The year 2021 saw a massive boom for generative art avatar projects in the cryptosphere. Since everyone is willing to experience a metaverse and participants will need unique avatars to represent themselves, why not mint NFTs for the picture for profile (PFP). The trend continues in 2022, with several high-profile PFP NFTs already listed in various NFT marketplaces and more scheduled for listing. What do you need to know about PFP NFT projects, and which ones are the blue chips? Continue reading to find out!
What Is a PFP NFT Project?
PFP is a popular abbreviation in social media and online culture. Netizens use several full-form terms for PFP, like profile picture, picture for proof, and picture for profile. Users hunt for unique, vibrant, and statement-making PFPs, and the NFT craze has taken this hunt to a new level—NFTs as PFPs. These are shoulder-length generative or hand-drawn artworks that reflect different personas through the faces of apes, cats, humans, aliens, robots, ducks, toads, and so on. Twitter has already rolled out a process to connect your NFT through a crypto wallet and showcase an NFT as your avatar. Other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and OnlyFans are also working to accommodate NFTs as profile pictures.
Why Are PFP NFT Projects Popular?
Ever since the launch of Cryptopunks, the first PFP NFT project, hundreds of generative art avatar NFTs have sprung up. What is fueling this growth of assets in the profile picture NFT segments? Here are the reasons:
Most picture for proof NFT projects are community-based. The NFT holders get voting rights and actively participate in the progression of the project. These NFT projects come with a defined roadmap. Thus, investors know upfront what to expect from their investments. For example, the Karafuru NFT partnered with Japanese brands Hypebeast and Atmos for 3D NFT launch. Such future projects should improve the initial investors’ stake. Some PFP NFTs also come with real-life and virtual utilities. For example, 3D mfers’ owners will be able to access the Mferverse project once it is ready. Karafuru NFT owners get vouchers in real-life events for games, physical toys, and meals. Most PFP NFT projects roll out merchandise stores for creative art monetization. An NFT holder can also monetize their own assets (if the project allows) through merchs like T-shirts, caps, beanies, mugs, and so on.
In a nutshell, the picture for profile NFT projects offer better monetization opportunities than other NFTs. Additionally, PFP NFTs are collector’s edition creative arts that will help you showcase your persona in the virtual world. Here are some high-performing PFP NFT projects that you need to add to your watchlist in 2022.
CryptoPunks
No matter what the future holds for upcoming PFP projects, the CryptoPunks will be regarded as the PFP NFT OGs. This project is a collection of 10,000 pixelated Punk NFTs. Surprisingly, during the project launch, its developer Larva Labs, was not sure about the utility of these avatars, and these were free to mint, barring gas fees. After its launch, its owners discovered its use as a profile picture on different platforms. Consequently, NFT enthusiasts turned it into the hottest social media trend by getting hold of the rarest punk avatars and using them as Discord and Twitter profile pictures. The punk NFTs of the CryptoPunks project are different from each other because of rarity levels. Hence, the collectors now pay more for the rarest NFTs. Its growth and popularity inspired many artists and content creators to come up with PFP NFTs.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) project has a collection of 10,000 generative cartoons of bored apes. Currently considered one of the most valuable NFT projects, it garnered massive popularity among the NFT communities immediately after its launch in April 2021 by Yuga Labs. These NFTs contain 170 different computer-generated traits for clothing, background, fur, eye, mouth, hat, earring, and so on, making each of these NFTs different from the others. BAYC PFP project is a combination of an emerging ecosystem and the CryptoPunks building blocks. Owing to the metaverse development and ApeCoin token launch, the future of this project looks bright. This token will function as a governance token in its metaverse named Otherside.
Meebits
Online games like Fortnite and Roblox made pixel art-based characters globally popular. Thus, NFT artists focused on the pixel art theme to attract a vast community that adores such artwork. One of the most successful is the Meebits PFP NFT project. The project has a collection of 9,000 NFT assets in pixelated format. Specifically, these are voxel arts, a type of pixel artwork in 3D. Larva Labs set up the project on the Ethereum blockchain platform with ERC-721 tokens for smart contract consensus. Thus, you can easily buy and sell the NFTs on Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Also, Larva Labs designed the characters on their CryptoPunks project. Therefore, Meebits sometimes look like the CryptoPunks, but in 3D.
Cool Cats NFT
Cool Cats NFT is the perfect choice for cat lovers who want to own cool cat avatars and use them on social media. Cool Cats project comes with a collection of 9,999 randomly generated PFP NFTs. While Colin Egan is the illustrator of these NFTs, the team consists of three more people who work on development and blockchain. Developed on the Ethereum blockchain, the CryptoPunks inspired project boasts various unique traits. As a result, you can come up with more than 300,000 possible unique variations of adorable feline PFPs (profile pictures) by customizing their faces, hats, glasses, clothes, bodies, and other accessories. You will find four types of NFTs in terms of rarity: Cool, Wild, Classy, and Exotic. The roadmap of the Cool Cats NFT project says it will turn into a complete gaming metaverse. There, cats will live their lives and trade using the native cryptocurrency token of this project named $MILK.
SupDucks
SupDucks are the brainchild of well-known OG artist Franky Nines. He heads the company MegaVoltCorp which had launched these NFTs in July 2021. Before this venture, he worked as a designer for DapperLabs, Zynga, and NFT42. SupDucks PFP NFT project consists of 10.0K NFT assets. The developers of this project worked hard to produce NFTs of superior art and a community to support the project. Thus, as the developers say, SupDucks will “grant you legendary status” if you own one from this collection. SupDucks project also has a utility token named $VOLT. Which you can use to stake your investments on Rock-Paper-Scissors, Chess, coin flips, and so on within the Discord community. There is speculation that MegaVoltCorp may develop a merch store to sell physical SupDucks merchs.
