The NFT market has seen exponential growth. Over the past 12 months, just over 200 rounds for NFT startups in their company description have collectively raised over $2.6 billion in seed, venture, or growth funding, per Crunchbase data.
To capitalize on the demand, investors are paying more attention to startups in the space than ever before (and for good reason!).
If you’re one of those people whose eyes glaze over at the mention of anything NFT-related, check out the list we’ve compiled of the ten of the craziest facts about NFT startups. It’s sure to provide a bit of perspective…
OUR SUPER INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NFT STARTUPS
1. BORED APE CREATOR YUGA’S OTHERDEED LAUNCH WAS THE LARGEST NFT MINT EVER
The biggest NFT mint ever, 55,000 parcels of “virtual land” were recently sold for more than $300 million. For about $6,000, a buyer received an Otherdeed NFT, which authenticates the customer’s ownership of a patch of digital real estate in Yuga Labs’ new Otherside gaming world. The sale took place on April 30 and lasted around three hours.
2. ART AI IS THE FIRST ISRAELI STARTUP TO CONTRIBUTE AN NFT STARTUP ART COLLECTION TO THE ARCTIC WORLD ARCHIVE
An unusual storage facility stores hundreds of reels of Piql film encased in three-ply foil bags deep in the permafrost in Svalbard, a Norwegian island between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Manuscripts from the Vatican Library, scientific history from the European Space Agency, Rembrandt, and Munch masterpieces, and 21 terabytes of open-source code from GitHub are all printed on the reels.
Art AI made history by becoming the first Israeli startup to add an NFT startup art collection to the facility. The startup’s eponymous collection includes 10,000 artworks by more than 3,000 different artists created in a single night. All 10,000 NFTs were sold within hours of launch, and $300,000 was collected.
The Art AI collection was selected for inclusion in AWA because it was uniquely created using algorithms that can create art without human intervention.
3. BORED APE AND CRYPTOPUNKS ARE THE MOST VALUABLE NFT STARTUP COLLECTIONS
As per TechCrunch, these two collections are worth a minimum of, worth a minimum of $3.6 billion. Yuga Labs, the startup behind the Bored Apes Yacht Club, announced the acquisition of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs in March 2022.
4. PAK’S THE MERGE IS CURRENTLY CONSIDERED THE MOST EXPENSIVE NFT EVER SOLD.
On December 2, 2021, The Merge officially became the most expensive NFT ever sold, with over 30,000 collectors pitching together for $91.8 million.
5. OPENSEA, THE WORLD’S HOTTEST NFT STARTUP (AND THE LARGEST NFT MARKETPLACE) GAINED 500,000 USERS IN 1 YEAR.
In January 2022, the company disclosed that it was worth $13.3bn (£9.8bn) following an investment of $300m. The platform boasts a wide range of collections from beginners through to mega-collections like Azuki, BEANZ, Otherdeed, Moonbirds, and many others. More recently they announced that Solana will be added (currently in beta) in addition to already supporting Ethereum and Polygon (gasless).
6. ONE OF THE BIGGEST CRYPTO HACKS TO DATE
Tech Startup Sky Mavis, developers of Axie Infinity (an NFT-based online video game), recently disclosed that Axie Infinity lost $625 million in a recent cyber-attack.
Such dangers are common in the crypto sector.
Many exchanges rely on their internal security system, which steadily improves as they deal with numerous hacking/security events. A key challenge is to find third-party solutions or service providers that can respond fast enough to these risks.
7. THE FIRST NFT APPLICATION IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY
Cloudkeys, a Greek startup, launched the first NFT application in the tourism sector, merging digital assets with real experiences to generate value for travelers and companies.
Cloudkeys has provided 360-degree management for vacation rental homes in Athens for the past three years. They created a selection of ten NFT travel packages, allowing travelers to visit and experience Greece in a personalized way. The NFTs were exchanged on the Ethereum blockchain with the assistance of omgdrops.
8. A BANKSY ARTWORK WAS BURNED, AND THE VIDEO WAS SOLD AS AN NFT
In the NFT space, burning is equivalent to destroying an NFT. The burning of one NFT is commonly utilized to generate scarcity and boost the value of other NFTs.
Injective Protocol took burning NFTs to another level in 2021. They paid $95,000 for the Morons artwork by Banksy and physically burnt it. They videotaped the artwork’s destruction and, you guessed it, marketed it as an NFT!
9. THE WORLD’S FIRST DIGITAL FRAGRANCE WAS CREATED IN 2021
Berlin-based Look Labs created the world’s first digital fragrance in 2021.
The company created a digital artwork after recording the molecular wavelengths of a genuine perfume called Cyber Eau de Parfum. They put ten editions of the digital fragrance up for auction as NFTs.
10. GARY VAYNERCHUK (VEEFRIENDS) USED NFTS TO SELL 1 MILLION BOOKS IN JUST 24 HOURS.
Ok, so this one’s technically not about a startup per se, but we love Gary Vee, so why not!?
In 2021, Vaynerchuk presented a tempting offer: buyers would receive an NFT for every dozen copies of his book Twelve and a Half purchased within 24 hours. This set a new benchmark for the publishing industry.
THE FUTURE OF NFTS
The crypto world is dynamic. A dozen new crazy NFT startups facts will likely crop up by the time you read this, warranting a brand-new article!
Working with the NFT industry and spending many hours researching NFTs has shown us that the potential of NFTs is nearly infinite.
If the next five years are anything like the last few months, NFT startups will disrupt a wide range of industries in a massive way.
…And the demand for NFTs will just keep on rising.