The year 2023 has officially passed with many ups and downs. Perhaps 2023 has witnessed too many market fluctuations accompanied by new trends that have never happened before such as Bitcoin Ordinals or AI. However, 2023 also sees the return of the NFT market, especially NFT collections associated with hit games.
I myself have some experience with the NFT market and in this article I will share with everyone my favorite NFT collection in 2023. Of course, these are just personal observations and should not be considered investment advice.
Personal Criteria When Evaluating NFT Collections
Quality of the images
My first question when I heard everyone on the Weakhand team talking about a newly launched NFT collection was: “Is it beautiful?”. This statement probably surprises everyone because it doesn’t come from someone who loves fundamental analysis like me, but it’s the truth. An NFT collection with beautiful photos was one of the first factors when I was introduced to it.
However, I also see that this reason has been proven somewhere because if the artist and development team really have a heart, they will put that heart into their works and thereby convey the meaning. the value of meticulousness and perfection to users. And I also see that the community is quite strict about this factor.
A practical example shows that when Azuki Elementals was released, it received a rain of criticism from the community because compared to the first collection, Azuki, it really wasn’t too much different. Not only that, the community also pointed out that Azuki Elementals products also lack integrity in some NFT images.
What is this project about?
The next question I will ask after finding the NFT collection on Opensea is: “What is this project about?”. Usually this question only helps me determine which category this NFT collection belongs to. It can be a PFP NFT, Music NFT, Sport NFT, Gaming NFT, Art NFT, etc. Determining the NFT collection belongs to the category Please help me have separate evaluation criteria for each type of NFT.
Of course, I will only focus on the PFP NFT and Gaming NFT collections because these collections typically offer higher returns when held than the rest of the NFT collections. Of course, if NFT collections in other categories bring similar profits, I will also pay some attention to it.
Is there anything good about holding this NFT?
After knowing which of the many different types of NFTs the project is about, the next question I’m interested in is what benefits I will get when holding this NFT collection. Certainly, I don’t buy NFT because of passion or love for it, but rather the benefits from holding NFT make me passionate and love it, because if there is a benefit, I see it often, the more benefit it is. The more you love it, the more you love it.
Certainly, each type of NFT will have its own benefits, some in the present and some in the future. Usually I will choose the second part because in the first part, everyone will definitely see it and the price will usually reflect the correct value, on the contrary, not everyone will see the benefits in the future. Even if you see it, not everyone will believe it, so the price may be lower than the value (this is assessed entirely based on personal analysis)/
I will have more specific examples because I share about the NFT collections I am holding at the present time.
What did the development team of that project do?
Not only with projects in the Crypto market, but even with NFT collections, I always want to know the people behind them. Who are they? What experiences do they have before entering the Crypto market? What projects do they have experience working on in the Crypto market? Is it successful or not? Does it have anything to do with the project they are currently developing? That is the past.
Another point is what did they do with this project to develop it? What is their strategy? Does their project have any investment funds backing it? Which project and investment fund relationship is the strongest?
And when I answer most of these questions, I will decide whether I should invest in that NFT collection or not?
My Favorite NFT Collections of 2023
Pudgy Penguins & Lil Pudgy
I knew about Lil Pudgy before knowing about Pudgy Penguins. If people think perhaps the reason is because Lil Pudgy is cheaper, it tends to be suitable for someone new to the NFT market to invest but in reality it is not. Yes, because at the beginning of 2023 I had almost no knowledge about NFTs to be able to invest.
I came to Lil Pudgy for the third reason: its benefits. At that time, I started to learn and do retroactive of LayerZero. After reading carefully about LayerZero, I know that if you really do retroactive, it is not simply about using Stargate Finance regularly for the purpose of moving assets, but also:
- Use Native Token building projects based on LayerZero’s OFT technology. At the time, there was JOE of Trader Joe and RDNT of Radiant Capital.
- Use NFT collections based on LayerZero’s OFT technology.
When considering the second factor, I came across the first two NFT collections using LayerZero’s Omnichain technology to move to many different Blockchains: Lil Pudgy and Gh0stly Gh0st. So why did I choose Lil Pudgy? There are a few reasons as follows:
- LayerZero’s development team often uses Pudgy Penguins as their avatar, which shows that they both support and love penguins. Not only that, only recently did I learn that they also reward their employees with Pudgy Penguins during Tet 2022.
- When users move NFT Lil Pudgy from Ethereum to other Blockchains such as Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, they will receive 1 Sounbound Token. Each NFT, when used once, will only be received once. Because of this factor, I had to sell the Lil Pudgy to buy a new Lil that has never used the bridge. I clearly asked the question that there must be some reason for the birth of Sounbound Token. I think this is one of the conditions to get LayerZero’s Retroactive in the future.
- When reading in depth about the development process of Pudgy Penguins, I quite liked the part where the project was abandoned by the original development team and bought by a person who is truly passionate about Pudgy Penguins. Their plan is to move from Web3 to Web2, this is a plan I quite like because they must have real strength to be able to make such a plan.
- The new development team of Pudgy Penguins has also had initial achievements in what they will do as planned. At that time they released toys, clothes,… receiving support from the community.
- Pudgy Penguins’ community is very interesting. They often share about physical toys in life and experiences with the penguins. This reminds me of the things called “culture” in the Crypto market that are present in this NFT collection.
Above are all the reasons I bought and held Lil Pudgy long term. During the development of the project, as expected, the Pudgy Penguins development team continued on the path and achieved certain achievements such as bringing physical toys to Walmart – the sales chain. largest retailer in the US, launching Pudgy World – where physical products become NFTs and featuring games and most recently making Pudgy World a game world developed on zkSync.
Recently, there have been many rumors that those who own SBT when using Lil Pudgy to move back and forth between Blockchain and more broadly, using NFT collections with LayerZero’s Omnichain technology will have rewards when LayerZero Token launch. That is also part of Lil Pudgy’s recent growth motivation and the main growth driver of Gh0stly Gh0st.
If the project’s development team maintains the current roadmap, I will continue with Lil Pudgy until LayerZero launches ZRO expected in January 2024 when they release LayerZero 2.0 version. If using Lil Pudgy between Bridges becomes one of the Airdrop conditions, there is a high possibility that I will hold Lil Pudgy until the next cycle. Because recently the project has grown and reached ATH in the context of the entire PFP NFT industry being extremely boring.
Summary
And above are my favorite NFT collections in 2023: Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgy. I was passionate about Lil Pudgy at first because of the benefits I hoped it would bring in the future and more and more the things I expected gradually became a reality. Hopefully through this article everyone has learned about their favorite NFT collection in 2023.
