What are the NFT platforms and projects that may issue airdrops?

This article is sourced from: Lydon BlockBeats

In today's blockchain field, the most eye-catching segment is undoubtedly the NFT sector. With the emergence of various NFT blind box projects, more and more DeFi users, crypto users, and even people outside the crypto world are beginning to pay attention to and join this field.

As NFT trading volumes and user numbers continue to hit new highs, coupled with frequent news of massive funding for NFT projects, many NFT players are starting to expect that NFT projects can also issue tokens and distribute airdrops to NFT players like DeFi projects.

Today, the well-established crypto art platform SuperRare tweeted: "We need to talk about tokens; an exciting announcement will be made on Thursday." Many users began to discuss that this might hint at the OG platform, which was born in 2018, planning to issue tokens.

So, which high-quality projects in the NFT field have yet to issue tokens, and where users might be able to interact in advance to receive potential future airdrop rewards? Lydon BlockBeats has compiled a list of 10 NFT platforms and projects that have not yet issued tokens, summarized as follows.

1. SuperRare

SuperRare was established in 2018 and is one of the three oldest crypto art platforms. It is currently the most comprehensive and powerful crypto art platform. Artists must undergo strict selection to join SuperRare, and since the platform was established early, almost all popular crypto artists have previously joined SuperRare.

SuperRare completed a $9 million Series A funding round in March, led by Velvet Sea and 1confirmation, with participation from Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban, Virgin Galactic chairman, Golden State Warriors owner Chamath Palihapitiya, and Marc Benioff. On August 11, they tweeted a hint about possibly issuing tokens.

2. OpenSea

OpenSea is currently the largest NFT trading platform, encompassing various types of NFTs, including artworks, collectibles, gaming assets, virtual land, and domain names. In the first ten days of August 2021, the trading volume reached $627 million, setting a historical high and approximately doubling the trading volume for the entire month of July.

OpenSea completed a $100 million Series B funding round in July, led by a16z, and after this round, OpenSea's valuation reached $1.5 billion.

3. MakersPlace

MakersPlace is also an established crypto art platform that focuses on introducing external IP while supporting new artists on the platform. Jose Delbo, the author of DC Comics' "Wonder Woman," has released NFT crypto art on this platform.

Recently, due to Beeple's $1 purchase event gaining significant traffic. In addition, MakersPlace has introduced social attributes, allowing creators to gauge their popularity through data such as "likes," "follows," and "views."

MakersPlace completed a $30 million Series A funding round in August, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital, with participation from Uncork Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sony Music Entertainment, and others.

4. Foundation

Foundation is an invitation-only crypto art platform. Unlike Zora, artists must successfully sell one piece of work on the platform to receive two invitation slots. This increases the difficulty of joining while strengthening the review mechanism, ensuring that only artists whose works are recognized by buyers can invite others.

From Foundation's operational model, it places great importance on community, even delegating the artist invitation and review mechanism to the community, which may lead to the issuance of governance tokens in the future to further empower the community.

5. Zora

Zora is an invitation-only crypto art platform where each new artist has three invitation slots, allowing them to invite friends or other artists they admire. This enhances the platform's social attributes and improves the review mechanism, shifting from staff review to artist self-review.

On April 6, 2021, Zora Labs, the company behind Zora, submitted documents to the SEC showing that it had raised nearly $8 million through equity sales. In October 2020, Zora announced the completion of a $2 million seed round, led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Trevor McFedries, Alice Lloyd George, Jeff Staple, and Coinbase Ventures.

6. RTFKT

RTFKT is an emerging streetwear brand that produces virtual sneakers and fashion items. RTFKT auctions a pair of sneakers on its website every month, and users can bid using cryptocurrency.

The winning bidder will have exclusive access to a custom AR filter to showcase on Snapchat, Instagram, and other social platforms. RTFKT previously stated in a community AMA that it plans to issue the $DRIP token and use it to power the Discord creative community.

In May 2021, RTFKT announced it had completed an $8 million funding round, with a valuation of $33.3 million. This round was led by A16Z, with participation from C Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Shrug Capital, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, Behance co-founder Scott Belsky, artist Fewocious, and former LVMH chief digital officer Ian Rogers.

7. ENS

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized secure domain name service platform. ENS domains provide users with a way to map human-readable names to blockchain and non-blockchain resources, such as Ethereum addresses, IPFS hashes, or website URLs. ENS domain names can be bought and sold on secondary markets.

8. Zed Run

Zed Run is an on-chain horse racing game developed by the Sydney-based startup Virtually Human Studio. Users can purchase NFT horses of different levels for breeding and racing.

On August 9, Zed Run announced a partnership with NASCAR, with plans to introduce NASCAR-branded racehorses in the game, while other specific collaboration details are still under discussion.

On July 21, 2021, Zed Run's parent company, Virtually Human Studio, raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by TCG, with participation from a16z and Red Beard Ventures.

9. Sorare

Sorare is a fantasy football game based on Ethereum launched in March 2019. Players can build their teams by purchasing NFT player cards and participate in virtual competitions.

In May 2019, Sorare raised €500,000 in a seed funding round led by French billionaire Xavier Niel, with participation from ConsenSys and Seedcamp.

A year later, in 2020, German athlete André Schürrle, the 2014 World Cup champion, along with Ubisoft, E-Ventures, Partech, and Consensys, invested $4 million in Sorare. Subsequently, in December 2020, Barcelona football star Gerard Piqué invested $4.3 million.

On February 25, 2021, Sorare completed a $50 million funding round led by Benchmark, with participation from Accel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and renowned football player Antoine Griezmann.

10. Art Blocks

Art Blocks is a digital art generation platform based on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike other platforms, Art Blocks is the first platform to generate artworks through algorithmic programming.

When collectors purchase artworks, they also participate in the generation process, which will automatically close once the number of generated works reaches the limit. On the Art Blocks platform, artists can mint artworks for free, with the platform taking 10% of the sales revenue, while the remaining 90% is allocated by the artists themselves.

Art Blocks was launched by Erick Snowfro in November 2020 and has since received investments from Collab Currency, Libertus Capital, and The LAO.