NFT Highlights of 2023 – The Best and Worst of a Whirlwind Year
The past 12 months have seen thrilling highs, scandalous lows and a hearty dose of controversy to boot. In keeping with tradition here at NFT Plazas, we’re taking a look back to recap the most memorable moments of 2023.
Here’s our near-comprehensive look at what happened in NFTs in 2023.
January 2023: Hacks, Sweeps and Dookey Dash
2023 started off with a bang with massively popular battle royale game PUBG announcing a partnership with web3 gaming platform Banger Games.
It was a big month for big brand adoption, with BMW, Square Enix and the Tribeca Film Festival experimenting with web3.
In a sign of things to come, several gaming-focused collections kicked off 2023 with a bang. Axie Infinity pushed their accessories update, Treeverse held their pre-alpha launch, Neopets netted $4mil in funding, and Yuga Labs launched the wildly popular Dookey Dash.
NFT collectibles had an explosive start to the year. Art Blocks minted their Friendship Bracelets, one collector swept the DeGods floor for $1mil, PROOF launched Grails: Season III, Mocaverse started making waves, Candy Digital raised $38mil, and Doodles acquired Golden Wolf alongside announcing Doodles 2 on Flow.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. @NFT_God and PROOF Collective co-founder Kevin Rose were hit by major hacks, Porsche had a rocky NFT launch, ApeFest severed its ties with NFT.NYC, Nifty Gateway’s founders departed the project, NFT Inspect closed its doors, and Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow stepped down amid health concerns.
February 2023: Ordinals, Controversy and Marketplace War
Amidst Dookey Dash rising to prominence and the release of Worldwide Webb’s MOBA, the OpenSea-Blur war dominated the headlines – the plucky challenger’s $BLUR token picking up speed with the back-and-forth between the two marketplaces raging throughout the month.
Brands continued to experiment with web3 technology, as Shopify released tokengated commerce, Amazon invested $20mil into Superplastic, Sorare signed a $4.3bil deal with the English Premier League, Reddit released free Super Bowl snoos, Rihanna utilised NFTs to share her streaming royalties, Spotify debuted tokengated playlists, Wizards of the Coast backtracked on license changes that prevented derivative NFTs, and free-to-mint Starbucks NFTs hit a $2,000 floor price.
February was busy for Yuga Labs, as alongside Dookey Dash, they had to clarify the rights of Bored Ape holders, landed in hot water over the original Bored Ape Kennel Club logo, and settled their lawsuit with the developer behind the copycat RR/BAYC collection.
Following their January debut, Bitcoin Ordinals picked up pace, with their popularity spilling over into Litecoin. Other innovations made their mark in February, as Uniswap allowed NFT purchases using any ETH-based token, the debut of Porsche’s NFT collection sparked debate on NFT refunds, and Immutable launched their Immutable Passport solution.
This was also the month of Cool Cats’ rebrand, a @ZachXBT tip-off helping the FBI seize $260,000 of NFTs, and World of Women’s inaugural Artfest – but also saw the conclusion of Hermes lawsuit against Metabirkins, Coinbase roll back support for creator drops.
NFT Plazas
