#029: NFTs trending up to kick off 2022
Happy New Year and welcome to 2022, NFT Drops readers! In this edition of the newsletter, we will break down the biggest NFT news from the start of the new year including the rise in floor price for many blue chip collections and the drop of “Leggenda” by Stefano Contiero with Gallery and FlamingoDAO.
Here we go!💧
NFT News Recap
The Stoned Ape Crew has been soaring since the New Year. Selling out within 2 minutes late in November, the Apes have since shot up to a floor price of 29 SOL. In a burgeoning Solana NFT atmosphere where Blue Chips have yet to be solidified, watch out for Apes as a lasting collection.
The $LOOKS token launched on January 10th in conjunction with a hot new NFT marketplace, LooksRare. Tokens were airdropped to OpenSea users based off of how much ETH they spent and received (see chart below). Originally settling around $2 per token, $LOOKS currently sits just below $5.
Art Blocks dropped four collections during the week of 01/09. “Chimera” dropped via the Curated wing of Art Blocks, while “Maps for grief”, “AlphaModica”, and “Synesthesia” dropped through Art Blocks Factory. Each collection sold out.
The Alien Frens are a collection of 10,000 NFTs that have marked the OpenSea rankings in 2022. The NFTs have large followings on discord and twitter, with many popular NFT figures sporting frens as their pfps. The floor price is 2.8 ETH at the time of publication.
Phanta Bears have also been in the spotlight over the past few weeks ever since their drop on New Year’s Day. The collection’s peak was January 10th, when the average sale was for 7.87 ETH. Now, the floor sits at 3.99 ETH. Read more about the Phanta Bears and their vision here.
After a long wait, the Wanderers collection made Planet Pass NFTs available to all holders. The team has incorporated a detailed system through which Wanderers can explore all of the Planets in the Wanderverse and build their passport. Much more information is available on the Planet Pass website.
Leggenda
This week, Gallery teamed up with Stefano Contiero and FlamingoDAO to deliver the “Leggenda” collection. Stefano’s artwork featured an intricate and elegant generative style, powering the collection to sell out in under 24 hours.
overwhelmed by the reaction to leggenda❤️ when this was coming together, i knew it was going to special. but to see the release, the collection selling out, the response by the community to the art — unreal 🤯. what a way to start 2022 for @useGALLERY, only up from here!SOLD OUT All 888 Leggendas have been minted. We will be taking a snapshot of all wallet addersses who hold a Leggenda piece next Wednesday at 3p ET. General Membership Card minting will open to mint for whitelisted wallets shortly after. https://t.co/RmAvUmhHj6GALLERY @useGALLERYLeggenda is Stefano Contiero’s follow-up to his trio of Art Blocks releases early in 2021. He calls the collection a reflection on the NFT renaissance, and says that the works may be around much longer than he is.
For the drop mechanics, Gallery users with premium membership cards (pictured below) were eligible to mint Leggendas before public access. In this time period, only about 1/2 of Leggendas were minted. There were plenty left for public purchase.
The mint process was facilitated through FlamingoDAO’s Flutter page, which recently launched in collaboration with Art Blocks. The only other drop to take place on Flamingo Flutter is Kenny Vaden’s “Worlds”. You can view both Leggenda and Worlds NFTs under the same OpenSea link, here, and one can expect the two collections to hold more value as the Flutter platform grows.
The public sale saw some big names picking up multiple Leggendas, such as GrailersDAO.
Leggendas have a floor of 0.49 ETH, which sits healthily above the mint price of 0.33. Keep your eye on Leggendas, Gallery, and Flamingo Flutter in 2022!
Blue Chips on the Rise
Ever since the new year, several cemented NFT collections have leapt in value. This period has been hallmarked by high sales volume, but also features a few notable individual sales like the one below for Bored Ape Yacht Club Mega Mutant Serum.
On that note, the floor price for both Apes and Mutant Apes has shot up:
Both have been in the top ten of OpenSea’s trending collections for weeks, and show no sign of leaving.
Check out the Doodles as well:
And World of Women (floor price of 7.5 ETH):
And the Cool Cats!
If recent activity is any indication, we can expect a prosperous 2022 as new users onboard into the NFT space. Getting caught up staring at floor prices is not always best practice, but it is exciting to watch blue chip collections diffuse into mainstream culture.
That’s It!
Thanks for reading! Happy 2022! See you all in two weeks💧