# (Re)Defining ‘blue-chip’ NFTs


By [Paxel](https://paragraph.com/@paxel) · 2022-11-23

---

**_Disclaimer_**

_I did this research because I’m a learning addict who likes numbers. I intended to share it with a select group of friends only. Everything you see here is strictly my opinion. Please be aware that it isn’t, in any case, financial advice._

**The Ice Age of NFTs**

To me, Web3 today is like the Ice Age. A harsh environment, danger is everywhere, and we don’t know what’s to come. We only know that some players will make it to the next Era, and some won’t.

Things are moving quickly, and we constantly talk about the different collections and how they are developing. Their art, their sales, the team, and the extent of their success (or lack thereof). The sheer volume of opinions and information shared is enormous, but there is no model for comparing NFTs with one another. 

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/86752d7db779cbc033d697b0921cbf28d773bdbd42f3ee309bd18aacbd397ea3.png)

Several tools show you stats about anything happening on marketplaces, but very few consider the social side of NFTs. Some degens call promising brands “blue-chips”, borrowing the term referring to renowned companies in stock markets. But what exactly is a “blue-chip”? Does it even mean anything for NFTs? If the most popular brands are the ones expected to survive, how can we best measure that?

My goal here is to provide a framework to analyze and compare collections. I built it to help make sense of whatever is going on in this crazy place, and I hope that by sharing it, it will be useful to you as well. 

**Before we begin, a few clarifications about this analysis**

*   I only studied PFP (Profile Picture, or Picture For Proof) collections on the ethereum blockchain. Which collections are they? The ones that started as generative digital avatars. They often expanded to new products and services, but the token you originally minted was designed to be used as a profile picture.
    
*   This research does not include 1/1s, ENS domains, Art Blocks pieces, or metaverse land.
    
*   CryptoPunks are only a reference here, they are not part of the final ranking (let’s be honest, they have nothing to prove, they’re part of history).
    

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/5a0e29bc461326bd0eea88895e10e9ca4842e8ab29b398d952a4e24b01fa5785.jpg)

**First question: keep the term ‘blue-chip’ or not?**

More often than not, being a ‘blue-chip’ is a subjective notion based on the speaker’s hopes and dreams, and not directly backed by any data. It usually doesn't mean much, except that the person using this term believes in the collection, or simply wants to pump their bags. 

Yet, it conveys the idea that a particular brand already is, or will be among the most popular in the field. And in this nascent industry, being well-known means a greater chance at standing the test of time. 

Blue-chips are expected to attract large audiences, help achieve mass adoption, and be recognized as a superior asset. Their success then translates into financial gain and higher social status for their holders, making them highly desirable.

But if we all get the general idea, the term “blue-chip” doesn’t have a clear definition. I felt like it was loose and not reflective of web3 culture. This is why this model was born.

**Finding the right terminology**

As of today, 63% of the world population are Internet users. And with 2 million unique buyers, NFT collectors on OpenSea represent 0.0004% of them.

Feeling small yet?

Once again, we’re at the beginning. This is the Ice Age of NFTs, we’re all cavemen (and sometimes it shows, but that’s a subject for another day). 

Our small NFT world is full of various animals and strange creatures. But as fantastic as they all are, some will adapt and endure, and some will perish. By accident, because of a disease… Or hunted by bears. In the future, we’ll see some of them get bigger, but many will turn into fossils, frozen in time.

But if we’re in the Ice Age, and collections are part of the fauna, what animals should represent them and why?

**Defining the Fantastic Beasts:**

All animals chosen were present during the Ice Age, and just as we hope for our favorite collections, they still exist today. They also share many similarities with their IRL counterparts:

*   All of them are old in the field (have been around for at least 6 months), 
    
*   They are substantial in size (minimum 25K traded), 
    
*   And pretty well-known (50% of unique holders or over).
    

Once these conditions are met, congratulations, the collection is now a fantastic beast! But not all beasts are the same. They’re divided into 3 categories, from big and rare to smaller and more common. We used measurable criterias from 2 distinct categories to sort them out: financial indicators, and social indicators.