Doodles
Doodles NFT project includes 10,000 hand-drawn profile picture illustrations that you can use as your online avatar on different platforms and communities. These rare NFTs are pastel color-based illustrations of human faces, cats, sharks, dinos, ducks, monkeys, aliens, mascots, apes, skeletons, and many more. Moreover, these manually illustrated artwork NFTs contain 5,000 spaceships for the doodles. Scott Martin and his team created the rainbow-colored cartoons for the Doodles NFT project, which received immense popularity since its first public sale. Being a community-based project, the utility of the Doodles NFT collection revolves around its community. As a Doodles NFT owner, you get voting rights in the community. Unlike non-community-based NFTs, this project focuses on memorabilia and rare collectibles. It is highly possible that this NFT project will turn into an entertainment company. In that case, you can use these as your avatar in Web3 and metaverse.
World of Women
Fictional characters made from apes, cats, skeletons, toads, robots, and so on were dominating the NFT sphere until the launch of the World of Women project. This premium NFT project is also the first women-led NFT venture, and the lead designer is Yam Karkai. Since the launch of NFT avatars, the market lacked a vibrant and colorful collection of female PFPs. The World of Women project also fulfilled this need from the NFT investors and collectors. The World of Women collection showcases 10,000 cool and punk-looking female avatars. The PFPs also reflect the power of inclusivity, diversity, and female representation in the virtual world. The project soon attracted many celebrity investors, and its sales volume skyrocketed thereafter. As of now, celebrities like Von Miller, Napheesa Collier, Eva Longoria, Shonda Rhimes, and Reese Witherspoon owns NFTs from this PFP project.
0N1 Force
The 0N1 Force NFT project launched its first drop of NFTs in August 2021. Since then, it has been a hot cake in the NFT universe as it offered cross-platform compatibility of its NFT. For example, in addition to the Ethereal Enclave and 0N1VERSE, you can set your NFT as a profile picture in Web3 enabled platforms. The NFT artworks are primarily generative art assets with a side-view of the characters. The creative artworks also showcase high-resolution art with granular texture definition. The collection has over 7000 PFPs, out of which more than 100 of them are hand-drawn by the designer. 0N1 Force comes with various traits which define their rarity in the NFT universe. However, primarily there are two trait categories: visual art traits and special power. The visual traits are the background colors, body, eyes, hair, head, mouth, helmet, domain, etc. On the other hand, special power traits are spirit, strength, and style. In the virtual Ethereal Enclave, the avatars will fight for their existence, and the special powers will determine which 0N1 Force character will thrive.
Mfers
If you want to flaunt your NFTs on social media, go for Mfers. This project is a collection of the profile picture (PFP) that contains 10,021 NFTs. After owning these cool meme arts, you can also flaunt them on your social platforms, like Twitter or Discord, and offer a message to your community. Sartoshi is the artist of these NFTs, while WestcoastNFT developed this Web3-ready project. The 10,000 general NFTs of this project are stick figure drawings, commonly used by netizens and meme-makers for quick visualization of their ideas. The remaining 21 are special NFTs created based on the popular meme template, “are you winning, son?” All its digital elements are available in the public domain. Hence, you can use these NFTs even without buying them.
Karafuru
The Karafuru NFT is a project that offers you colorful personas that you can collect. Its characters represent a perfect blend of psychedelic colors, Gacha games, random personas, and generative art technology. Creative illustrator WD.Willy and the Museum of Toys (MoT) are the masterminds behind this project. Karafuru NFT contains 5,555 generative and vibrant 2D NFTs with a limited number of characters. During NFT minting, more than a thousand attributes were randomly injected into these to make them unique and rare. This NFT project is a part of its parent project named The Playground. If you own any of these NFTs, you will get access to the virtual Karafuru city. Here, you can participate in different fun activities and meet some of the coolest crew. For those who like to value NFTs by taking a look at the project roadmap, Karafuru is a safe haven for them. The Karafuru crew has rolled out an elaborate project in which the 3D Karafuru NFT drop is one giant event.
Avastars
Avastars NFT project is a fully on-chain NFT collection with new NFT character breeding features. The public minting concluded in February 2020 for the first 5,000 NFTs by NFT42. Now, the NFTs are available in secondary marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, LooksRare, etc. The project minted shoulder-length avatars or Primes using a random generative art algorithm. The program consists of 12 different traits (ears, eye color, eyes, gender, facial feature, etc.) and 570 palette colors and attributes. Later on, the number of assets have risen to 25,700 pieces. A vital utility of the project is that the early collectors can mint new replicant avatar NFTs based on 2 to 5 original Avastars NFTs. Creators can sell these replicants by listing them on NFT marketplaces. Moreover, Avastar NFT owners can also claim ART coins in a 1:1 ratio and trade those coins in coin marketplaces like Uniswap.
Final Thoughts 🖼️
Millions of NFT collectors, investors, and traders are eyeballing the PFP or picture for profile NFTs. Because most of the parent projects behind these NFTs come with a defined roadmap for their utility and growth. Moreover, these projects enjoy support from a strong community keeping an eye on the developments in the project. Remember that NFT investments come with capital risks, and you should cautiously tread the NFT space. You need to follow some projects and track their progress before investing. Here are the best tools to track new and trending NFTs.
