10 Most Exciting New Solana NFTs in 2022

Okay Friends ramped through the charts as one of the most traded #NFTs on #OpenSea, showcasing a massive undiscovered growth potential for #Solana NFTs. This has caught the attention of many #ETH maxi’s and #NFT-based DAOs on #Ethereum, which led to a migration of funds from #Ethereum to #Solana.

As a result, the ‘#SolanaSummer’ narrative was formed, with almost every new project on #Solana managing to amass a large amount of #Twitter followers that has yet to be seen in #Solana NFTs history. One notable project is TrippenApeNFT, currently sitting at just under 400,000 followers. To put it into perspective, that is more than the combined Twitter follower count for OG #Solana projects such as Degen Ape Academy and Solana Monkey Business which only adds up to 200,000.

On May 19th, #DappRadar reported 275,000 daily transactions on Solana-based NFT marketplace #MagicEden, with #OpenSea sitting at just 50,000. The rising interest for Solana NFTs can’t be denied, but the question is, how sustainable are these collections, and can they compete on the same level as CryptoPunks or even Bored Apes?

Some of the NFTs stated below are relatively new projects, but are selected based on their reputation and backing. Nevertheless, NFTs are a highly volatile and risky asset, and we should always take precautionary measures to invest only the amount we can afford to lose. Beyond this list, there are several other respected projects that are worthwhile to mention such as Boryoku Dragonz, Taiyo Robotics, and Shadowy Super Coder.

In this article, we selected 10 of the best Solana NFTs to look out for in 2022. Since such a list is something that is truly subjective, we’ve also included nftinspect’s community rankings for comparison.

1. Okay Bears

Collection Size: 10,000
Mint price: 1.5 SOL
Mint date: 26 April 2022
Inspect Community ranking: 1
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Okay Bears has risen through the ranks as one of the most influential brands in the Solana NFT space, due to its genius guerilla marketing techniques and clean-looking art. Okay Bears launched on April 27 and became the first Solana NFT collection to top OpenSea’s 24-hour ranking with over $18M in volume traded within hours of its launch, surpassing even large ETH collections such as VeeFriends, Bored Apes, and MoonBirds.

Okay Bears is likely the first Solana project to bridge the gap between ETH and SOL NFT communities, attracting prominent ETH-based influencers such as FazeBanks, ZssBecker, CryptoGodJohn, Nate Rivers, and eddyiskongz to join the #WeAreOkay movement with their Okay Bears. The brand is currently partnered with MagicEden to build its “Bear Market,” an NFT marketplace where Okay Bears holders will be able to buy and sell Bears with member-only perks. Its other partners include automated escrow service platforms YawwwNFT, Matrica Labs, Audius, and Phantom Wallet.

The success of Okay Bears may have to a large extent been due to its impeccable timing with Solana’s integration with OpenSea. While that may play some part in its success, the Okay Bears team also did a good job of executing a profile picture-based project on Solana that was once filled with hideous 8-bit pixelated art. Founded by several members of Australian-based Aussie DAO, the team plans to make a “culture shift” in web3.

2. CETS ON CRECK

Collection Size: 6,969
Mint price: 2 SOL
Mint date: 10 March 2022
Inspect Community ranking: 2
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Community, culture, and freedom are three words that describe a Cet (Cets on Creck NFT holders). CETS ON CRECK is a lifestyle Web3 brand that aspires to normalize freedom of expression, or “to be fkin unapologetic of who you are”. The art style reflects the brand image and culture with a laid-back and chill feel.

Aside from that, each Cet can be staked to earn $CRECK, an ecosystem token. Recently, Cet holders were airdropped “Cets Milk Bottle” which holders can use to increase their staking yield to earn 1.25x $CRECK when staked. Some users speculate Milk Bottle will be used for “breeding with a twist” and “enlightenment” (similar to mutation) in the near future.

The utility for the project’s native $CRECK token remains limited. Presently, it can be used on the “Bleck Market” to participate in raffles, auctions, fundraising, or even gamble it all away in a single coin flip. Besides, CRECK will likely be used for bidding on its 7 legendary NFT auctions.

The creator of the project, known as Peblo, often drops excerpts of what’s happening behind the scenes playfully through posters with easter eggs, instilling engagement through curiosity. Cets are a mob on Twitter, often raiding posts with the pinched finger emoji. To be a Cet, one must choose a Cet that represents themselves and include {313} beside their Twitter username.

