Cute NFTs areĀ soĀ hot right now š„
The new NFT meta? Cuteness!
Since October 2022, a potent buying wave has swept across many projects that PFP NFT aficionados consider to beĀ cute.Ā
Cuteness is subjective, to be sure. Yet the projects in question do share a few fundamental qualities, like generally adorable artistry, bright color schemes, lighthearted names, and cheery communities.Ā
So what exactly should you be watching right now?
If you search around the phrase āCute NFTā on social media, e.g. Twitter, you can see how references to a cuteness meta really began to surge in Dec. 2022, a period during which the Pudgy Penguins collection notably experienced a historic trading frenzy, and its floor price reached over 7Ī for the first time ever.Ā
1. April: @LucaNetz acquires @pudgypenguins for 750 ETH.
ā Origin Protocol (@OriginProtocol) December 28, 2022
2. August: Pudgy Toys announced.
3. August: Record 400 ETH sale on their custom marketplace powered by Origin Story.
4. November: 10 NFTs auctioned at @Sothebys and sold out for $129k.
5. December: Floor price ATH (7 ETH!) pic.twitter.com/OkzigiccRf
However, while thereās no question the recent success of Pudgy Penguins has driven gusts of attention to other similarly cute projects, this success is just part of the ongoing boom.Ā
The truth is there is noĀ singularĀ reason behind the recent uptrend of the cuteness meta, since all the collections involved have different and unique things going for themselves right now. In other words, multiple cute projectsā respective strides have coincided with each other lately, leading to this PFP niche gaining momentum.Ā
As forĀ whichĀ projects should be actually considered part of and tracked within this niche? Thatās where things get interesting subjectively, since thereās no definitive answer. No authoritative āCute NFT Indexā exists right now, as weāve only just come across the need for one. That said, though, what could such an index look like?
For example, Nansenās got indexes like theĀ ART20Ā and theĀ GAME50, and recently Iāve seen a lot of analysts sharing charts of the cute NFT projects theyāre personally tracking. In combining these two inspirations, I think a compelling āCUTE15ā of relevant collections worth tracking, at least as things stand, should feature the following projects:
- Cool PetsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.16Ī | 90D floor action: š -27%
- Cool CatsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 2.95Ī | 90D floor action: š -23%
- DoodlesĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 7.42Ī | 90D floor action: š -19%
- DooplicatorsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 1.3Ī | 90D floor action: š +3%
- Coolmanās UniverseĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.123Ī | 90D floor action: š +4%
- Tubby CatsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.15Ī | 90D floor action: š +28%
- BEANZĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 1.98Ī | 90D floor action: š +69%
- FiniliarĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.35Ī | 90D floor action: š +107%
- Sappy SealsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 1.65Ī | 90D floor action: š +119%
- Pudgy PenguinsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 7.1Ī | 90D floor action: š +138%
- Froyo KittensĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.09Ī | 90D floor action: š +157%
- Froggy FriendsĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.33Ī | 90D floor action: š +263%
- Chubbiverse FrensĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.3Ī | 90D floor action: š +264%
- Kanpai PandasĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 1.77Ī | 90D floor action: š +285%
- Lil PudgysĀ āĀ OpenSeaĀ | Floor: 0.79Ī | 90D floor action: š +313%
Again, these picks are just my subjective takes on what the top 15 projects are in the cuteness metaĀ right now. Whether youāre looking at market cap or trading volume, these collections are all currently in the top 300 NFT projects, so tracking them can give you broad insight into how this cute category of PFPs is faring.Ā
Zooming in some, the biggest cute-cap gainers over the past three months have beenĀ Lil Pudgys, Kainpai Pandas, Chubbiverse Friends, and Froggy Friends, all of which have seen their floor prices climb by more than 260% in that span.
Lil Pudgys, the companion collection to Pudgy Penguins, naturally has more runway to grow than its parent project and has been exploding with interest upon the Penguin ecosystemās recent āwhat bear market?ā advances.Ā
Shamdoo swept 25 Lil Pudgys for Ī19.314 ($24,160.83) pic.twitter.com/0zrPt2rBat
ā NFT Whale Alert (@nftwhalealert) January 5, 2023
For its part, Kanpai Pandas, the most successful omnichain NFT project to date, has rallied a passionate community from across 8 different blockchain deployments since Spring 2022 thanks to its capable and charismatic team. With the recent uptrend in cuteness, then, itās no surprise this collectionās gotten wind in its sails.Ā
As for other big 90D climbers, Chubbiverse Friends (+264%) and Froggy Friends (+263%) have also seen their floors ramp up, yet not too far behind these collections have been other cuteness heavy hitters like Froyo Kittens (+157%), Pudgy Penguins (+138%), Sappy Seals (+119%), and Finiliar (+107%).Ā
Of course, āCute NFTsā and the idea of a CUTE15 index might sound silly at first, but again, make no mistake that the action here is indeed very real right now. For example, these are the 90D volume stats for the proposed CUTE15 collections:
These stats are up and to the right for these projects right now. So as chatter continues to pick up about crypto potentially turning bullish again, just keep in mind that to a certain extent, Cute NFTs are currently near the tip of the spear, so to speak!