2022 marked a year in crypto that was wildly different from 2021 when NFTs and cryptocurrencies were soaring in value for the majority of the year, especially after Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta announcement which caused a second bull rush at the tail end of the year. 

Since then, the NFT market has been in a free fall as public opinion of the market continues to worsen with more and more people concluding that NFTs are worthless and offer no significant utilities. 

However, despite the ridicule and depressed market, there were still many notable NFT collections throughout the year that caused waves within the world of web3. 

1. Pudgy Penguins

   Following a rough transition in leadership, the new team at Pudgy Penguins has slowly begun building out the collection’s IP. The team leading the project has taken significant action in getting penguins from the collection onto cereal boxes and toys. 

   This is a massive step in the world of NFTs at a time when their mere existence tends to bring out harsh criticisms and rhetoric that don’t accurately reflect the reality of NFTs. With their exposure gaining traction in web2, Pudgy Penguins have made it clear that there is still a lot of untapped potential to be made in web3. 

2. Goblintown.wtf

   At the beginning of the summer, the crypto crash was in full swing following the collapse of TerraLUNA which caused the entire crypto market to plunge into a free fall, and has yet to recover. At the same time, NFT traders were just beginning to become more savvy as calls for utilities and branding began to shift the market towards more meaningful collections. 

   Then, suddenly, the goblins appeared. Without any explanation, roadmap, or utilities, Goblintown.wtf quickly took over the market as a complete outlier to the common thesis that many traders were following. 

   The tokens soared above a 9 Eth floor price and caused a massive wave of degenerative NFT collections that followed suit with poorly constructed/plagiarized artwork. Degen season became all the rage and the market quickly sped up with new collections pumping and dumping within hours instead of days. 

   Now, back at a more realistic floor price, the Goblintown collection has remained significant among traders as a symbol of the insane NFT market that fueled the summer. 

3. Otherside

   Unlike the metaverse being developed by Meta itself, the Otherside metaverse is poised for exciting growth following its massive mint out earlier in April. With nearly 100,000 tokens within the collection, Otherdeeds for the Otherside was one of the biggest collections to date and had so much hype surrounding it that the Ethereum network struggled to keep up. 

   With consistent developments by a team that is highly trusted in the NFT space, it is clear that the Otherside metaverse has the full potential to become the primary metaverse that was originally envisioned in 2021. 

4. Moonbirds

   On the day of mint, Moonbirds quickly shot up to incredible floor prices above 30 Eth. A large portion of their success was due to its parent collection PROOF Collective which is run by Kevin Rose. 

   He, and his team, along with members from PROOF, were able to create a token with utilities that could rival the likes of Yuga Labs. Although some of their decisions involving CC0 have been met with opposition, Moonbirds still remains one of the most exciting NFTs from 2022. 

5. ChampsOnly Pass

   Alpha groups were one of the easiest examples of how an NFT could carry utility. By offering insightful information on upcoming projects and new releases, holders were able to expand their personal networks and meet new people across web3. 

   However, a seemingly endless amount of alpha groups made it difficult for traders to decide who to join; and at the top of that list was ChampsOnly Pass which boasted a massive network of connections with NFT Llama, Short Stack, and Platinum Tools.

   Led by popular YouTube influencer Champ himself, the community was able to form one of the strongest collections of alpha callers and traders available. Despite a depreciating floor price, holders have consistently earned profits through the declining NFT market and have used the community to form their own NFT projects.