If Only You Bought These 5 NFTs at the Beginning of 2022…

I’m not going to go on a whole lyrical digression about how the NFT industry is taking over the crypto space. We all remember well the enormous hype swirling around the digital art collectibles market back in 2021. However, the past year has been extremely turbulent for the whole crypto sphere.

In the second quarter of 2022, the NFT industry was significantly influenced by the downturn in the market. We witnessed a drop in volume of USD traded and in the total number of NFT buyers worldwide by 25%, compared to Q1 of 2021. It is therefore logical to ask – are there still worthy projects in the game that have managed to weather this storm?

My answer is ‘yes’, since there are lots of long-term titles just waiting for the right moment to shine and bring users some of those big bucks. I have done some research into this and in today’s article, I’d like to plug you into 5 NFT projects whose floor price has risen.  

Without further ado, let’s take a look at some NFTs that didn’t buckle under the pressure of the market and to this day, continue to show excellent results.  

Starting off with some luxurious stuff that every NFT enthusiast will have run into at least once on their NFT journey. Of course, I'm talking about the old but gold CryptoPunks.

The Larva Labs team went public with the project back in 2017 but it didn’t gain popularity or a fan base right away. Initially, some of the tokens from this collection were distributed for free, one only had to pay the transaction fee on the Ethereum network. With the rise of the NFT industry, CryptoPunks blew up, becoming one of the biggest and most popular collections out there.  

The collection consists of 10,000 8-bit images of eccentric characters. Every CryptoPunk possesses characteristics that are repeated, some more and some less often – the rarer the attribute, the more expensive the NFT. 

To be honest, there is nothing fancy about the artistic design of these Punks since they were all created using generative art. Basically, the characters were generated from multiple attributes and include humans, monkeys, aliens and even zombies.

In January 2022, users were able to grab a CryptoPunk for around 60 ETH. As of late August, their floor price ranges from 65 to 68 ETH. Decent profit, eh? 

Moving on to the next project, Degenerate Ape Academy, this NFT collection is based on the Solana blockchain. The collection features 10,000 unique 3D Apes with conical shaped heads. 

Given the 5 different levels of rarity (i.e. common, uncommon, rare, super rare and mythic), these one-of-a-kind creatures are the subject of interest to investors all over the world. I also want to underline that these NFTs provide owners with access to the Degeniverse and the Degen DAOs. The latter is considered to be one of the largest Solana DAOs. 

Back in mid January 2022, you had a chance to purchase one of these precious tokens for only 41-42 SOL, while today, their floor price is almost 52 SOL.   

Another Solana-based collection that has been doing well is Solsteads Surreal Estate. It consists of 2,472 beautiful surrealistic homes that play host to an exclusive gallery exhibiting any NFTs held in the same wallet. Each Solsteads Surreal Estate NFT comes with a unique street address as well as a depiction of the one-of-a-kind home. 

What I find unique about the project is how the development team came up with some pretty interesting utilities for these digital pieces of real-estate. The team plans to convert all the Solsteads NFTs into a 2D metaverse. It is supposed to involve engaging and fun gaming elements, including the ability to upgrade one’s home by implementing new functionality. 

This fact, coupled with its well-developed marketing strategy, has taken the total trading volume to 159,307 SOL. As for the floor price, it’s gone up from 5 SOL to 16 SOL since the beginning of 2022. 

One more Solana project that I would like to highlight in today’s Article is Okay Bears. This is an NFT collection with a total supply of 10,000 algorithmically-generated bears.

The project’s management team focused on creating good vibes around the collection to help these incredibly chilled and good-looking bears go viral. This strategy obviously worked out well since Okay Bears literally took over the Solana NFT market at some point. 

Thanks to the unique sales channel ecosystem and various brand-growing activities including live events, outdoor campaigns and IRL events, the project has built an extremely relaxed community of genuine digital art lovers. 

Aside from that, owners of Okay Bears NFTs are eligible to enter The Park – an exclusive Discord channel where every community member is equal. This is a perfect hangout area to share positive emotions and make new acquaintances with like-minded individuals. 

Generally, I am a big fan of the Okay Bears culture and that’s what founders should shoot for with their projects. There is enough toxicity all over the internet, so it’s good to see a genuinely friendly and strong community. 

Most interestingly, these Bears seem to be doing just fine during this bearish run. You bet, it's their natural environment! Since their release in April 2022, their floor price has skyrocketed from a few SOL all the way up to 64 SOL. Not bad for a bunch of Bears, right?

I’ve mentioned quite enough Solana-based collections so let’s get back to the veteran of the NFT space now. The last collection on this shortlist goes by the title of Moonbirds. It consists of 10,000 utility-enabled PFPs issued on Ethereum that feature a broad and unique range of rarity-powered traits. 

Each Moonbird unlocks access to PROOF’s private Discord server, in-person events, NFT collaborations, a podcast, free NFT drops and other exciting perks. However, for me personally, the staking feature is the real deal-maker when it comes to the Moonbirds collection. The idea behind it is that the longer a user holds a token, the more benefits they get in future. 

Shortly after going public, you could have owned a Moonbird NFT for only 7 ETH. Now, its floor price stands at 26 ETH (at the time of writing). 

Wrapping up, I express my strong desire to instill in you the importance of holding. This is literally the ultimate winning strategy that will allow you to make profits in the crypto space, regardless of the conditions. 

Whether it's a hot bullish run or a freezing cold crypto winter scaring you off with its red trend of falling prices, always remember to hold and research. The projects we discussed here today are just some of the most vivid examples out of thousands of worthy collections out there. Quite possibly, many of them just haven’t found their early believers yet.  

Who knows, maybe your very own analysis of the market leads you to a real gem that is about to explode and enrich you in the process…? 

So don’t let FOMO eat you from the inside out, focus instead on doing your own research and sticking with a holding strategy. That’s the recipe for switching from an NFT enthusiast to a professional. 

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