*   **Financial indicators:**
    
    *   Total volume traded. _Added to the original amount obtained from mint, and if royalties are applied and not set to 0, it influences what the brand can create, and how much the team can grow. It also constitutes a war chest, which is especially relevant during a bear market._
        
    *   Daily volume traded. _Has their momentum waned? Or on the contrary, is it only increasing?_
        
    *   Floor price stability over time. _Was it only a big pump and dump after all?_
        
    *   Daily sales. _How many or how much do people believe in that beast? Do they believe enough to spend their hard-earned money on it?_
        
*   **Social indicators:**
    
    *   Reach (number of Twitter followers and Discord members). _Do degens want to know more about that beast, directly from the source?_
        
    *   Passive engagement (retweets, favorites). _Are people interested enough to like a post, or even associate their name to it by retweeting?_
        
    *   Active engagement (mentions). _Are degens willing to communicate directly with the beast, or openly give their opinion about it? Each element was given more or less weight according to our perception of what is most important._
        

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/33dd63094da086f11552a3a2b4482c84e0df9184bf28d410c1c7a45fd744eec5.png)

**Each brand is then ranked and associated with the corresponding beast.** 

\- Rhino: rank 1 to 8

\- Bison: rank 9 to 20

\- Horse: from rank 21 and on

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a3bef1464af624ac12780ae39cf35acaf7db7663f423d4593061fb0b18ffa32f.png)

**Exception: the walruses**

Walruses reached 25k traded, but are currently dead in the water. The floor price is less than 5% of its all-time-high (but it can change, anything is possible, we’ve seen it happen).

The chosen criteria update on a daily basis, making this ranking dynamic. The leading beasts and the ones in the back of the pack seem to stay in place a longer time, but the middle part can vary frequently. Just like the market, things can change very quickly.

**What about future evolutions of this model?**

This classification, like almost everything in web3, is an experiment. It’s far from perfect, and bound to change as the market grows and practices evolve. We reserve the right to make changes, like adapting the scale or the weight of the different criteria, and even adding or deleting some of them. Other marketplaces will also certainly be added.

So now, without further ado, let’s see our beasts…

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d8b8844990898c1bbde503e851177c01f861bb0ecd553275c17dbf738aecc59f.png)

**What’s next?**

You can access the ranking through my pinned tweet. The script updates every day, and I’ll post about the changes frequently.

I also analyzed the beasts in a more qualitative way, and looked at various characteristics from different angles. I’ll try to recap all this info and post it in a comprehensible and not-too-boring way (if y’all are interested).

If you do not agree with the current ranking because it doesn’t pump your bags, don’t worry, you can decide on the scores, levels, and weights yourself. You can simply request edit access and do so in the sheet called “DIY ranking”. It will adapt the results to show your own rhinos, bisons, and horses.

I hope these beasts will help you get a better view of the market, with actual numbers. But don’t forget: we’re all degens. We can get crazy about a beast while we’re in the mood to vibe with it, and once our attention turns elsewhere, we can lose faith just as quickly. We can only speculate about what will happen. The truth is that we have no idea how well any beast will do. The future is uncertain, and maybe full of walruses. Do not invest anything you can’t afford to lose, and don’t take any ranking, analysis, or statistics as financial advice.

**A few details about the method:**

*   Retweets are worth 50% more than favorites. People having set up alerts for your account will get a notification if you retweet, so the act itself demands more effort, and is considered as more important.
    
*   Second collections earn half the score, or a third of the score of the original one.
    
*   CHEATING BEASTS WILL BE PUNISHED: if the number of active members on discord is less than 4% of the total number, or if a beast has more Discord members than Twitter followers, it means they probably have parasites (aka bots). It will be penalized and fingers will be pointed at it.
    
*   Reactions are only counted for the last 200 tweets, as per the limitations of the Twitter API. Counts started on the same day for all beasts.

---

*Originally published on [Paxel](https://paragraph.com/@paxel/re-defining-blue-chip-nfts)*