Top Ten NFT Projects Ranked - April

the OPJ Power Index

Hello everyone… We’re BACK with the monthly OPJ NFT Power Rankings - giving you our take on the strongest 10 NFT projects right now. 

This is meant as a snapshot of the market, as it stands today in April of 2023. Our full criteria for selection (all PFP brands, for example, so as to keep comparisons consistent) and our deduction process can be found at the bottom of this newsletter. 

We also solicited opinions from 15 hand-selected “OPJ council members” from different corners of the web3 ecosystem, who we quote anonymously, from time to time in this piece. These council members are all heavy traders, market participants, or NFT professionals.

Our quantitative data comes from our partner, Web3Sense, who give us a number of rich insights into each community.

If you missed last week rankings… find them here now!

Did your favorite project make the list? Let’s dive in and find out!

As always, this is not financial advice.

10 - Coming in at number ten on our list is… CyberBrokers

Topline: Incredibly impressive team. But are they too nerdy for the nerds?

~The Brokers~ hit the scene in February 2022 and were immediately hot – running up to a floor of nearly 6 ETH at their peak.. 

Artist and founder, Josie Bellini, is a crypto art OG, with impeccable attention to detail and love of the tech.

The project has consistently pushed the boundaries of blockchain and smart contracts.

For example… 

1. CyberBroker art is entirely on-chain. 

What this all means is, unlike 99% of projects, CyberBroker art doesn’t live on a server somewhere (even a decentralized one) with a pointer in a smart contract directing to the images (thus rendering it vulnerable to erasure should the server go down, for example). It’s actually coded into the smart contract. 

This is both technically challenging and expensive to execute. The cost to keep CyberBrokers on chain, alone, headed into the millions. Fortunately, the team made a cool $8.5 million just in primary sales.

2. Mechs – the latest development in the CyberBroker universe – are a mix-and-match collection that come as full rigged 3D models at the point of mint. 

For the uninitiated (and by that I mean the ~all of us~ who don’t pay attention to the intricacies of 3D modeling), this means each Mech not only visually appears in 3D, but has an underlying “skeleton” – bones, joints, fingers, etc. – so that they are immediately able to move, run, fight, play, etc. in a virtual world, including any built in Unity or Unreal Engine.

What’s more, different parts of the Mechs (head, body, legs) can be mixed and matched before the final Mech is assembled and minted, which significantly increases the technical complexity of pulling off their plan: delivering a fully formed Mech, with a functioning skeleton, at the time of the mint. 

Caption: If you dive deep into the world of Mechs, you’ll learn there’s a tremendous amount of detail and intricacies to their look, feel, and design, with 100 different composable parts and billions of potential combinations.

For comparison, something like the original 3D CloneX’s did not have an underlying skeleton. So while they could be animated to move in 3D, they couldn’t actually be used as a 3D character in a virtual world. 

And while many web3 virtual worlds currently lack appeal and (let’s face it) users, the CyberBroker’s team is making a big bet on the future of digital identities and what they see as the most unique and interesting future content.

As just one example… Hey AI: go make a stadium of these 5 fully-rigged Mechs battling each other…

From founder Josie’s perspective, she wants to “have the full potential of all these assets available to holders right now.”

This is CyberBrokers’ first week on the OPJ Power Rankings, in part because the project didn’t do enough volume last month to qualify (see below to read more about our criteria). These rankings are meant as a snapshot of the current month, which means we look at monthly volume to determine which projects get included. 

BUT with Mech assemblage right around the corner (it goes live April 19th), the project has been popping.

As one council member put it, “Two projects that have fallen off over the past year have big 'prove it' moments coming up (Moonbirds diamond nest and Cyberbrokers mech build). If either goes well, the rankings could really get a shake-up in the future.”

Why We’re Bullish

• Josie and her team are perfectionists and it shows. Their attention to detail in the art, the website, and the technical feats they pull off deserves everyone’s respect.

• They take risks: this isn’t your bro’s PFP, passing off mediocre merch and the occasional open bar party as utility. This team is innovating.

• They have a vision. CyberBrokers believes in a digital-first future where content, entertainment, and gaming is interactive and interoperable. They’re building for that future.

Why We’re Hesitant

• Maybe they’re wrong.

• Being too early is the same as being wrong. 

• Holders need patience.

In short: we believe CyberBrokers are trailblazers, but there’s always the risk you’re blazing the wrong trail or you blaze it so early that the weeds regrow behind you.

By the numbers - powered by Web3Sense

*TVC = total value of community, or, how much in ETH and NFTs do the members of this community hold

*Holders = Wallets that buy assets in the ecosystem and hold > a week

*Believers = Wallets that bought, then bought more after a month, and haven’t sold anything

*Flippers = Wallets with hold time < 1 week

9 - At number 9 we have…