Azuki - Anime-Themed NFTs, CryptoPunks, NFTfi And More NFTs Noteworth

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a naming system launched in 2017 that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. ENS essentially translates crypto wallet addresses that are usually complex and filled with strings of alphanumeric characters into much simpler, more readable wallet names.
ENS domains are built on Ethereum smart contracts which makes them more secure than traditional DNS. As a decentralized, open-source service for the community, ENS focuses on providing a trustworthy domain name for Web3 users of the Ethereum blockchain.
Although ENS domains end with .eth, each one is unique, which results in them being NFTs. And since they’re ERC-721-compliant, you can trade these ENS domains on many NFT wallets and marketplaces. This is also one of the reasons why ENS is one of the best DApps — it’s compatible with many wallets, including the Bybit Wallet.
Almost everyone has heard of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) — regardless of whether they spend time in the crypto space — because that’s how popular this NFT collection is. BAYC is a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, featuring profile pictures of cartoon apes with varying accessories and styles. It’s garnered such a strong fan base that celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Madonna and Paris Hilton are in on it.
Additionally, the BAYC team has created an entire ecosystem around the original collection featuring a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) collection, Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) collection, Otherdeed as land for their metaverse, and even an ERC20 token known as APE.
BAYC NFTs don’t just make good profile pictures, they also double as a membership card to the Yacht Club, granting holders access to exclusive benefits. As of May 2022, BAYC surpassed $2 billion in sales. BAYC remains one of the most popular NFT collections to date, making it one of the best NFT collections to invest in.
CryptoPunks is another highly popular NFT collection built on the Ethereum network. It features 10,000 unique characters in 8-bit style. As one of the first NFT projects on the Ethereum network, CryptoPunks grabbed the attention of investors who wanted to be part of the hype. Furthermore, it was CryptoPunks that introduced the concept of ERC-721 tokens — a standard that dictates each token is unique and non-interchangeable — to the world.
Due to the NFTs’ singularity, demand for them quickly exceeded supply, driving prices up. This resulted in many CryptoPunks holders making windfall profits from trading their NFTs.
CryptoPunks gained even more attention following its collaboration with Tiffany & Co. in August 2022, with the latter turning the NFT collection into physical pieces of jewelry for crypto enthusiasts to purchase. A custom collection of 250 NFTs in this NFTiff collection, priced at 30 ETH each, sold out within 22 minutes. Successful buyers could redeem their NFT for a physical pendant and chain.
Although they launched back in 2017, CryptoPunks NFTs remain in demand and high in value, and are still one of the best NFT collections to consider.
Azuki is a collection of anime-themed NFTs launched in January 2022 that quickly amassed $300 million in sales by February 2022. Just like BAYC, Azuki NFTs grant their holders access to an exclusive metaverse called The Garden. This virtual world is where members can look forward to streetwear collaborations, NFT drops, live events and other activities.
Azuki’s popularity is also attributed to its strong relationship with anime, which has gained increasing international attention over the years. As mentioned, Azuki has plans to release streetwear collaborations. Azuki NFT holders can purchase Azuki clothing, merchandise and accessories. This ties in well with existing anime fans, who love purchasing anime collectibles.
Furthermore, Azuki has a strong focus on community ownership. It believes in maintaining a vibrant community for its project to thrive. As such, it provides well-moderated online social channels for fans to interact and discuss the project, to which they all belong.
With its art style, real-world merchandise and emphasis on community ownership, Azuki remains one of the most popular NFT DApps in the crypto market.
OpenSea is the largest peer-to-peer NFT marketplace in the world. The platform was launched in 2017 and allowed users to exclusively buy and sell rare digital collectibles in a quick and trustless manner.
The NFT marketplace managed to close 2020 with roughly $21 million in trade volume but was quickly surpassed within the first two months of 2021, soaring to over $14 billion in the next year. Additionally, OpenSea is integrated with multiple blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Klaytn which could eventually drive even more volume toward the NFT marketplace.
