From Toadz to Cool Cats, is the “blue chip” NFT space growing?
Rewind just a few months ago and many people considered the blue chip NFT world to be small, very small, like two projects small – CryptoPunks and Bored Apes.
But if there’s one thing that the NFT summer of 2021 taught us, it’s that the NFT world is always changing, and as we head into October it’s hard to ignore those changes, crypto wallet may make money especially when it comes to projects breaking the 10ETH floor barrier.
Before I go any further – let’s take a step back, cryptocurrency a year back to be exact and remember that only one of the projects I’m going to talk about in this article even existed – CryptoPunks. And it’s safe to say that most people reading this article, didn’t even know what a CryptoPunk was a year ago. Now, if I say ape, you know I’m talking about Bored Apes. heck, if I say “aped in” you know that meant bought into another project.
The world has changed and what we’re now seeing emerge is something much bigger than many of us could have ever imagined. Early in the summer I remember talking to my Dad about NFTs and he said, “wouldn’t the closest point of comparison to NFTs to beanie babies?” Fast forward to just a few days ago and he said, “Now I see, each NFT project is like an IPO, these are real companies.”
I like that analogy and I think that it also shows how public perception of NFTs has matured over time. So it should come as no surprise that the “blue chip” sector of the NFT world would also expand, and it looks like we have a handful of projects that might just qualify.
Let’s start with the Toadz.
So these strange looking pixelated Toadz currently have a ~14ETH floor, and it happened fast. While I don’t know all the details it looks like the CryptoPunks community took a liking to the Toadz, and well, the rest is history. In a very short period of time CrypToadz has become one of the most valuable NFTs you can have in your portfolio, and the floor just keeps going up.
One of my favorite fun little personal stories with Cryptoadz isn’t about my own investment in them because well, I missed this one. I thought the Toadz were silly and I didn’t buy any. But, a good friend of mine, who was skeptical of NFTs, missed the board apes, but has been warming up to the whole NFT world, did buy a Toadz. and honestly, it’s been so damn satisfying to watch him go through the experience so many of us went through with Bored Apes.
The really unique thing about what I’m calling “blue chip” projects here is that it inspires an entirely new group on NFT investors. So many of us bought Bored Apes when they were less than 1ETH, and cryptocurrency we’ve been on a wild ride, and from that point on, we’re in the game, NFTs are our jam. Every project, like Toadz, that follows this trajectory, brings a whole new group of people into the space, and guess what, they’re here to stay.
But what about those Cool Cats?
Next up is Cool Cats, which now sits with a floor of 14.25 and like the Toadz, it seems to be going nowhere but up. This has been an interesting project to watch because both Cool Cats and Gutter Cats were in a tight competition as the go-to cat NFT project. For quite a while it looked like Gutter Cats had won the war. and then, somehow everything changed.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that Gutter Cats lost their lead when they introduced Gutter Rats and doubled the number of NFTs in the project overnight. Rather than adding more animals to their collection Cool Cats took a different approach and created a token called $MILK, based on the rarity of your cat, you could generate more $MILK. People loved this, Cool Cats pulled into the lead, and interest NFT projects now they have a floor that is ~3x that of Gutter Cats.
Of course, none of this meant to be taken as fact, these are just theories and there are a lot of dynamics at play when it comes to NFTs and floor prices. The end result is, Cool Cats are approaching a 15ETH floor and a lot of people think both them and Toadz will keep rising and eventually catch up with Bored Apes.
One thing I haven’t mentioned is the definition of a “blue chip” NFT project, and well, there really isn’t a definition now. But, if we’ve been considering Punks and Apes to be “blue chip” then I’d say it means a project that goes from a floor of a few ETH up to 10ETH, then 20ETH, and just keeps going.
Right now the two projects that have the greatest chance of reaching “blue chip” status are Toadz and Cool Cats IMHO, after that I think Punks Comic/MetaHeroes is probably next on the list.
That being said, the amazing thing about NFTs is that the next “blue chip” project might launch this week or next, invest in nft and eclipse projects that have been around for months. This is why so many people love to mint new projects and also why it’s so clear to me that these are still the early days.
Congrats to all the CryptToadz and Cool Cats owners, can’t wait to see what the floor is on both of these a month from now!
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