In 2017, several NFT projects emerged on Ethereum that utilized a "fungible" token standard known as ERC-20. Curio Cards in May of that year is credited with being Ethereum's first art NFT project using the fungible standard and features artwork in the shape of a card among a variety of image types including satirized corporate logos[29] The generative art project of 10,000 pixelated characters known as CryptoPunks emerged soon after in June and would later establish itself as one of the most commercially successful NFT projects.[30] In December, a clipart based collection featuring images of rocks called EtherRock emerged.[31]
I was in my early twenties when NFT's hit the market and the target of collective scrutiny as news about money laundering and scams became unfortunately popular as well as the insane amounts a digital file was selling for such as the infamous "Yuga Labs-Bored Ape Yacht Club #8817 " NFT that sold for nearly $25 million USD in January 2022.
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Cryptopunks, an NFT collection on the Ethereum chain starts at a floor price of $8.7K and more like it, although most of these collections have been minted for quite some time and have reached their value over years of trading and speculation.
10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
The project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement. CryptoPunks are one of the earliest and most iconic examples of "Non-Fungible Tokens” minted on Ethereum, and were the inspiration for the ERC-721 standard which powers most digital art and collectibles on-chain.
Since their release on June 23, 2017, CryptoPunks have been featured in numerous international publications, headlined prestigious international auctions at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and even entered the permanent collections of important art museums such as the ICA Miami, the Centre Pompidou, and the LACMA.
In the beginning NFT's were mostly just collectible digital art files but since then there's been a shift in utility, especially in the realm of gaming.
Consider a game like CS:GO, released in 2012 and eventually amassing a total of 1.4 million concurrent players in March 2023. If you're in the gaming space you know this game is a big deal and it's in game market is even bigger.
The Factory New Karmbit Case Hardened Pattern #387 sold for $2.5 million. Not in-game dollars, USD. Part of the reason for this sale price is because as of June 2025, fewer than 50 Blue Gem Karambits exist in the world.
Low supply + high demand = how much???
Consider the previous example, now imagine you're the buyer of this in-game item. It's transferred to your account, you've played a number of rounds, then all of a sudden you're kicked out of the game and locked out of your account. You find out there's been a hack and the entire game's user population is at risk of losing all of their progress including in-game currency and cosmetics. That $2.5 million is suddenly at risk of disappearing in seconds and there's nothing you can do about it.
This is where NFT's have utility beyond just collectibility. If that in-game item were secured to the block chain and stored to an external wallet secured by private keys the chance of losing that item drops significantly. You gain full control of the asset and the main risk is now that the entire game shut downs and your asset is now useless.
NFT's are a resource for artists to share and earn from their art. Turning hours of work into collectible pieces for users to trade or hold forever simply because they love it. I collect NFT's for both the utility and the love of the game. With new collections being minted every day, there's something for everyone on the market.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token
https://skinflow.gg/blog/karambit-blue-gem
https://opensea.io/
https://coinpaper.com/4902/most-expensive-bored-ape-record-breaking-nft-sales