Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been all the rave in the tech community over the last few years. What began with a 70 million art auction of the art piece “Everydays - The First 5,000 Days” and the hype around the Bored Apes Yacht Club opened a new era of digital art and ownership. In fact, between 2022 to 2028, the global NFT market has an expected CAGR of 23.9%, potentially valuing the industry at $19.67 billion. Currently, around 11.7% of the world's population owns NFTs, yet the trend keeps growing as more and more crypto entrepreneurs introduce NFT collections with utility. Utility NFTs, are classified as digital assets which also bring you value in the real or digital world. For example, through reward programs, voting rights, exclusive drops, and rights to owners, which are not generally found in “traditional” NFTs, utility NFTs are giving enthusiasts and investors alike a new perspective on the digital asset world.
Image: Everydays - The First 5,000 Days. Source, BBC
In this article, we put together a list of 5 Utility NFTs that we think are worth mentioning. There are, of course, a plethora of projects with great use cases, but when choosing these projects, we took into consideration the following criteria:
- Maturity of the project - how long has the project been in existence, and how far along are they regarding roadmap developments and reaching its goals.
- Investor rounds and funds raised - Which institutional investors are involved and how much seed capital has the project raised.
- Size of the community - Does the project have a solid and loyal community that supports the NFT regardless of market conditions.
- Market size and opportunity - What is the potential for the utility in the real world, and is the industry of the Utility NFT currently growing within the crypto space.
- Unique utility attributes - What sets the utility NFT apart from others, and how unique is it compared to what already exists in the sector.
If you know of other cool Utility NFTs that you think would be cool for a “Part 2” of this article, feel free to share in the comments below.
StepN - Move-to-Earn, the healthier alternative to Play-to-Earn
StepN is the world’s first move-to-earn lifestyle game, which rewards participants for moving and doing physical activity. Led by Sequoia Capital and Folius Ventures, along with other investors such as Morningstar Ventures and Corner Capital Management, StepN raised $5M in seed round funding and consequently took the GameFi industry by storm. Over 4.7M users flocked to the health app and ran, walked, and moved to earn the project's native token, $GMT.
To use the app, users need to “wear” the sneaker NFT. Users can purchase the NFT sneakers with Solana on the StepN app. The more you move around and essentially “use” your NFT sneaker, the more rewards you earn. People can keep their in-game tokens or transfer them back into fiat currencies. The lifestyle and fitness app market are expected to reach $30.63 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21.5%, following the mass and rapid adoption successfully achieved by StepN; the project has opportunities to tap into the market by being the first blockchain move-to-earn app within the lifestyle and fitness space.
NFT Academy - Learn how to build, grow, market, and sell your NFTs
NFT Academy is an educational project that helps people learn how to build, market, sell, and grow their own Web3 projects, specifically NFTs. Interested participants can buy the Elite NFT Academy Pass on OpenSea to access the project’s fast-track program. NFT Academy allows NFT holders to educate themselves through various learning materials and resources on the platform. Only 3,000 Elite passes, consisting of multiple 500 token supply drops. Users that hold 3x Elite passes receive an invitation to an exclusive inner circle group where they can meet other very eager and committed students. Furthermore, the inner circle allows holders to network with industry experts and other professionals to set up partnerships for their future projects.
Funky Monkey Frat House - Created by DC Comics artist Mike Miller
Funky Monkey Frat House (FMFH) is a Blue Chip Fractionalization utility NFT, similar to Bored Apes Yacht Club. The project's founder, Mike Miller, is a well-known comic book illustrator and writer for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Game of Thrones covers. Together with fellow art colleagues, Mike and the Art Monkeys have set out to create a unique NFT project that aims to bring together like-minded individuals who share a love for crypto, art, illustrations, and socialization in the virtual world. In the first Genesis collection, people could commission Miller and the Art Monkeys to create unique NFTs to their liking. Only 502 unique NFTs were commissioned in the Genesis collection, and many other mints followed. The utility of the NFTs is based on the unique attributes of the artwork; depending on the rarity, NFT holders can get access to:
- Whitelisted affiliated projects
- Access to the Country Club (DAO) for early information, decision-making, and other unique group benefits
- 5% split on random airdrops and 5% split of the Starship (P2E) Space Station & Funky Monkey Space Force Fund
- Special lotteries and giveaways
FMFH NFTs can also be fractionalized, allowing people to sell off a fraction of their NFT, thus sharing the ownership of the asset proportionally amongst the fraction holders. Fractionalization allows for more liquidity, as there is only a low amount of FMFH per mint. It allows more NFT enthusiasts to hold even a tiny portion of these rare designs.
SORARE - Play a game of fantasy football, basketball, baseball, and more…
A nostalgic nod to collecting baseball or football cards from kiosks and magazines is what SORARE has created, but digital and on the Ethereum blockchain. SORARE is a fantasy game of various sports where players can buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital player cards. In 2019, the team minted its first collection and, since then, collaborated and closed partnerships with many well-known sports associations such as the NBA, EFL, and MLB. Athletes Mbappé, Serena Williams, and Pique are all trusted partners of the project, essentially allowing the game to reach audiences not just affiliated with crypto but also fans of different sports and athletes. NFT holders can collect digital cards on the open marketplace and build their fantasy teams within the games platform. Competitions occur every week, and the winners can rise in weekly rankings and earn rewards.
Cocky - Get access to Global Music Events via NFTs
Cocky is a relatively new NFT project that gained much traction around September and October this year. Although the project doesn’t meet all the requirements we listed at the beginning of this article, we thought it would still be noteworthy, as the NFT's utility is very applicable to the real world. Namely, Cocky’s utility NFT gives users VIP and exclusive access to global electronic music events (live and virtual). By purchasing a Cocky NFT Can, users can attend events and mutate how their Can looks. The more events a user attends, the more variety is added to their Can and the more access and rewards they get for the following event. For example, if you attend enough events, you can get access to events and potentially transport accommodation and backstage passes.
The utility of the NFT is essential for Cocky, as users are responsible for increasing the value and utility of their NFT while enjoying real-world or virtual experiences. The project just launched in Q3 of 2022 and already has a strong community on Discord. Currently, they are only minting 10,000 NFTs, in its pre-mint scheduled in Q4.
Conclusion:
NFTs have become a rising trend within the crypto community. As NFTs are the building blocks of many games and the metaverse, utility NFTs provide a great use case to facilitate monetary transactions and real-world use in the gaming sector, the metaverse, and other virtual worlds. Above are just a few utility NFT projects that caught our eye and had an exciting utility for their holders. Given the current growth rate of NFT gaming and GameFi, we expect more utility NFT projects.
