Oscar Wilde once said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and he isn’t wrong a century later. When an NFT breaks new ground and sells well based on ingenuity or new styles, many other projects try to imitate them to capture that same magic. 

Unlike derivatives (which blatantly copy a project), the projects influenced by success are often more respectable, trying to follow similar formulas. 

These actions are how the NFT space evolves and establishes so many varieties because it leads to trend setting projects and rewards new projects which break the mold. 

Trending NFT artwork

The most obvious aspect of an NFT project that gets imitated is the artwork. The art style of a project is the first thing that traders experience when looking at a project and immediately shows how much effort a team is putting into their tokens. 

ill poop it nft

Starting with a mint price of .00777 Eth, ill poop it NFT was able to quickly rise to .45+ Eth in only a week because of its artistic resemblance to goblintown.wtf. 

This crude token is the latest in a line of NFT offspring influenced by the sudden rise of Goblintown.wtf which began as a free mint and quickly rose above a 5 Eth floor price. 

The token even takes its utility a step further with its burning utility which replaces 2 ill poop it NFTs with a token from the shitbeast NFT. While gross, the project itself shows that imitation can also include its advancements that add additional features to create value. 

Boki

Boki is another project which has experienced large success lately after its release in May 2022. After a botched public sale mint and subsequent difficulties buying the token, popularity eventually took over and propelled the token to a sturdy 1 Eth floor price.

The token itself is heavily inspired by the Doodles artwork which emphasizes a cute and creative cartoon art style. 

Doodles are well known among NFT communities as one of the premier blue-chip NFTs available. However, its support has slowly waned lately due to its lack of utilities that were not established when it was first created.

Fortunately for Boki, utilities are something that the project team ultimately included, allowing token holders to take part in a vibrant community that is set to expand with future tokens. 

The mint process makes a difference for NFTs

The methods of acquiring certain NFTs have also become a subject of imitation. There have been a variety of different ways that NFTs are released during public mints which have been the catalyst for incredible profits. 

Free Mint

Mining tokens for free was generally seen as a risky feature for most tokens until GoblinTown.wtf made some buzz off of their free mint. 

The general opinion was that minting a token for free meant that undercutters would have no limit to how low they would be willing to drop a floor price for a project because gas was the only cost paid to obtain the token.

However, after goblintown.wtf, free mints have been seen as an easy way to release a project without the necessary whitelist grind. Instead of complex marketing strategies, teams just allow their tokens to be mint with the hope that trader enthusiasm will carry the project.

Stealth Launch

Stealth launching is another strategy that has slowly become more popular which emphasizes releasing a project immediately without much build-up. The belief is that traders will quickly flock to the project in hopes to make quick profits through multiple low-scale sales of the project. 

These types of launches are popular for teams that are trying to capitalize on a market trend which is at its peak. Projects like We’re All Going to Die have been able to use stealth launches as a strong tactic that marries trader interest with immediate buying ability. 

What are the gains of following NFT trends?

While derivatives and copycats play a game of chasing the success of real projects, teams that implement successful features from previous projects tend to do quite well if the team creates a serious project. 

The profits from these projects may not match the original project exactly, but the chance of reaching a respectable floor price is still possible. 

However, the biggest takeaway from projects that follow similar trends is that they eventually push the limits themselves, showing that their efforts also have the power to evolve the NFT market for the better.