Programming note: Mint or Skip will be off until Dec 26

O Dearly Beloved,

The moment you’ve been waiting for…

The 10 best NFTs of the year

For a look at the ranking rules, check out part 1.

10. Checks by Jack Butcher

This drop was a reaction to life’s greatest question: what does it mean to be verified? 

Jack tackled this by playing with the checkmark symbol, turning it into a grid of 80 colorful minichecks arranged in 16,031 combinations. 

A visually satisfying collection that doubled as a living canvas for Jack to continuously reference and satirize the meme du jour through dynamic updates. 

As a cherry on top, he added an elegant game where collectors raced to merge multiple NFTs into increasingly rare combinations.

Check it out: checks.art

9. Dookey Dash by Yuga Labs

Yuga gave us a glimpse of the future: gamified high-stakes events that can turn into live viewing spectacles.

For a moment, CT denizens of all shapes were captivated as gamers repeatedly broke high scores with gameplay that was hilariously simple, yet addictive to watch and play.

The finale was also worth the wait, culminating in a single legendary reward (a golden key) which ended up selling for $1.6 million.

We’ll soon find these onchain spectacles breaking the internet routinely, and this was perhaps the first great example. 

Check it out: OpenSea

8. Winds of Yawanawa by Refik Anadol

What a year for AI artist Refik Anadol. First artist on the Las Vegas Sphere. First NFT in the MOMA. First intergalactic battle with art supercritic Jerry Saltz. 

And still, Yawanawa stands alone as perhaps his most memorable achievement in 2023. 

A stunning display of 3D space and dynamic texture waves based on Amazonian weather data and inspired by young artists from the Yawanawa tribe. 

Each of the 1,000 NFTs came with its own high-quality print, although they’re best viewed on digital frames. 

Check it out: OpenSea

7. CARGO by Kim Asendorf

The best Art Blocks collection of the year. 

Kim’s one-liner works best: Cargo is a series of abstract paintings created with animated pixels that are constantly moving without ever repeating. 

Pixels dance and wiggle mesmerizingly within frames of glitched-out VHS visuals. 

Every piece feels like an aerial view of a living world with endless detours: the result of a signature algorithm that Kim has been developing for over a decade(!).

You’ll find no accidents here, just elegant computer art from a master of his craft. 

Check it out: OpenSea

6. Chronophotographs by 0xDEAFBEEF

0xDeafbeef created a mechanic where an audio-visual object gets “photographed” with a blockchain tx and then minted. The time between mints doubles each time, from seconds to eventually millennia, with the resolution also improving in each round. 

Imagine, eventually, the weight and intensity of a single NFT mint knowing the next one won’t drop for another decade (or longer). Not sure I can handle it. 

This is the kind of art that could really only exist on the blockchain. 

Check it out: OpenSea

5. Bonkler by Remilia 

Why have people spent nearly $5 million on these strange auctions? 

First, there’s the art: an explosion of generative chaotic nostalgia and deep internet citations. 

PS2 games, Sprite cans, and anime lore all blend together like a set of Terminally Online hieroglyphics loaded directly into your brain. 

Then there’s the mint mechanics. A brilliant combo of Nouns-style daily auctions with delayed rarity reveals, partial refunds, sub-collections for bidders, and a deflationary supply. 

Or as more simply described on their website: 

an auction that runs forever, higher and higher with you and me together

Check it out: OpenSea

4. Life in West America by Roope Rainisto 

My favorite genre of the year was “AI post-photography”, where dreamlike imagery and photorealism merge.  

LIWA was one of the first collections to capture this category’s surreal essence. Browsing through these images is akin to revisiting cyber memories of towns that never really existed and are filled with people who weren’t ever there. 

It also doubles as a historical relic. The grotesque hands, something that AI couldn’t quite figure out at the time but which has now mostly been solved, serve as a visual timestamp that will feel increasingly nostalgic over time. 

Check it out: OpenSea

3. Luci: Chapter 5 by Sam Spratt

Sam Spratt doubled down on the secret cabal vibes by combining occultist masks, cryptic poetry, and a grand “monument” painting absolutely dripping with deep lore.  

Mint participants were then encouraged to play a game where they’d leave tribute messages at the digital altar of the monument in an effort to receive a rare NFT granting them access to an Even More Exclusive inner circle. 

If this sounds like an elaborate onchain initiation into the NFT collector Illuminati, that’s because it probably was. 

Check it out: OpenSea

2. Opepen by Jack Butcher

The crowning achievement in Jack Butcher’s rise to Main Character status in 2023. 

A masterpiece in memetic logo design. Angular opepen eyes were everywhere this year; on Penguins, on Pepe memes, on shirts, and IRL glasses. 

Not only is this the first truly great example of crowdsourced art curation that I’ve seen, it’s also genuinely fun. Weekly-ish drops keep the project fresh and let Jack pivot with the times over and over again, which he does better than anyone else. 

Check it out: OpenSea

1. Inscription #0

I’m cheating a bit here – this was never up for sale. But it’s surely the most valuable NFT to get minted on any chain in the last 12 months (maybe ever). 

We’ll look back at 2023 as the year that the Bitcoin NFT movement truly began. It’s impossible to overstate the implications of being able to trade unique property permanently stored on Satoshis. It’s truly epic. 

And it all starts with Inscription #0 – the now famous Mexican sugar skull minted by the Ordinals founder himself, Casey Rodarmor.

Plus, what better origin story could we ask for than this nonchalant tweet where Casey quietly introduced it to the world. 

Check it out: Ordinals