3. DeGods

Collection Size: 10,000
Mint price: 3 SOL
Mint date: 8 October 2021
Inspect Community ranking: 3
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Some may be familiar with DeGods for making headlines with their $650,000 acquisition of a BIG3 basketball league team “Killer 3s”, but what is DeGods, and why is everyone hyped about it? In short, DeGods labels themselves as a bunch of degenerates, punks, and misfits with almost a cult-like following on Twitter. Several degenerate holders on Twitter can also be seen flexing their new DeGods tattoo to dedicate themselves as a “Forever DeGod.”

DeGods is well known for its Paper Hand Bitch Tax (PHBT) where holders are taxed 33.3% if they decide to sell their DeGods below the mint price of 3 SOL. This failed concept turned into a movement on Twitter where most DeGod holders can be seen rocking (33.3%) beside their Twitter username.

On March 31st, the brand introduced DeadGods — a 1:1 fine art version of the original DeGod. DeadGods is not a separate collection but rather, it contains the metadata of the original DeGod. In essence, it is the same NFT but with 2 different versions, where holders can switch between them at any time. To get a DeadGod, a DeGod + 1000 $DUST is required. DeGods can be staked to mine 10 $DUST per day whereas DeadGods can mine three times as much. Its native currency $DUST can be used on its DUSTIE’s marketplace to buy exclusive whitelist spots for upcoming projects, merchandise, courtside tickets, blue-chip NFTs, and even V-Bucks for Fortnite. MagicEden is currently working with DeGods to enable $DUST minting on their launchpad.

In their recent “State of the Union,” the brand revealed its plans to build tools (unannounced) as a service for other DAOs as a monthly subscription in $DUST to add additional value surrounding its token. The pseudonymous founder of Degods, frankdegods has stated that he plans to focus on brand development and even announced a partnership with a top brand agency to clean up its entire visuals. Holders can also expect multiple high-quality merch drops throughout the year. DeGods is currently working on its second NFT collection ‘Duppies’ where each DeGod/DeadGod holder will receive a guaranteed spot for minting.
Their current ventures include DeFrame, DeMap, Dust Labs, and DYOR App.

4. The Fracture: The Gods (Prev. SOLgods)

Collection Size: 6,666
Mint price: 0.666 SOL
Mint date: 28 October 2021
Inspect Community ranking: 4
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

The Fracture is the parent brand that consists of three factions, The Gods, The Bridged, and The Forgotten. The Gods (prev. SOLgods) is the 1st faction within The Fracture intended to bring fine art profile pictures (PFPs) to the NFT space while building a strong community. The Gods have built some of Solana's most connected and engaged communities. Each God can be sent into “deep meditation” (basically staking) to earn up to 230 $GOD per day where holders will be able to use $GOD to purchase exclusive merchandise, bid on exclusive auctions, and mint its third collection (The Forgotten).

5. Blocksmith Labs

Collection Size: 4,444
Mint price: 2.2 SOL
Mint date: 24 March 2021
Inspect Community ranking: 5
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Whitelisting is one of the main problems of NFTs that often involves a monotonous process and lots of time if done manually. To solve this issue, Blocksmith Labs built “Mercury,” a whitelisting management platform that streamlines the whitelisting process for both users and projects in a highly efficient and less congested manner. On the platform, users have clear visibility on which project they are whitelisted on while allowing projects to see how many users have been whitelisted on their projects and easily export the user's whitelist addresses in a .csv file.

Blocksmith Labs NFT holders will be able to generate $FORGE, an ecosystem token that can be used to buy whitelist spots from the projects onboarded on Mercury. Blocksmith usually takes between 5-15% of the total whitelist spots distributed by the project as compensation. With this, the project is able to secure a large number of whitelist spots for its community. The whitelist spots will often be raffled off through randomly chosen tickets, where users will need to pay a certain amount of $FORGE tokens for a ticket to participate. Non-Blocksmith holders could also participate in the raffle, creating external demand and promoting value accrual for $FORGE.

Mercury also provides a calendar that aggregates the launch date and mint price of upcoming NFT projects for its users. The highlighted green indicates that you are ‘whitelisted’ in that particular project.

Mercury has several tools for project owners to manage the whitelisting process effects such as Bulk Add Roles, Purge User, and Raffle.

6. The Catalina Whale Mixer

Collection Size: 5,555
Mint price: 1 SOL
Mint date: 17 December 2021
Inspect Community ranking: 6
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

POW POW💥 Catalina Whale Mixer (CWM) is a project by WAGMI Beach, a web3 global entertainment franchise originally conceptualized by Michael George, Carlo Fox, Benjamin Willis, and Joshua Adriano who are all decked-out players in the global entertainment industry. Their project lead, George, has spent the last decade working alongside Scooter Braun where he discovered and signed Martin Garrix. Some of its other team members include Wala, an award-winning creative director, and Lykken, an artist manager who worked with Andrew Watt, Hilary Duff, Lil Dicky, and more.

