Even though the NFT market has seen a recent surge in popularity, several projects have been active for over seven years. Regarding NFT archaeology, people are going backward in time to find some of the NFT undertakings that built the framework for contemporary culture. Although NFTs predate many of the games we have now, such as Wizardia, we may still find them today.
Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Eminem, Stephen Curry, and Snoop Dog are not just at the top of their respective fields—they’re also on the cutting edge of the NFT trend! These stars are proudly brandishing their PFP NFTs on social media, broadcasting a new form of digital ownership and exclusivity. And it’s not just about show and tell—these PFP NFTs can fetch prices in the thousands or even millions of dollars, marking them as symbols of both elite status and financial robustness. Still scratching your head about what a PFP NFT is or curious about the top players in the game? Dive into this Cryptopolitan guide and get the full scoop!
You have probably already heard of the PFP NFTs or profile pictures that have been taking over X (formerly Twitter) and other social media. The mystique surrounding these priceless virtual beings draws in our audience.
It all started in early 2021 when CryptoPunks first hit the market. At the time, there weren’t many projects like it, and it quickly became a popular choice for investors and collectors.
In the years since its inception, CryptoPunks have continued to grow in popularity, and today, it remains one of the most popular NFT projects around.
The most popular NFT collections have frequently been Profile Picture (PFP) NFT collections out of all the use cases for NFTs, including digital art and gaming.
What is a PFP NFT project?
PFP is a well-liked acronym in online and social media culture. Many full-form terms for PFP, including profile image, picture for proof, and pictures for profile, are used online by users. The NFT craze has elevated this pursuit to a new level—NFTs as PFPs—as users search for distinctive, bright, and statement-making PFPs.
These digital works of art frequently consist of a large number of avatars, or online personas, that are used as profile images on social networking sites like X, Instagram, and Facebook, among others. Characters can range from historical figures to zombies to mythological characters, and some collections have up to 10,000 different avatars.
The shoulder-length drawings, which can also be hand-drawn, feature a variety of figures, including apes, aliens, ducks, robots, toads, and people, and they reflect many features.
A PFP NFT generator would produce distinctive NFTs, each of which would feature the personality’s face and highlight the combination of attributes that make them special.
X has made it possible to link your NFTs with a crypto wallet and show them as the user’s avatar. The ability to use NFTs as profile photographs is being considered for integration by other well-known social media networks.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most well-known PFP NFT initiatives, has rapidly attained enormous popularity. Collaborations with companies like Adidas and the millions of dollars in BAYC NFT sales make a strong argument for such ventures in the future.
PFPs can be bought and sold for cryptocurrencies using blockchain networks. Due in large part to PFPs, the unexpected increase in interest in the metaverse caused a significant flood of people to NFTs.
How PFP NFTs started
The notion of using NFTs to represent digital avatars was stimulated by the CryptoPunks project, which was started in 2017 by Matt Hall and John Watkinson’s team. Their business, Larva Labs, produced tens of thousands of pixel art images of styled humans (Punks) at random and sold special crypto tokens to signify ownership.
The proprietors could relate to the Punks’ entertaining personalities. The Punks’ supply and styles are set for all time. Some styles are duplicates, while others are found frequently throughout the collection. The rarest and most expensive are truly one of a kind.
Hall and Watkinson produced Ethereum tokens to indicate ownership of the CryptoPunks. These were the original NFT models. At first, they simply modified versions of normal ERC-20 tokens. For instance, the designers prohibited the trading of token fractions.
Since then, projects like CryptoPunks and others have paved the way for a standardized NFT coin dubbed ERC-721, which is suited to the features that set NFTs apart from other crypto tokens.
How PFP NFT Projects gained popularity
The popularity of CryptoPunks led to several initiatives that were inspired by it. After that, Meebits was developed by Hall and Watkinson. These 3D characters, like the CryptoPunks, varied in uniqueness and could be traded.
