Best NFTs Under 1 ETH

The non-fungible token (NFT) space has exploded in popularity over the last 12 months, with support from star athletes, investors and celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Mark Cuban and Stephen Curry. According to Footprint Analytics, the cumulative trading volume of NFTs was $21.5 billion by the end of 2021, compared to $120 million before 2021 — a 200x jump in cumulative trading volume. As of August 2022, only $4.2 billion in NFTs was moved, indicating that market sentiments had not yet returned to normal.

Despite the industry’s rapid growth, many retail investors are still hesitant to enter the NFT market because of the high prices of many NFT collections. The following discussion will analyze the best NFTs under 1 ETH that you can purchase today.

What are NFTs?

NFTs are a type of cryptographic token that represents a unique asset. NFTs function as verifiable proofs of authenticity and ownership within a blockchain. They were first launched on the Ethereum blockchain, but other blockchains including the Binance Smart Chain and Solana now also support them. 

These tokens can represent real-world items such as artwork, real estate, property rights and individual's identities. Because they are based on the blockchain, NFTs can remove intermediaries, create new markets and simplify transactions. To understand the value of NFTs in greater detail, it is necessary to understand fungibility.

Fungibility refers to the property of an asset whose individual units are interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable from each other. Cryptocurrency and all fiat currencies are fungible. For example, a $20 bill can be exchanged for two $10 bills; you still have the same value but you have exchanged your asset and received a new asset. As implied by the term non-fungible, NFTs cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency with each other. As a result, NFTs make digital content irreplaceable, hence valuable. 

Before deep diving into the best NFTs under 1 ETH, it is important that you understand a few important concepts associated with the NFT space. 

Floor price: The floor price refers to the lowest price of any NFT within a specific category or collection. As a rule of thumb, hot projects will typically have rising floor prices, with the opposite being true for weaker projects. 

Like with all else in crypto, there’s a social meaning behind the numbers. A floor price also represents the weakest hands in a market — the lowest price at which a particular seller is willing to undercut other holders. In many communities, people are badgered into not selling at a given price to artificially sustain a desired floor price. 

The NFT market is relatively illiquid compared to traditional markets because the number of buyers and sellers on both sides of an NFT are limited, which makes trading and investing inherently more risky. However, risk isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While it may be more difficult to sell your NFT if a certain project goes south, it also takes a lot fewer buyers to increase the floor price of a collection if demand starts to pick up. 

Minting: Minting refers to the process of converting digital files into digital assets stored on the blockchain, typically the Ethereum blockchain. To break it down further, a digital asset refers to any file that is created electronically, including an image, article or video. The blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger, and once an asset is added to it, it cannot be modified, edited or deleted. Once the asset is minted and officially an NFT, it can be sold on an NFT marketplace.

Wallet Ownership: Wallet ownership measures the community aspect of an NFT collection by comparing the number of wallet owners to the number of items — specific NFTs — in the collection. 

Let’s say there are 10,000 NFTs. A 1:1 ratio of an individual and NFT would be ideal; the community would be strong in this case as ownership is equally distributed across all holders. 

Decentralized ownership is important because it prevents certain individuals from having overwhelming influence over the price action of the NFT collection. As a result — relative to the items — the more owners, the better community. If there’s 10,000 NFTs and the ratio is 100:10,000 there’s no strong community built. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have set a gold standard in the NFT space. It has 10,000 items in its collection and 6,400 owners. 

Best NFTs Under 1 ETH

1. Acrocolypse

What Exactly is Acrocalyspe?

Acrocalypse is a collection of 10,240 space-racing crocodiles created by Sam Witwicky — the creator of paperhands.gg. With over 70,000 unique wallets connected in the last 70 days, paperhands.gg is one of the fastest-growing decentralized applications (dApps) that allows users to see how much money they’ve missed out on by selling early (paperhanding). 

Acrocalyspe launched in 2022, with the aim of delivering unique reptile artwork in addition to developing the Acrocalypse into one of the first play-to-earn (P2E), utility-focused,  multi-dimensional NFT projects. At the end of March, it was announced that FaZe Banks has been onboarded as an official advisor for the project, which should benefit the community with additional white list spots for upcoming mints, access to more tools and cross collaborations with other projects. 

What is the Utility Behind the Project?

