While most attention and volume has been on NFTs built on the Ethereum blockchain, the fast, low-cost Solana blockchain has emerged as a promising ETH alternative. This article explores some of the best and most popular Solana NFT projects that have launched on Solana to date.
With its ability to process tens of thousands of transactions per second and transaction costs as low as a fraction of a penny, the Solana blockchain has attracted many NFT developers and collectors.
| Top Solana NFTs | Description |
|---|---|
| 🎨 SolPunks | A leading NFT collection on Solana featuring 10,000 unique tokens with a rarity system. The identity of each SolPunk is revealed only after purchase, ensuring equal opportunity for ownership. These NFTs are tradable on the SolPunk’s marketplace, with a limited availability of 10,000 at mint cost. |
| 🐒 Solana Monkey Business (SMB) | SMB hosts a collection of 5,000 unique, randomly generated 24×24 pixel monkeys on the Solana blockchain. It aims to expand its network in the NFT and blockchain community. SMB’s metadata is stored on Arweave, ensuring permanent decentralized data storage. Owners enjoy exclusive benefits, including a community wallet and a future on-chain voting system. |
| 🌐 Magic Eden (ME) | A prominent NFT marketplace on Solana, commanding about 90% of the trading volume. Magic Eden is a central hub for Solana NFT enthusiasts, offering a diverse range of collections. Despite facing controversies, such as accusations of promoting rugs, it remains a key player in the Solana NFT market. |
| 🍬 Candy Machine | A Solana-provided tool for minting NFTs, known for its high customizability. It allows artists to concentrate on their artwork without the need to develop new smart contracts. Candy Machine is widely used by various NFT projects on the Solana blockchain. |
| 🏃♂️ Solana Move to Earn Games | Innovative NFT projects on Solana, like STEPN, which incorporate built-in NFT capabilities. These games introduce a play-to-earn model, allowing players to earn tokens through gameplay. This concept has been a significant innovation in the Solana NFT space. |
What you'll learn 👉
Why Solana?
With its fast and affordable transaction processing capabilities, the Solana blockchain has emerged as one of the leading alternatives to Ethereum for NFT projects. Here are some of the key reasons why many developers and collectors are gravitating towards Solana:
- Speed – Solana can process around 65,000 transactions per second, making it significantly faster than Ethereum which currently averages around 13-15 TPS. This speed makes user experiences on Solana much smoother.
- Cost – Transaction fees on Solana are currently less than a fraction of penny, far lower than on Ethereum where gas fees can vary from a few cents to several dollars depending on network congestion. This low cost opens up NFT trading to a wider audience.
- Scalability – Solana’s proof-of-history protocol makes it highly scalable and able to process volumes that would bog down platforms like Ethereum. This improved scalability means the network can continue to grow as demand increases.
- Developer Tools – Solana offers developer tools and programming languages that make building NFT projects faster and easier compared to other platforms. This has lowered the barrier to entry for NFT entrepreneurs.
- Interoperability – While still an emerging network, Solana is working on integration with other platforms, allowing transfers of assets across blockchains over time.
These advantages have helped Solana capture a growing share of the booming NFT market in recent months and positioned it as blockchain of choice for many new projects. Its speed, low costs and scalability give it compelling utility for activities like real-time NFT trading.
Best Solana NFT collections
Upon investigating the best NFT collections on Solana, I found 10 in total that stood out. So, let me break each one.
SolPunks
One of the most popular NFT collections on Solana is SolPunks. It is a platform that offers 10,000 unique non-fungible tokens according to a defined rarity system.
The interesting thing about SolPunks is that you will not know the identity of the SolPunks until the purchase is completed. The purpose of this is to give everyone an equal chance two own one or more SolPunks (the purchases are being made on a random basis).
The SolPunks will be exchangeable on SolPunk’s marketplace. You can get as many SolPunks as you want but once the 10,000 are sold it will be too late to get one at mint cost.
Degenerate Ape Academy
Yet another exciting NFT collection on the Solana blockchain is Degenerate Ape Academy. As the name suggests, on this platform you will find various ape NFTs. In fact, Degenerate Ape Academy is a collection of 10,000 apes on the Solana network. All of these were minted in August of 2021 at a cost of 6 SOL (the price of SOL at that time was ~$40).
To be honest, apes look amazing therefore this is one of my favorite NFT collections on the Solana blockchain. The prices of the apes now go from around 39 SOL to more than 100 SOL. Keep in mind though that at the time of writing (January of 2022), the price of SOL is ~$134.
Chainers
Chainers is an incredible addition to the Solana-based NFT universe. Chainers was created with the intention of putting its community first, giving them the power to design and build their own NFT collections. The game revolves around user generated content and has vast opportunities for personalization of characters. Web3 degen culture is also integrated into the Chainers world, allowing users to enjoy a unique vibes only Chainers can created.
This project is truly outstanding and if you’re looking for an NFT experience that’s different from other projects on Solana, then look no further than Chainers!
Sollamas
An NFT collection of lamas built on the Solana network is called Sollamas! Exciting collection in which you have 8,888 uniquely generated, cute, and collectible llamas with proof of ownership stored on the Solana blockchain.
As per Sollama’s website, each Sollama is special, but some Sollamas are rarer than others. In fact, it goes from “ultra-rare Sollama” to the common or “usual” Sollama.
However, keep in mind that no two Sollamas are the same. Each one is made of attributes based on rarity. There are 165 unique attributes such as ats, glasses, necklaces, back blankets, beards to even the odd poop.
