look the same. Yet these NFTs are selling for $1.3 million for a picture.

You can ask “So, what are these rock pics good for?” The EtherRock website states that “These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE beyond being able to be brought and sold, and giving you a strong sense of pride in being an owner of 1 of the only 100 rocks in the game.”

EtherRocks is famous for its golden standard in NFT ownership. The NFTs, like the idea of EtherRocks, were inspired by the classic collectible toy Pet Rock made in 1975.

3. Big brands are stepping in: Сoca-Cola

During the second NFT boom, brands are doing something slightly different, and considerably more interesting: they’re buying existing NFTs, rather than making their own (that most people don’t want).

In July this year, Coca-cola launched its first-ever NFT collection. There are four unique Coca-Cola NFTs will be up for auction via popular marketplace OpenSea.

The NFT collection includes a friendship box that reveals a coke vending machine upon opening, a coca-cola bubble jacket that can be worn in Decentraland 3D virtual reality platform, a sound visualizer (the sound of the bottle opening and sound of the drink being poured over ice, to the “ahhh” that accompanies that first sip), and a friendship card that is inspired by Coca-cola trading cards from the 1990s.

Recently, Visa announced the purchase of a NFT for 50 ETH (about $165,000) with a view to adding it to its collection of “historic commerce artifacts.”

4. Fractionalized NFTs

While crypto billionaires are gleefully snapping up Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, those six-and-seven-figure NFTs are way out of the average crypto user’s price range. But unlike with traditional artworks, it’s possible to fractionalize an NFT, breaking it up into multiple (cheaper) parts that can be bought by the less well-off.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) is specialize in buying up NFTs, in order to gain exposure to this new asset class. Moreover, now DAO is the place for hanging out with other crypto users.

5. Gaming NFTs: Axie Infinity

Nowadays you can’t mention NFT without mentioning gaming digital collectibles. Gaming culture was the first one that focused a lot of attention on the notion of digital assets and crypto.

Axie Infinity, the Ethereum-based crypto game has quickly become the most vivid and successful example of crypto games. It is racking up more than $1.6 billion of NFT transaction volume since June — more than any other single NFT collection or project. In this game the main characters, creatures, are NFTs which are required to even play the game. Players then earn crypto token rewards, which can be enough to fuel a living wage in some countries.

6. Generative Art: Art Blocks

Believe it or not, a blockchain can not only host the token representing a deed of ownership for a piece of artwork, but actually create the artwork itself.

That’s the premise of the burgeoning generative artwork NFT market, in which a script or algorithm stored on a blockchain produces original, one-of-a-kind artwork during the minting process. Art Blocks is by far the biggest player in the space.

The Ethereum-based initiative encompasses a wide array of individual drops by various artists, spanning a diverse swath of artwork styles and approaches—and nearly all of it is surging lately. Art Blocks saw $583 million worth of trading volume in August alone as collectors created a feeding frenzy around new drops and paid top dollar for secondary market pieces.

A single Art Blocks NFT from Dmitri Cherniak’s Ringers collection sold for $5.66 million worth of ETH in late August to Starry Night Capital, a new NFT-centric investment fund started by Three Arrows Capital. Earlier that same week, a piece from Tyler Hobbs’ Fidenza project went for $3.3 million worth of ETH.

Meanwhile, an earlier, smaller generative artwork project called Autoglyphs—from CryptoPunks creators Larva Labs—has seen multiple single NFT sales above $1 million lately.

Final Words

We believe, that NFTs are unstoppable engines that will only evolve in the future. NFTs definitely has the potential to transform and improve different sectors and industries. If you’d like to add some arguments, pros, or cons into this conversation, feel free to contact us, so we include your thoughts in the next article!

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