From bankless

This week, archivist.eth released a neat graphic that divided overall NFT supply rarity down into four distinct periods:

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 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.

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!