Acquainted, Hedz, Urbit ID, and More

Traversing the world of non-fungibles is a daunting task. With so many new NFT projects, artists, and large-scale collections cropping up weekly, it’s become nearly impossible to keep up with every subsequent development.

In the past, a simple browse of OpenSea was enough to find the latest NFT craze. But things have changed drastically since the 2021 NFT boom. Now, NFT enthusiasts have to be acutely mindful of what and where they collect.

To aid in the unearthing of awe-inspiring NFT endeavors both new and old, nft now presents Undervalued: a weekly column highlighting innovative projects, collections, and artists pushing the NFT space forward.

Acquainted, launched on September 22, 2022, is a small-batch music NFT collection from royalty-backed NFT platform anotherblock. The collection consists of 400 NFTs, which each give their collectors partial ownership of the streaming royalties to TheWeeknd’s song “Acquainted.”

Although the collection is centered around a hit track by TheWeeknd, Acquainted, the NFT collection, was spearheaded by Grammy-winning producer DannyBoyStyles, who produced “Acquainted.” Similar services like Royal.io have pioneered royalty-backed NFTs for some time, but this latest collection from anotherblock is one of the first times we’ve witnessed an artist bring an established hit song from the legacy music industry into Web3.

Hedz, launched on September 16, 2022, is a large-scale PFP collection from Matt Furie — creator of the iconic Pepe the Frog character. The collection consists of 1,000 hand-crafted 1/1 NFTs released over the course of three separate drops.

Over the years, Matt Furie’s prestige in the crypto and NFT space has grown as his numerous projects and memes have spread far and wide throughout Web3. With Hedz, Furie presents an accessible way for collectors to obtain a piece of art in his unique style, which draws on the collective humor of the NFT community.

Urbit ID: Planet, originally launched in February 2019, is a large-scale collection of access-enabled NFTs that coincide with the Urbit clean-slate OS and network ecosystem. Each NFT within the collection acts as a unique identifier that allows its owners to interface with the Urbit OS.

As part of the continuously evolving Urbit platform, Planets is the largest collection of ID NFTs, with Urbit Stars and Urbit Galaxies coming second and third. Planet NFTs are said to be for people, Stars are for businesses, and Galaxies are for governance.

Each Urbit ID NFT coincides with a short, four-syllable name. This name, in conjunction with an eight-syllable master passkey, has allowed ID owners to access the Urbit OS for years, making it a unique and historical Web3 endeavor that even predates NFTs first reaching mainstream notoriety. Learn more about planets on the official Ubrit website here.

Life In Japan Editions, launched on May 8, 2022, is a small-batch collection of edition pieces created by influential crypto-artist Grant Yun. Originally released via Nifty Gateway as half of his two-part debut on the platform, Life In Japan perfectly exemplifies Yun’s unique Neo-Precisionism style.

Featuring one open edition, one edition of 25, and two editions of 10, Life In Japan Editions is comprised of 374 NFTs in total. Since Yun had been quickly gaining notoriety in the NFT space through numerous high-profile sales prior to this Nifty Gateway drop, Life In Japan Editions provided a way for enthusiasts to collect one of his works without having to pay exorbitant prices.

Non-Fungible Fungi Genesis, launched on October 5, 2021, is a collection of 10,100 3D animated NFTs created by multidisciplinary artist Elzie. Featuring various unique traits among three species of mushroom, the genesis collection serves to influence all fungi to come from the project, including the 10,000 supply Non-Fungible Fungi Generative collection released shortly after Genesis.

While the Non-Fungible Fungi ecosystem has continued to grow — now encompassing mint passes, airdrops, the $SPORES token, and more — Fungi Genesis NFTs have remained the most coveted part of the entire project. Since the NFT market has grown and changed significantly since Fungi Genesis was released, the collection acts as a unique historical testament to the power of small-batch collections to influence an entire niche NFT ecosystem.