# NFT Popularization Era Source: https://www.bankless.com/read/nft-popularization-era Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/NFT-Popularization-Era?index=0x678bbab0e988778a491b412281d7f774f7d4c3a25bac70cc7f5ab3dfaba616467941d0f2 Submitted by misha on 2025-01-18 UTC, 3 upvotes, 1 comment ## Summary The author of this Bankless culture roundup argues that NFT rarity will keep rising because minting has become abundant, with the earliest fully onchain NFTs likely to become esteemed collectibles. Citing a graphic by archivist.eth, the piece divides NFT history into four eras, from the Experimentation Era (2011-2014) to the current Popularization Era (2021-today), and says nearly 98% of all NFTs have been minted since 2021. It also cites Electric Capital's 2024 Developer Report for record NFT minting activity in 2024. The roundup then lists weekly news items across general news, cryptoart, gaming and other categories. ## Article NFT Popularization Era Published on Jan. 18, 2025 Sponsor: Frax — Fraxtal Ecosystem: Where DeFi Meets AI. CULTURE ROUNDUP NFT Popularization Era This week, archivist.eth released a neat graphic that divided overall NFT supply rarity down into four distinct periods: The Experimentation Era (2011-2014) The Culturalization Era (2014-2017) The Modernization Era (2017-2021) The Popularization Era (2021-today) This makes the earliest NFTs akin to rare digital fossils, while in the current Popularization Era—where cheap mints reign via Rodeo, Zora, onchain games, etc.—we've seen hundreds of millions of NFTs created. Indeed, nearly 98% of all NFTs have been minted since 2021! This shift toward abundance will only continue, too, driven by the continued rise of L2s, consumer crypto, onchain games, onchain social, crypto AI agents, better UX, and beyond. As some of you might recall, NFT minting activity reached all-time highs in 2024 according to Electric Capital's 2024 Developer Report. Thanks to the tailwinds I mentioned above, these activity levels will very likely be surpassed year after year for years to come. Enjoying this article? Subscribe to Bankless or sign in You know what that means—the rarity of NFTs from the Experimentation, Culturalization, and Modernization periods is only going to become more and more pronounced over time. NFTs from these earlier eras represent not only the beginnings of blockchain art and experimentation but also foundational moments in the evolution of digital ownership. Their potential to gain more cultural value as digital artifacts is major accordingly. What does this mean for collectors? Some with foresight will look back on overlooked NFTs that have historical significance and grab what they can in anticipation of them aging further into classics. For instance, one of my personal theses in crypto is that the earliest fully onchain NFTs, i.e. NFTs with no external dependencies, are going to become increasingly esteemed collectibles. That's where I'm focusing most of my attention as a collector these days, but it's just one thematic approach as an example here. Of course, you can focus on various other niches or themes, but whatever you do, don't sleep on the early gems that got us to where we are today! Other big news this week... 📰 General news Abstract announced the details of its incentives plan MakersPlace is winding down Sony launched its Soneium L2 🎨 Cryptoart & music Botto is gearing up for a long-form generative art collection Kim Asendorf released his latest art experiment, PXL DEX Material Protocol Arts launched Cycles, a new Ethereum hypersculpture mmERCH curated I Heart LA, a cryptoart charity drop to support people affected by the Los Angeles wildfires 🏆 Digital collectibles Azuki token project Animecoin announced its $ANIME tokenomics plans Based Ghouls released the Lucky Ghouls collection dailofrog announced the Derplets drop, upcoming on Abstract Sup added more characters to its Logosmith builder 🎮 Decentralized gaming Cartridge unveiled its Cartridge Incubator program Echelon announced new prize pools for S2 and S3 of Parallel League Forgotten Runiverse kicked off its Crash the Runiverse event Fren Pet added support for withdrawing pet rewards Primodium launched its new Primodium: Empires title Ronin unveiled its new ecosystem grants project zKorp, an onchain game studio, joined the Realms World ecosystem 🪙 Memes & NFTfi anon.world released its Leaderboards feature Lens announced the results of its Holiday Hackathon event Push Protocol announced its Push Chain effort Supercast rebranded to Super and is now open to everyone Warpcast rolled out token links 🌐 Virtual Worlds OnCyber is working on AI integrations The Fraxtal ecosystem is expanding at lightning speed—this month’s biggest highlight is IQAI.com, the newest Agent Tokenization platform from IQ and Frax. IQ is building autonomous, intelligent, tokenized agents launching on Fraxtal in Q1. Empower onchain agents with built-in wallets, tokenized ownership, and decentralized governance—all within a fast-growing Fraxtal ecosystem. 🧪 Tokens for Data - PsyDAO 💽 Coop Records 2024 Wrapped - Cooper Turley 📱 Farcaster 2026 Writing Contest - Kiwi 🔵 Base 2025 Mission, Vision, and Strategy - Base 🎮 Onchain Games That Will Make Me Fucking Rich - Ben Giove ## Comments **misha**: Nice the mention the Kiwi News Farcaster 2026 Writing Contest ! https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/farcaster-2026-writing-contest