Many individuals in the NFT space believe that Acrocalypse is a sleeping giant because of all the value and benefits associated with holding a croc. Crocs get access to:

1. An NFT portfolio management app
2. Upcoming free-to-claim NFT drop
3. $PAPER airdrop
4. Croc staking to earn $PAPER, Acrocalyspe’s own native currency
5. P2E game

What’s more, all crocs will soon be getting spacecrafts soon. The collection is made up of four different spacecrafts, each of which with multiple variations and accompanying rumors that these will be needed in the upcoming P2E game. In a sea of cash grabs and scams, it's refreshing to see a team that wants to consistently build tools that bring value to the space as a whole.

What is Creature World NFT?

Creature World is a collection of 10,000 NFTs created by NYC-based artist Danny Cole. Danny is 21 years old and has already had quite an impressive career in the art world. It is important that you do your own research (DYOR), but at 21 he’s already:

• Been featured by Converse
• Designed animated artwork for Portugal
• Had a part in the Holy Cow NFT project
• Worked with Kanye West’s stage designer and the Emmy-Award winning makeup artist Ben Rittenhouse

Notable celebrities who have purchased a Creature World NFT include Gary Vee and Shaquille O'Neal. 

What is the Utility Behind the Project?

Creature World is unique in the sense that it doesn’t have a clear roadmap laid out plainly for all to see. A roadmap refers to the mission statement of an NFT that includes future plans and objectives. Instead, Danny and his team want everything to be a surprise, with the purpose of keeping anticipation and excitement high. 

Here are a few things you can expect from holding a Creature World NFT:

• Danny and his team created something called Journey, which will be a series of steps that act as a unique adventure for the Creature World community. More specifically, Danny has hinted at introducing generative music and developing physical versions of the creatures.
• In addition to the Journey, holders of the project can benefit from the experimental side projects the team executes. For example, last year, holders were airdropped a free piece of a Creature Playground. 
• Holders will gain exclusive access to In Real Life (IRL) events associated with Creature World in NYC such as NFT conventions. 

It is important to note that Danny and his team do not care about the floor price of Creature World NFTs. At its core, Creature World is an art-focused NFT collection; therefore, the value of each NFT is in the eye of the beholder. As a result, future utility will likely be driven by the success Danny and his team have in building the Creature World community.

What is The Association NFT?

The Association is a collection of dynamic NFTs that change in appearance over time based on team and player on-court performance developed by the NBA and NBPA. The Association NFTs are connected to live data feeds and computations for each via Chainlink (LINK) Oracle. This enables each player’s NFT appearance to adapt in an automated manner based on predetermined achievements that are written into the smart contract.

Essentially, the more that a player accomplishes during the 2022 NBA Playoffs, the more visual changes their NFT will receive. Visual changes include player accessories, backgrounds and emojis designed by various artists. 

What is the Utility Behind the Project?

The Association NFTs are collectibles at heart. They aim to further engage avid basketball fans by providing an entertaining way to collect a dynamic NFT that showcases the ongoing achievements of their favorite players during the 2022 NBA Playoffs. 

The NFTs background will change based on team accomplishments such as series sweeps, upset or championship win; meanwhile, traits, accessories and emojis will change based on individual performance — such as 30+ points recorded in a game.

Like all collectibles, the Association NFT can be considered a fun hobby for passionate NBA fans. In a financial sense, the collection has the potential to appreciate; however, price action will primarily be driven by market sentiment surrounding the NBA playoffs and the broader NFT market. 

Where to Buy NFTs

You can choose from many marketplaces to buy and sell NFTs. Depending on which marketplace you choose, you’ll be able to purchase different types of art or collectibles. OpenSea is the most-liked marketplace that operates on Ethereum. 

Here are some of the other most popular NFT marketplaces:

1. Rarible
2. SuperRare
3. NBA Top Shot

Store Your NFTs Safely

The safest place to store your NFTs is in a cold-storage hardware wallet like Ledger. Hardware wallets are protected by a password and seed phrase and remain offline, meaning hackers can’t gain access to your account remotely. 

Is it Worth Getting an NFT?

From an investment perspective, buying an NFT is even riskier than buying crypto because it’s “almost like a leveraged bet on crypto,” according to Humphrey Yang, personal finance expert behind HumphreyTalks. However, if done right, the extreme volatility in the space can lead to serious gains. As an investor, you need to consider your own risk tolerance and come to terms with how much money you are willing to lose before you buy. But, it may be worth it in the current market climate as tokens recover from the depegging of Terra.

Lastly, it is important to recognize that investing in an asset just because it is tokenized as an NFT is not a great idea. NFTs themselves are not investments. As an investor, you need to understand the value of the underlying asset that NFT represents before purchasing. Underlying value will depend on both the tangible and intangible assets associated with the NFT.