Generative NFTs largely avoided the market mayhem of this year

Quick Take

  • Generative NFTs, or NFTs of art made by algorithms, have missed much of the market turmoil of this year, according to a report from The Block Research. 

Generative NFTs have not faced the market pressures that affected other NFT collections over the course of 2022, according to a new report from The Block Research. 

"Although the NFT market has been gripped by a widespread liquidity crisis since early May, generative art NFTs managed to defy this grim market environment by spinning off a thriving parallel universe. In particular, the Art Blocks curated series was able to weather the storm in spectacular fashion," the report said. 

Art Blocks is an NFT platform for works made by computers, algorithms and randomization. It first made waves in August of 2021 when it sold a piece for $5.8 million to Three Arrows Capital, the now bankrupt crypto hedge fund. 

While generative NFT projects like Art Blocks weathered the 2022 crypto storm, they pulled in fractions of what more popular NFT projects saw. Art Blocks brought in $17.8 million in peak weekly sales on May 1, when Bored Ape Yacht Club saw $134.3 million in weekly sales, The Block's Data Dashboard shows.

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Another contender in the generative art field is QQL, co-created by Fidenza's Tyler Hobbs. QQL's accompanying NFT collection, QQL Mint Pass, brought in $17 million in sales upon launch on Sept. 28.

A QQL created (for free) by The Block.

For more information about 2022's NFT market and predictions for next year, check out the 2023 Digital Asset Outlook from The Block Research. 


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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