Introduction 

2021 has been an absolutely crazy year for NFTs. Over $10 billion has been traded on Opensea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace. A rare CryptoPunk sold for $10.2 million recently, and Bored Ape Yacht Club went from $200 at mint price in April to a floor price of 55.95 ETH, or $223,800. There were 8 NFT sales of over $6 million in 2021. 

With 2021 coming to a close, it’s time to reflect and list out the 10 fastest-growing NFT projects of 2021. The list below contains the 10 NFT projects that have the highest floor prices on OpenSea as of 12/25. Given that there isn’t strong historical floor price data, we decided to use the most recent floor price to create the list. It will be fun to look at this list in another year and see how much it has changed (or hasn’t). 

Please remember, this is not financial advice. NFTs are volatile and you should never spend more than you can afford to lose on an NFT. 

(1) Autoglyphs — 150 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Autoglyphs has enjoyed 17,585.83 ETH in all-time sales volume largely because it is the first “on-chain” NFT that used a generative process to create the art in the project. The original mint price for an Autoglyph was $35 (0.2 ETH at the time), which was donated to charity. Larva Labs (the creator of CryptoPunks) released Autoglyphs and there are currently 512 NFTs in the set across 148 owners with a floor price of 150. 

Autoglyphs have traded at a lower total volume than other projects on this list, largely due to a smaller number of assets, with a most recent sale of 80 ETH. 

Floor prices on smaller projects can be deceiving, but given that the last 3 sales preceding the low were 375 ETH, 871 ETH, and 360 ETH, this project lands as the fastest-growing NFT of 2021. 

On January 7th, there was a 25 ETH sale before peaking at a 449 ETH sale in August. 

(2) Wrapped Cryptopunks — 150 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Wrapped CryptoPunks may be the most fascinating NFT project you haven’t heard about. 

Yes, these are real CryptoPunks that have had an all-time sale volume 9,066 ETH, but this collection contains just 298 items. The last sale recorded 80 ETH and the floor sits at 150 ETH, more than double the CryptoPunks current floor price. 

Wrapped Cryptopunks take an original CryptoPunk released by LarvaLabs in 2017 and wrap the asset in a new ERC721 token. CryptoPunks was created with an older contract given its release date back in 2017. There will be a lot of debate about these NFTs — are they still the original? Are they more valuable in wrapped format? 

Don’t forget about Wrapped CryptoPunks V1, which features the first CryptoPunks released, but then rescinded given the contract they launched on was exploitable. 

(3) CryptoPunks — 65.45 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Opensea doesn’t display the floor price for CryptoPunks, but you can find it on Larva Labs website. Bored Ape Yacht Club briefly flipped CryptoPunks’ floor price (which means the Bored Ape Yacht Club floor was higher than CryptoPunks) not long ago, but CryptoPunks recovered and currently sits at a 65.45 ETH floor price. 

The project has done $1.85 billion in all-time sales and is the largest NFT project in history by sales volume alone. 

In early January, the average price of a CryptoPunk was 5.2 ETH. 

(4) Bored Ape Yacht Club —55.95 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

For all intents and purposes, the Bored Ape Yacht club is the fastest growing NFT project of 2021. It minted for $200 in April and shot up to a 55.95 ETH floor price or just under $224,000, or 111,900% growth. 

The project has done nearly $1.6 billion in total sales volume since launching 9 months ago and is right on the heels of CryptoPunks. 

In May of this year, the average floor price was just 0.78 ETH. At the current floor price, that’s 7,073% growth in just 9 months (in ETH, not USD).  

(5) Neo Tokyo Identities — 27 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Neo Tokyo Identities launched October 3rd, 2021, and has shot up to a 27 ETH floor price or about $108,000. The project has done 13,026.56 ETH in volume since launch and averaged an average price of 6.69 ETH in early October. 

There are only 2,000 items in the project that was created by YouTubers Alex Becker and EllioTrades. The kicker? This project was minted for free. In order to get on a whitelist to be able to secure a Neo Tokyo identity, users needed to solve puzzles and riddles. 

The NFT itself is an image of code, but within that code contained “games” that would extend additional benefits to holders who figured the games out. 

The project has a mysterious element to it but went from a free NFT to a 27 ETH floor in less than 3 months. 

(6) RTFKT — CloneX Mintvial — 10.75 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

The RTFKT — CloneX Mintvial has done 25,100 ETH in trading volume all-time and can be used to redeem Clone X Avatars, which currently sit at a floor price of 4.85 ETH. 

Even though the project that the Mintvial is used to generate has a lower floor, the potential of minting a rare CloneX is enticing. 12 CloneX have done 100 ETH or more in sales, so paying 10.55 for a mint vial is a gamble on getting a rare CloneX that’s worth up to 10x the Mintvial price. 

In late November, Mint Vials were averaging 3.5 ETH sale price.  

(7) VeeFriends — 9 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

VeeFriends launched in May and had an average price of 0.56 ETH a few weeks after mint. The project surged to a 23+ ETH floor in October but has settled around 9 ETH, a 1,507% gain since mid-May. 

The project features 10,300 assets derived from hand-drawn characters by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk that represent traits he feels are necessary for success in business and life. Some characters are more desirable than others, and there are different rarity levels that influence sale prices. 

The currently known utility from each token features access to 3 years of VeeCon, while other tokens have additional utility in the form of access to Gary Vaynerchuk or monthly gifts. Gary V has repeatedly stated that this will be a 40-year project and he is committed to driving value to his holders for the rest of his life. 

The project has done 33,600 ETH in volume since launching in May. 

(8) Bored Ape Chemistry Club — 9 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Bored Ape Yacht Club offered a free drop to its holders that contained three levels of mutant serum with different rarities — M1, M2, and Mega Mutant Serum. 

The M1 Mutant Serum has the lowest floor at 9 ETH, but when combined with an existing Bored Ape NFT, produces a Mutant Ape (a project with an 8.9 ETH floor price). 

Bored Ape Chemistry club has done 25,500 ETH in trading volume since August and has held steady throughout that time, dipping to an average sale of 3.2 ETH but bouncing back up to 9 ETH. 

(9) Mutant Ape Yacht Club — 8.9 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

The assets in Bored Ape Chemistry Club, when mixed with original Bored Ape Yacht Club assets, produced new assets: Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which sits at a floor price of 8.85 ETH. 

In late August, Mutant Ape Yacht Club averaged 7.4 ETH in sales, with an all-time high sale for an asset at 350 ETH. 

The project has done 138,100 ETH in sales in just a few months, making for an incredible run on a free project gifted to holders of Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

(10) Neo Tokyo Part 2 Vault Cards — 7.95 ETH Floor Price

Source: Opensea.io 

Neo Tokyo Part 2 Vault Cards currently sits at the 10th highest floor price at 8.4 ETH with 8,200 ETH in total sales volume. In mid-October, average sales were at 2.8 ETH. 

Like Neo Tokyo Identities, the NFTs feature images of code and has a total supply of 2,500. There’s not much written about these particular assets in the project, but there are hints of a larger metaverse play and additional benefits for holders of the project.