With the launch of Seaport, an open-source smart contract created for OpenSea and NFT fanatics, users can now transact NFTs in bundles even if they are in different token standards (ERC-20, ERC-721, etc). Listings may also choose to support partial fills of offered items or even opt for auction mechanics such as English and Dutch auctions.
Despite the emergence of other NFT markets after OpenSea, the platform continues to hold the title as the greatest NFT marketplace due to its unrivaled trading volume, overall revenue and sheer number of users on the platform.
OpenSea will soon be compatible to use with Bybit Wallet.
Blur is a brand new NFT marketplace that rose to fame after raising $11 million from renowned investors such as Paradigm. The newly launched platform saw an all-time high volume of $18.8 million in 24 hours within just two months of its release.
The team behind Blur is focused on targeting professional NFT traders and has created a different mechanism compared to other NFT marketplaces. Blur allows traders to set their own royalties easily and does not charge any fees when transacting on the platform. This is great for traders as they get to earn a portion of every sale transacted even after selling the initial NFT while avoiding platform fees from eating into their profits.
The NFT marketplace also has an aggregator that allows you to analyze and purchase a group of NFTs at once from different marketplaces. This allows professional NFT traders to sweep the floor of any collection with a single click rather than buying them up individually on various platforms. Apart from saving time and effort, the aggregator feature will also save them a huge amount of fees as individual purchases come with many hidden costs on top of the gas fees they would have to pay per transaction.
Blur has the ability to expand its user base as NFTs become more widely adopted. The team will also need to find a way to maintain its commitment to NFT traders while making its platform more user-friendly for a larger audience in order to challenge OpenSea in the future.
As with OpenSea, Blur is an NFT DApp that will soon be compatible to use with Bybit Wallet.
LooksRare is one of many NFT marketplaces that run solely on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched in 2022, LooksRare prides itself as a “community-first” NFT marketplace that actively rewards platform users and token stakers with its native token to incentivize participation on the platform.
Since then, LooksRare has managed to gain market share on OpenSea and is averaging around half of its competitors daily volume, amassing more than $26 billion in total trading volume. This was due to several factors: lower fees, a highly incentivized reward system and revenue sharing which allows the NFT marketplace to stand out and differentiate itself from its competitors.
While LooksRare currently does not have an NFT minting function, the platform does offer other interesting features such as the ability to purchase entire collections, purchasing an NFT with specific traits instead of filtering them out, and the option to cancel multiple open orders in a single transaction. With such an impressive entrance into the NFT space and a solid reward system, LooksRare has been able to scale massively in such a short period. It is worth keeping a lookout as the platform has huge potential to grow, filling the gaps created by OpenSea and maybe even outperforming them one day.
Users can expect to use their Bybit Wallet with LooksRare soon.
NFTfi is a decentralized marketplace for users to make the most out of their NFTs by collateralizing them to finance transactions through liquid assets. Due to the illiquid nature of NFTs, the team has combined the idea of DeFi and NFTs to increase the liquidity among NFT traders while trying to attract new users into the space.
Following in the steps of popular lending platforms like Aave and MakerDAO, NFTfi allows for NFT lenders to leverage on their collections to earn yield. Borrowers can also take up loans and borrow ETH or DAI by putting up their NFT as collateral. NFT lending provides the much-needed liquidity to increase activities and volume in the ecosystem.
Additionally, NFTfi provides other features such as NFT fractionalization and NFT derivatives. NFT fractionalization is the process of sharing ownership of an NFT among thousands or millions of users, allowing retail investors to gain exposure to blue-chip NFT collections like BAYC or CryptoPunks. On the other hand, NFT derivatives represent tradable contracts that provide leverage and let users place directional bets on future NFT prices.
With these new instruments offered by the platform, NFTfi remains one of the biggest NFT lending platforms in the space that has helped to unlock a whole new world of liquidity for NFTs for existing and future users.
Do take note that while NFTfi cannot be used with Bybit Wallet at the moment, integration will soon be available.
Source: 18 Best DApps & Web3 Projects to Use With Bybit Wallet | Bybit Learn