CWM intends to build a brand that flips the script on passive consumption and creates an environment where holders can participate and contribute as a community. The team recently negotiated a deal with a Hollywood production studio to develop “WHALE TELEVISION,” an animated adult comedy series where holders can cast their Whales to be featured in the series. Aside from that, they are also in talks with three major music companies to form a joint venture that will allow Whales from the community to be a part of WHALE RECORDS and create global party hits. To participate, a Whale needs to be staked to be eligible for WHALE TELEVISION Auditions and WHALE RECORDS Auditions and unlocks benefits such as minting access for all CWM and WAGMI Beach mints, beach party invites, dinner invites, merchandise, and physical collectibles. WAGMI Beach is set to launch its second collection, ‘Bubblegoose Ballers’ soon where Whale holders can mint a certain amount of Bubblegoose NFT for free depending on the number of whales they hold.

7. OG Atadians (Atadia)

Collection Size: 5,000
Mint price: 1.5 SOL
Mint date: 10 March 2022
Inspect Community ranking: 7
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Atadia is a relatively new project that works to bring a ‘trust to a trust-less environment’ by producing insights related to reputation, creditworthiness, and investment preferences for any public wallet as well as other wallets that belong to the same owner. A week ago, Atadia launched its roadmap 2.0, highlighting the launch of its PFPscoreV0 which is expected to be released in June 2022. Holding Atadia NFT allows you to co-earn and co-drive its products through DAO voting and access to a co-op alternate reality game within its Discord.

According to its papers, “PFPscore” is a scoring engine that captures and quantifies an individual's reputation and credibility through the lens of data, both on-chain and off. Their goal is to make PFPscore capable of powering any interaction that requires trust in Web3's "trustless" environment, including undercollateralized lending, Mint-Now-Pay-Later, and ScoreCheck service.

PFPscore can be used to aid interactions that involve trusting someone with insufficient information about them, under a contract that is inevitably incomplete. This can go anywhere from trusting someone to mint an NFT for you when you're too tired, electing someone in your DAO, or even selling someone an insurance policy or hiring them for a job.

The score is calculated through various criteria such as reputation metrics, creditworthiness, and blacklist background checks. Now you might be wondering, why is PFPscore such a big deal anyway? One of the key use-cases of PFPscore is its function as Proof of Reputation. PFPscore lets users know whether founders or their favorite Crypto Twitter influencers are trustworthy by analyzing their activity on the blockchain.

8. Communi3

Collection Size: 5,001
Mint price: 2 SOL
Mint date: 4 March 2022
Community ranking: 8
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Today, communities are managed through various spreadsheets, discord bots, and other inefficient methods, which can become time-consuming as the community grows. Communi3 (community + web3) is a set of tools that helps DAOs, P2E games, and projects to manage and grow their communities using multiple ways to boost engagement. This includes tools to manage community workflows such as self-onboarding, payments, wallet verification, cross-promotion marketplace, management, and communication that can be seamlessly handled through the online portal. The software also includes gamification through questlines, badges, ranks, rewards, currencies, tiers, and digital storefronts designed to engage community members online.

Communi3 has an experienced team from the gaming space that has previously built great companies such as Curse and Team Liquid. To date, the company has raised $9M through VCs, and has clients ranging from The Sandbox, Illuvium, YGG, Big Time to Secret Network, and Ethermon. The product has been developed for 6 years with proven results to increase engagement three to four times with a 96% net retention rate.

How can you be part of it? Communi3 has two collections — Labs & Mad Scientist. The Laboratories are a collection of 50 one-of-one NFTs that acts as a license for Communi3’s SaaS. Each Lab minted will be tied to an existing customer of Communi3’s suite of tools. In other words, there will never be more laboratories than customers that the team can support. The suite currently costs between $5k - $15k USDC a month with each lab representing $5k USDC worth of services. Now, each lab starts at $100,000 (2,222 SOL at current prices) and can be staked to earn $5K worth of revenue or $60k USDC per year from Communi3’s SaaS earnings. The Labs could also be staked for 12 months to generate a new lab, allowing you to earn even more yield.

Mad Scientist is a collection of 5001 business-to-consumer NFTs for Communi3’s business. Each Mad Scientist will be able to yield $SCI over time which can be sold to laboratory holders and other customers to create a deflationary pressure on the token as it is utilized. $SCI is Communi3’s ecosystem token that will be required to unlock other services like animation, and other tools within the suite. Each new customer onboarding Communi3 would also require to burn a small portion of $SCI as a part of their usage on a monthly basis. Other benefits of Mad Scientist include access to their native token $SCI IDO in 2023, whitelist opportunities, access to B2C tools, and staking rewards.

