Inventory of the top players in the NFT field! What did the big players buy in their crazy shopping spree for crypto art?

These collectors are not only enthusiasts but also visionary "investors."

(This article is authorized reprint from PANews, the original title is "Counting the top players in the NFT field, do their collections have the potential to become explosive hits?", original article please see)

The niche of NFTs is breaking into the mainstream world. Recently, the world-renowned art auction house Christie's announced that it will auction the NFT (non-fungible token) work "Everydays – The First 5000 Days" created by the artist beeple, marking the first purely digital artwork supported by a major auction house for auction.

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As traditional boundaries are broken, the trendy "blind box" gameplay has collided with NFTs, igniting market sentiment and prompting investors from all walks of life to start a "buy, buy, buy" mode. Examples like NBA Top Shot, Hashmasks, etc., quickly gained popularity and even experienced "out of stock" situations.

Small innovations often mark a significant step in ecosystem expansion. With various novel gameplay, applications such as crypto art, collectibles, domain names, virtual worlds, games, etc., have shown a significant surge in both transaction volume and value. In just the past year, the trading volume in the NFT market has increased nearly 25 times, with platforms like Decentraland, Cryptopunks, CryptoKitties, SuperRare, Sorare leading the way in terms of transaction volume.

As various scenarios flourish, an increasing number of high-net-worth NFT collectors are also entering the NFT world. Therefore, PANews has compiled a list of some active collectors to see which NFTs are more popular and which trends cannot be ignored. Undeniably, these collectors are not only enthusiasts but also visionary "investors."

0xb1

0xb1 is truly a DeFi whale. Despite having an account created just 5 months ago, it holds DeFi tokens worth over 30,000 ETH. 0xb1 is not only active in various DeFi protocols but also shows a strong interest in NFTs.

Recently, to commemorate its involvement in DeFi projects such as ROOK, DIGG, YFL, YAX, UNI, and 1INCH, 0xb1 offered a prize pool of up to $150,000 for an NFT commemorative competition. In January this year, 0xb1 also bid 600 ETH for a rare CryptoPunk collectible but was ultimately unsuccessful.

According to data from OpenSea, 0xb1 has purchased 88 NFTs from 16 projects, with a significant portion coming from NFTrees and Hashmasks.

NFTrees, based on the Telos blockchain, is a project where investors pay to plant trees and receive rewards based on the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. 0xb1's NFTrees make up 36% of all NFTs owned by 0xb1. Among all the NFTrees in 0xb1's collection, the highest selling item is number 45, currently priced at 25 ETH.

On the other hand, Hashmasks on Ethereum is a digital art collection project where over 70 artists created 16,384 unique digital portraits. Users can purchase these portraits and name them. Each Hashmask consists of multiple elements like character, mask type, eye color, and skin tone, representing different levels of rarity. Currently, 0xb1 owns 21 Hashmasks NFTs, with the highest priced item being number 1432, named "Coinbase," selling for 88.8 ETH.

Additionally, 0xb1 recently acquired three CryptoPunk collectibles at a price of 130 ETH each; purchased the MEME and Badger collaboration "BTC Whitepaper" for 88.8 ETH due to the DeFi liquidity mining frenzy; and bought two matching crypto art NFTs created by NBA Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban on Rarible for 65 ETH. After the purchase, one of the NFTs was burned, reducing the original ten editions to nine.

Interestingly, the crypto artist Beeple's three open edition crypto art NFTs were recently purchased by 0xb1 on Nifty Gateway for a total of 333.666 ETH, and these NFTs are no longer available for sale.

WhaleShark

In the real world, a Whale Shark with a mouth as wide as 1.5 meters can act like a vacuum cleaner, instantly sucking in all kinds of prey. In the NFT world, there is a "big eater whale shark" named WhaleShark, who has been collecting NFTs since 2019.

At that time, WhaleShark was deeply attracted by the works of crypto artist Yura Miron and began to purchase a large number of his works. As a gesture of thanks, Yura Miron sent a screenshot of the email reminder to SuperRare, the digital art platform, showing WhaleShark's purchase of his works, which WhaleShark also added to his collection.

Since then, WhaleShark has been on a shopping spree on platforms like SuperRare, Knownorigin, Makersplace, Opensea, and CryptoVoxels. According to the SuperRare platform, WhaleShark owns 507 crypto art pieces, with recent works from artists like GiantSwan, VRHUMAN, Undeadlu, and Hexagon Truth catching WhaleShark's attention.

Furthermore, WhaleShark is also one of the largest rare card collectors in the Ethereum-based card game Gods Unchained. According to data from OpenSea, out of the 14,514 NFTs from 46 projects that WhaleShark holds, 95% are from Gods Unchained.

In addition to collecting NFTs, WhaleShark has been actively involved in the development of the NFT space. In 2020, WhaleShark launched the WHALE token and established The Vault for NFTs. In WHALE, creators can pledge valuable NFTs as collateral to obtain tokens. WhaleShark directly purchased NFTs with 20,000 WHALE tokens.

Recently, this avid collector has started a major shopping spree on the popular NFT collecting game NBA Top Shot. As of the time of writing, WhaleShark's two NBA Top Shot accounts hold a total of 9,550 Moments, valued at $19.728 million.