Cryptopunks is the earliest form of PFP NFT project, and since then, hundreds of generative art avatar NFTs have been developed. Several PFP NFT projects alongside CryptoPunks are Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Meebits, Cool Cats NFT, SupDucks, Doodles, World of Women, 0N1 Force, Mfers, Karafuru, and Avastars.
The most well-known PFP NFT right now is CryptoPunks, whose collections are worth hundreds of billions of rupiah. But what precisely is this digital art created using cryptography, and how did CryptoPunks get so expensive? See the clarification below.
What are CryptoPunks?
CryptoPunks is the most well-known NFT pioneer and is considered the first PFP NFT project. The artwork is from the first series to be created on the Ethereum network. Larva Labs, a software business headquartered in New York, produced this digital piece of art in 2017.
Surprisingly, the project’s developer, Larva Labs, was unsure about the usefulness of these avatars at the time of their introduction, although they were free to create, barring gas costs.
This NFT collection of 10,000 pixel-based works of art showcases a different combination, personality, and attribute generated at random. That is what results in nothing being exactly the same from one collection to the next.
After its release, its owners learned that people used it as a profile image across many platforms. By obtaining the rarest punk avatars and using them as Discord and X profile images, NFT devotees made it into the trendiest social media fad.
Due to varying levels of rarity, the punk NFTs of the CryptoPunks project are distinct from one another. As a result, the most uncommon NFTs are now more expensive to obtain. NFT artists and content producers developed legitimate PFP NFTs as a result of their growth and popularity.
During the mint event, the PFP project was available for free to anyone with an Ethereum crypto wallet. They merely had to pay the gas price to burn their name as the owner of the artworks on the Ethereum blockchain.
According to CryptoSlam, Bored Ape Yacht Club (1590 million total sales), Lazy Lions (90 million total sales), Pudgy Penguins (150 million total sales), Cool Cats (310 million total sales), and Doodles (320 million total sales) are a few more PFP NFT ventures that have been profitable.
CrytoPunks has the following features: Floor Price: 21.9 ETH, Official Website’s Total Volume. Traded(TVT): 217000 ETH. Highest Pictured Sale Price: 42000 ETH. Owners: 2600, Edition Size: 10K, Discord: 47483 Members.
How do you make PFP NFTs
1. Open Canva. Launch Canva and search for “Profile Picture.” You can also search for “Facebook Profile Frame” and use it for any social media PFP.
2. Choose a profile picture template. Select any template you want to work with.
3. Upload your photo.
4. Edit your profile picture.
5. Save and publish.
What Are the Types of CryptoPunks?
Various designs in the shapes of people, apes, zombies, and aliens can be found on CryptoPunks. The NFT CryptoPunks is a more uncommon combination.
The NFT is made up of 6,039 male punks, 3,840 female punks, 9 aliens, and 88 zombies. Each of these figures has unique traits, such as 3D glasses, red cheeks, lipstick, pigtails, donning a hat, etc.
The project’s creators gave the first thousand CryptoPunks to the Dev Punks. Additionally, there is “Genesis Punk,” which is punk without any unique qualities or traits. One of the most sought-after pieces of art, CryptoPunk #8348, features seven fundamental characteristics.
The most expensive CryptoPunks ever sold
As previously said, CryptoPunk is among today’s most expensive NFT projects. One collection of these digital pieces of art can cost hundreds of billions of rupiah. See the table below to learn the most expensive CryptoPunk.
1. CryptoPunk #7523
Out of all the collections, CryptoPunk #7523 contains one of just nine aliens. As a result, the artwork becomes one of the rarest. The “Covid Alien” is another name for this NFT, an alien with a mask. The actual CryptoPunk #7523 was sold for 11.75 million US dollars, or IDR 168.2 billion.
2. CryptoPunk #4156
The second most expensive CryptoPunk, #4156, has a wonderful price of 10.26 million US dollars, or roughly 147.7 billion IDR. One of 24 CryptoPunk collections, The NFT is represented by a blue bandana monkey.