9. Portals

Collection Size: 5,000
Mint price: 1.5 SOL
Mint date: 26 November 2021
Community ranking: 9
Marketplace: MagicEden, OpenSea

Portals is an immersive browser-based metaverse where you can explore, create, and gather with others. Their goal is to create a vibrant and interesting city center that will allow everyone to explore. To achieve this, they are focusing on the design of its real estate distribution and city planning. With easy build tools and built-in communication features, users can seamlessly customize their units via an editor in its browser. The team behind the Portal continues to provide utility overtime to its holder with airdrops such as "Standard" Citizen Card NFTs, "Genesis" Citizen Card NFTs, and also an upcoming project they are currently working on.

Online spaces have become a norm in today’s world of remote working and virtual events, with companies hosting their meetings virtually. This drives the demand for SaaS solutions to support the creation of virtual spaces. To add extra benefits, Portals partnered with Cardinal Labs, a utility layer for Solana NFTs, to build a Portals Renting Marketplace for its holders to rent out their NFTs to communities and companies to host virtual meetings, events, games, and more.

Portals are decked with over 20 team members from Apple, Epic Games, Roblox, Sony Interactive Entertainment, etc. The company also raised $5M from a seed round led by Greylock VC and Solana Ventures, Multicoincap, Justin Kan, and more. In its latest update, Portal showed off its latest addition in its metaverse known as “Downtown” which includes a train station, The Gallery, and other noteworthy locales.

10. The Sol Army GV Pass

Collection Size: 555
Mint price: Free Airdrop if you are an OG holder of The Sol Army SOLdiers Gen0
Mint date: 28 October 2021
Community ranking: 10
Marketplace: MagicEden

Whitelist is a norm within the NFT space, allowing only specific wallets to access the NFT sale. This creates a sense of exclusivity and provides whitelisted members with a ‘guarantee’ mint for the NFT. Getting a whitelist on a hype upcoming project is usually a tedious process that requires a little bit of luck and skill. However, if you do manage to get whitelisted, the returns are usually worth your time. Whitelists are typically given through Twitter/Discord giveaways, being early (OG), and staying active in Discord.

What if there was a way to skip the tedious process and get whitelisted in projects with doing pretty much nothing? Holding a GV Pass is one of the best ways to get whitelisted for any upcoming projects on Solana, known for its notorious Alpha Hunters and Zero toxicity community. The community has a 10-20% success rate in making sure everyone gets a WL spot for any upcoming projects. Similar to Blocksmith, GV Pass is known for its whitelist opportunities. However, the key difference between both projects is accessibility. For GV Pass, only holders have access to the whitelist opportunities. In Blocksmith, non-holders could participate in its whitelist raffles as long as they hold $FORGE, Blocksmith’s ecosystem token.

Other benefits of GV Pass include profit-sharing streams from its various ventures, such as Sol Academy and its accelerator program. They recently managed to acquire whitelist spots from major projects such as TrippinApe, OakParadise, VandalCityCorp, kingsofdastreet, and many others.

Final Thoughts

Solana NFTs exploded in popularity in a short period of time. As a result, keeping up with the current trends is challenging, which is why it's critical to have a broad understanding of the market's analytics, tools, and infrastructure. To start off the overview, there are three main marketplaces on Solana, notably MagicEden, OpenSea, and Solanart. There are also aggregators like CoralCube that combine NFTs from various marketplaces into a single platform. To check the rarity of your NFTs, MoonRank and Howrareis are often the go-to platforms users use. If you decide to look into it further, analytical tools like solsniper, moonlynft, and solswatch may be able to assist you in making a wiser purchase decision. Rug pulls are one of the most common problems with NFTs, and while you can't completely avoid them, review sites like RadRugs can help you identify the risk level of an NFT project and lessen your chances of getting rugged.

Rugpull is a common occurrence in the NFT scene, the most recent one being Reptilian Renegade, a controversial rugpull that was revealed to be the same rugpuller as Balloonsville and Doodled Dragons. Cumulatively, more than 20,000 SOL has been stolen from the three projects. While there is no true way to prevent a rugpull, it's always great to choose a project based on its partnerships, credibility, and product. For example, Okay Bears was selected in this list due to its notable partnership with Magic Eden and Solana Labs. Degods has constantly delivered its roadmap since its inception in October 2021. Communi3 has an actual working product and customer base ranging from Secret Network to The Sandbox. And that's all for the 10 Most Exciting New Solana NFTs in 2022