Metakovan

Metakovan is an Ethereum whale and NFT collector. In May 2019, an NFT token representing the first digital F1 car was sold for a record $110,000, and the buyer was Metakovan.

But this was not Metakovan's most expensive "purchase." Recently, the NFT fund Metapurse, funded by Metakovan, purchased a set of 20 collectibles from "Beeple Everydays: The 2020 Collection" on Nifty Gateway for a whopping $2.2 million.

Metakovan finds the uniqueness and accompanying stories of NFTs highly appealing. According to OpenSea data, Metakovan owns 854 NFTs from 15 projects, with a significant share coming from The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space VR. Among these, The Sandbox has the highest count, with 576 virtual lands in the collection.

Like WhaleShark, Metakovan is a loyal fan of Cryptovoxels, owning 129 Cryptovoxels NFTs. Cryptovoxels is a user-owned virtual world built on Ethereum, where users can buy or sell land to build whatever they desire. The closer to the center of the "land," the higher its value. Previously, WhaleShark provided free land for crypto artists to showcase their talents and even released participation tutorials to lower the barrier of entry. Among all of Metakovan's Cryptovoxels NFTs, the land named "3 Scrum Trace" has a selling price of 7.4 ETH, showing a price increase of 289.4% in the past month and a half.

Somnium Space VR, launched in 2018, is a VR social application based on Ethereum where users can buy land, build, or import objects to create a shared virtual world. Currently, Metakovan has purchased 106 Somnium Space NFTs, with the highest-priced item being 64.4 ETH.

Pranksy

Some say that Pranksy's OpenSea account and Ethereum address are equivalent to a "history of NFT development," and this statement is not an exaggeration.

Over the past three years, Pranksy has achieved multimillion-dollar wealth growth through extraordinary activity in the NFT space. In 2020, Pranksy even engaged in a semi-public competition with an old friend, Nate, to see who could profit 1,000 ETH from NFT trading, with NBA Top Shot being the key to Pranksy's victory. Currently, Pranksy still holds NBA Top Shot cards worth over $3 million.

OpenSea data shows that Pranksy has purchased 26,198 NFTs from 128 projects, with an astonishing 16,782 Gods Unchained cards, making Pranksy on par with WhaleShark.

As an early player, Pranksy's first foray into the NFT game was CryptoKitties, and to date, Pranksy has collected 2,167 encrypted cats from this popular game. Although most remain at lower prices, the CryptoKitties named "Founder Cat #73" sold for a whopping 49.9 ETH.

Pranksy also has a strong interest in crypto art. Currently, most of the art pieces in the collection are from generative art projects like ChainFaces and generative on-chain art projects.

Aside from buying NFTs, following the successful incorporation of blind box mechanics in NBA Top Shot, Pranksy recently launched an NFT blind box project called NFTBox, with limited monthly releases. The NFTs in the blind box are carefully selected by Pranksy based on his personal reputation and experience.

Maxstealth

Maxstealth is an anonymous NFT collector and a hardcore superhero enthusiast. In addition to openly expressing his love for superheroes on Twitter, he has made significant purchases of related NFTs.

For example, in mid-October 2020, a set of Batman-themed crypto art was acquired by Maxstealth for 540.86 ETH. Moreover, this mysterious collector also acquired another Batman artwork named "Who Is The Creator 2" for 150 ETH.

In addition to the Batman series NFTs, OpenSea data shows that Maxstealth also holds 814 NFTs from 35 projects. The Unstoppable Domains based on Ethereum's domain system account for the highest share, with the highest-priced NFT selling for 227 ETH. As a decentralized domain name project that allows users to use readable addresses instead of cryptocurrency addresses, and is uncensored, the average price is $119.7 according to NonFungible data. Considering that Maxstealth accounts for 8.1% of the total sales volume and the average price, the total value of Maxstealth's Unstoppable Domains domains is at least over $440,000.

Compared to domains, Maxstealth's buying power in crypto art is even more impressive. On SuperRare, Maxstealth has purchased 85 NFTs, with the highest-priced piece being "Elephant Dreams" at 70 ETH; on Hashmasks, Maxstealth acquired 83 digital artworks, with the highest-priced piece selling for 28.1 ETH; and on Makersplace, Maxstealth owns 78 pieces, with the highest-priced pieces being the Batman crypto art works mentioned earlier.

In addition to NFT collections, Maxstealth also has a significant number of NFTs in virtual gaming worlds like The Sandbox, CryptoDrinks, and Meme.

Overall, collectibles, artworks, virtual worlds, and games are the most popular branches in the NFT space, with higher potential for value growth. However, this also means that competition in these areas will be fiercer. Innovative gameplay like "blind boxes" and "liquidity mining," scarcity, well-known IPs, and wealth effects are factors that significantly contribute to the success of projects. At the same time, one of the major challenges facing NFTs currently is the lack of infrastructure. Most projects are active on Ethereum, with few on other smart contract platforms. With the gradual improvement of NFT infrastructure, it may pave the way for the next wave of NFT enthusiasm, making it an undeniable force for the crypto world entering the real world.