3. CryptoPunk #7804
An alien smoking a pipe and sporting a cap and sunglasses represents this NFT. Figma CEO Dylan Field purchased CryptoPunk #7804, which sold for 7.56 million US dollars or IDR 108.8 billion.
4. CryptoPunk #3100
The alien in CryptoPunk #3100 is decked up in a blue headpiece. The artwork was sold for 7.51 million US dollars early in March of last year, or roughly IDR 108.1 billion.
5. CryptoPunk #5217
An ape-shaped Punk in a red knit beanie and a gold chain necklace makes up this NFT. The CryptoPunk #5217 coin was successfully sold for 5.44 million US dollars, equivalent to 77.7 billion IDR.
Utility Benefits of PFP NFTs
The talks on PFP NFTs would be meaningless without understanding their utility. How might you employ them? You are well aware that you can use them as social media profile images. You must consider more than just the idea of updating your profile image, though.
Instead, you should view PFPs as a way to assert your particular position inside the metaverse. PFP non-fungible tokens have established a distinct reputation in the NFT community despite being still in the early stages of development.
PFPs provide their owners with several enticing advantages, including exclusive access to tailored products, fresh contacts, and Discord chat rooms. Brands and platforms have been able to expand their client bases and redefine their credibility thanks to the involvement of NFTs in PFP projects.
NFTs aid in adding utility with PFPs and scarcity into the metaverse. To put it another way, the use of NFTs in PFP can aid in imagining innovation and valuable consumer experiences in Web3.
Reasons for the popularity of PFP NFTs
A solid foundational grasp of PFPs is provided through an overview of fundamental concepts such as “what is PFP” and how they differ from typical NFTs. However, it’s crucial to delve more into the elements that have recently fueled the expansion of PFPs. Recent examples of PFP initiatives that garnered media attention include Moonbirds and Bored Apes. How can they attract so many customers who are willing to buy them?
- The main factor influencing PFP NFTs’ popularity is that they are community-based. Along with being able to use the NFTs as your profile photo, you would also be granted voting privileges inside the neighborhood. PFP non-fungible tokens also make active engagement in project decision-making possible.
- The carefully defined roadmap is a significant aspect of the finest PFP NFT initiatives. Investors now have a good understanding of what to expect from the project.
- The utility advantages of PFP non-fungible tokens increase their appeal, particularly for the metaverse. Additionally, some PFP projects are adding practical features like coupons for games, meals, or tangible items.
- The majority of PFP NFT projects provide retail spaces to enable the monetization of creative works of art. As a result, NFT enthusiasts might find straightforward opportunities to monetize their assets through goods like beanies, tees, and mugs.
Where to buy PFP NFTs?
Where do traders of NFTs spend their monthly billions of dollars on NFTs? Since it’s a new industry, I suppose. There isn’t yet a “winner takes all” circumstance. Many competitors are vying to become the biggest and most effective NFT platforms.
Late in 2020, Nifty Gateway made a great start, but since PFP NFTs grabbed control, OpenSea has been the platform with the most volume. However, users have recently been complaining about OpenSea’s many flaws.
Platforms like Niftify step in offering a better user experience and cheaper gas costs for trading. You can purchase and sell PFP NFTs without picking a favorite: Opensea, Niftify, NiftyGateway, Rarible, Foundation, and Mintable.
Conclusion
The creators of CryptoPunks were unaware that they were sparking a fad that would expand into a multibillion-dollar industry. There are many interesting initiatives in the PFP market right now, but many of them will fail. Because of celebrity involvement, PFP non-fungible tokens significantly impact the general population. PFP initiatives also provide the most notable benefit of exclusive community membership.
They are more than just examples of generative or hand-drawn digital art; you can be certain of that. The prospective usage of them also fuels the buzz surrounding PFPs to represent your persona in virtual environments like the metaverse. It’s interesting to note that PFPs have drawn the interest of NFT space and digital natives, thanks to their distinctive features and characteristics.
Each of these initiatives is unique and might revolutionize the digital asset market. However, do your research, study historical data, and only buy PFP NFTs that have a proven track record.