Solana Monkey Business
Another monkey-based NFT collection on the Solana network. Solana Monkey Business is a collection of 5,000 unique 24×24 pixels randomly generated monkeys that are stored on the Solana blockchain. The ultimate goal of the platform is to spread its network among NFT and blockchain community.
SMB’s metadata is stored on Arweave, a permanent decentralized data storage. 5000 unique monkeys were minted in August of 2021 and the initial price for each monkey was 2 SOL.
The monkeys offer owner-exclusive advantages such as NFT ownership. Moreover, monkeys offer a community wallet useable by holders with a future on-chain voting system.
BabyApes
Yet another apes-based pixel NFT collection on the Solana blockchain is BabyApes. The platform considers itself the biggest NFT marketplace on the Solana network.
BabyApes is a collection of 5,000 unique apes that are algorithmically generated, good-looking, and collectible, operating in the Solana Blockchain. The mining of BabyApes began on the 15th of October, 2021 so this is still a new project. The initial price for minting was 0.69 SOL.
Keep in mind that you have to use Solana-based wallets if you want to buy and sell BabyApes (Phantom, Sollet, or Solflare). Whether you are interested in BabyApes type of apes or in Degenerate Ape Academy is just based on your taste – I like more the latter.
Shadowy Super Coder
Shadowy Super Coder is a serious project – a startup that builds infrastructure for creating and distributing NFTs, mainly for loyalty programs, and will be operating on ETH and SOL networks.
The firm has teamed up with a variety of projects across the space to give away $315 million total worth of benefits—such as subscriptions, tools, and transaction cost rebates—to more than 110,000 Ethereum developers who meet certain criteria.
Rogue Sharks
As the name suggests, Rogue Sharks is an NFT collection of sharks built on the Solana blockchain. It is a collection of 5,000 unique swimming sharks. The platform offers a holders-only utility that will only increase over time.
Rogue Sharks was launched in 2021 and the team around the project is pretty ambitious – their goal in 2022 is to build an authentic and distinctive global brand both inside and outside of the NFT space. Sharks look amazing, to be honest!
Frakt
Again you can figure out the collection from its name – Frakt is a generative fractal art NFT collection combining fractals, math, and blockchain with 10,000 unique NFTs.
The whole project goes around “flexibility”, at least as per Frakt’s website. Flexibility actually means that you can do whatever you want to with your Frakts – airdrop them, share them with your community, or trade them on Frakt’s DEX. In fact, Frakt is also an exchange where you can stake your tokens.
Aurory
Aurory is yet another serious project on the Solana blockchain. In fact, Aurory is a play-to-earn desktop game where players travel across two worlds – Antik and the crypto one. If you decide to play Aurory, you will come across various magical creatures that can be caught and then accompany you through the game.
$AURY is a native token of Aurory that you can earn while playing the game as well as if you decide to stake it.
Bold Badgers Squad
Bold Badgers Squad is an NFT collection of 10,000 unique Bold Badgers NFTs built on the Solana blockchain.
Keep in mind that all Badgers are bold, but some are rarer than others depending on the attributes they have. The rarest Badgers are the most difficult to find – they “usually hide deep inside the burrow.”
Bold Badgers is an NFT collection that has not yet been dropped and, as per their website, the drop date will be announced soon. However, you can still mint a random Bold Badger on their website, or select the one you want when they get listed on Solanart marketplace (the largest Solana NFT marketplace in the world).
Read also:
- Best NFT Marketplaces For Music
- Best NFT Wallets
- Best NFT Marketplaces on BSC
- Best Play-To-Earn Crypto Games
- What Are NFT Loans?
- Terra NFTs List
- What hardware wallets are good for storing NFTs?
What makes a good NFT collection?
Having a great collection of NFTs is all about being well-curated and organized. You should strive for a selection of high-quality, diverse NFTs that strike the perfect balance between creativity and functionality, as well as having a good liquidity.
A good collection will have buyers and sellers all interested in the various NFTs available in the market. The ability to buy or sell any given piece easily and quickly is essential in ensuring that your collection remains attractive and desirable.
It’s also important for an NFT collection to be visually appealing. Having a theme or concept throughout each individual piece can create cohesion in your overall collection, which can make it stand out from the crowd. That said, some collections work best with a variety of themes or aesthetics so that it caters to a wider audience.
Ultimately, regardless of what kind of NFT you are looking for, having a high-quality, creative, liquid, and aesthetically pleasing collection will ensure that it stands out from the rest!
FAQs
Let’s now look at some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to NFTs on Solana.
How to Buy Solana NFTs With Phantom Wallet?
You first need to fund your Phantom wallet (buy crypto on FTX or crypto.com for example). You can buy USDC stablecoin and send it to your Phantom wallet.
What is the best Solana NFT marketplace?
The best Solana NFT marketplace is definitely Solanart. At the time of writing, there are over 2,000 sales a day on this marketplace. Furthermore, almost all of the NFT collections described in this article are on the Solanart.
Where to buy Solana NFTs?
Solana NFTs can be bought on Solana-based NFT marketplaces such as Solanart, DigitalEyes.market, Sollectify, or Solible.
Please read our full article on the best NFT marketplaces on the Solana blockchain.
Also, please read our article on the best DEX on Solana, as well as our comparisons of Solana vs Polkadot and Solana vs Avalanche.
