Top 10 Solana NFT Projects to Research in 2022

Solana Wallet to store your NFT’s

I recommend Phantom Wallet, a free Solana wallet that works as a Google Chrome extension.

Solflare is another good Solana wallet that comes as a desktop app, browser extension, and mobile wallet.

Getting Started with Solana NFTs

Most of the NFT’s mentioned in this post can be bought on marketplace’s, whilst some of them have yet to release and need to be “minted”.

Minting is a process where brand new NFT’s are generated and sent to your wallet after paying a “mint fee”.

Once you have minted an NFT, you can hold it in your wallet or sell it on an NFT marketplace that supports the project.

For every NFT mentioned in this post, I’ll show you where to buy the NFT from, once there you’ll see the price in SOL.

If you want to buy any of the Solana NFT’s mentioned:

• Check the SOL price
• Buy the amount of SOL required
• Send it to your wallet
• Connect your wallet on the marketplace or mint page
• Place a bid, or buy the NFT outright
• Wait for it to reach your wallet
• Enjoy your new Solana NFT!

This post is quite long but I recommend reading through it completely if you are serious about investing in NFTs, there are some real gems in here.

1. Galactic Geckos Space Garage

Galactic Geckos Space Garage (GGSG) is is an NFT Social Adventure Club featuring 10,000 space racing geckos with a warrior past.

These former warriors have decided to use dangerous spaceship races to settle political conflicts instead of war. Each gecko racer is divided into one of four different factions; the Alura, the Targari, the Martu, and the Barada.

Benefits of holding a Galactic Gecko NFT include access to giveaways, sponsored meetups, exclusive merchandise and other more benefits are planned further down the line.

Currently, there are three different NFT collections in the Geckoverse:

1. GGSG: Galactic Geckos – Gecko space racers and former space mercenaries.
2. GGSG: Enigma Crystals – A highly advanced piece of gecko technology with “many unknown purposes”.
3. GGSG: Concordians – A collective of droids designed by the mysterious 5th faction.

The Enigma Crystals piqued my interest since they are similar to the Mutant Serum that was airdropped to Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT owners.

This serum “transformed” the apes into mutants, which gave every BAYC holder an extra, mutated ape for every serum they used.

The Enigma Crystals might do something similar so it’s worth getting your hands on if you buy yourself a Galactic Gecko.

You can see the current floor price for each Galactic Gecko NFT collection below:

1. GGSG: Galactic Geckos – 6.70 SOL
2. GGSG: Enigma Crystals – 9.69 SOL
3. GGSG: Concordians – 0.79 SOL

GGSG is a promising NFT project with over $47 million dollars worth of Geckos being traded since launch.

You can buy a Galactic Gecko on Solonart.io, where you can use the search filters to find geckos based on traits such as their faction, armor, body and more.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

Once the SOL is in your wallet, go to Galactic Geckos on Solanart.io and connect your wallet by clicking “Select wallet”.

After you’ve connected your wallet, choose a collection and buy your NFT.

2. Solana Monkey Business

Solana Monkey Business aka SMB is a collection of 5,000 unique, 24×24 pixel, randomly generated monkeys stored on the Solana blockchain.

SMB is a community-focused NFT project with benefits including:

• Access to an exclusive, members-only wallet with a future on-chain voting system.
• Access to the MonkeDAO – The first NFT DAO on Solana.

Solana Monkey Business is one of the most popular Solana NFT projects, with over $107 million dollars worth of SMB’s being traded since launch.

One Solana monkey, SMB #1355 even sold for $2 Million dollars in October.

One interesting perk of owning a Solana Monkey Business NFT, is access to the MonkeDAO, the first NFT DAO on Solana.

MonkeDAO Membership benefits include:

• Stake via the DAOPool to receive daoSOL, while earning up to 7% on your staked SOL
• Earn passive income by staking with the MonkeDAO Validator pool
• Access to future Monkeverse 3D Metaverse ready avatars
• Access to future Monkeverse NFTs with ecosystem functionality
• Access to a future $MONKE cryptocurrency token
• Possible future access to MonkeDAO Capital Venture Fund

Solana Monkey Business has the potential to be the next big NFT project, it could end up being the Bored Apes or CryptoPunks of Solana NFT’s.

Solana Monkey Business NFTs can be bought on the Solana Monkey Business Marketplace or Magic Eden.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

The current floor price for an SMB monkey is 175 SOL, meaning that the cheapest monkey will cost you around $30,000.

However, with SMB being one of the most popular NFT projects on Solana, you could be buying the next Bored Ape if Solana NFT’s continue to grow in popularity.

3. Boryoku Dragonz

Boryoku Dragonz are an exclusive collection of 1,111 Dragon NFT’s on Solana, with each dragon earning passive income for it’s holders in the form of the BOKU cryptocurrency.

This project is different from most NFT collections, bringing unique utilities to holders including daily token airdrops, a breeding game and token burning mechanics.

Boryoku Dragonz NFT holders receive 7 BOKU tokens daily for each dragon they own. Since the BOKU is currently worth around $4.50 per token, holders are currently making $31.50 per dragon, every day.

If the price of BOKU were to stay the same, you would currently earn over $11,000 a year passively, just for owning a Boryoku Dragon.

If the BOKU token returns to its all-time high price of $19.76, you would earn $138.32 per day and over $50,000 a year just by holding one Boryoku Dragonz NFT.

The BOKU token is also used to breed and hatch baby dragons. Breeding requires two Boryoku Dragonz and some BOKU, this will generate a dragon egg and you can speed up it’s hatching with 350 BOKU.

According to the Boryoku Dragonz team, governance behind the BOKU token is being modeled using economic theory and statistical modeling, with simulations being run to find a balance between supply and demand.

The team behind Boryoku Dragonz have also bought land in the Metaverse game The Sandbox, as part of their vision of “building out Boryoku Village into a BoryokuVerse reality.”

You can buy a Boryoku Dragon on Magic Eden. The current floor price is 148 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

Based on the current SOL price ($175), a Boryoku Dragon would cost you around $26,000.

However, if you bought one Boryoku Dragon, you would make your money back in 2 years just from the daily BOKU token airdrops.

Furthermore, if the BOKU token returns to it’s previous high or grows even higher, you would make your money back in less than a year.

Boryoku Dragonz is a great choice for any serious NFT collector.

4. Pesky Penguins

Pesky Penguins is a deflationary collection of pixel art penguin NFTs on the Solana blockchain. The collection originally consisted of 8,888 penguins, but the amount of penguins currently available is 8,588.

This is due to an NFT burning mechanism coined by its developers as “The Snowball”, which removes the cheapest penguins from circulation.

Explained simply, The Snowball is an NFT buyback and burn mechanism that reduces the supply of Pesky Penguins whilst also increasing the floor price.

How The Snowball NFT burn mechanism works for Pesky Penguins

• A portion of every aftermarket sale is added to The Snowball (account).
• Funds accumulate and grow in The Snowball account
• Once it’s large enough, The Snowball goes through Solana marketplaces and buys up the cheapest Pesky Penguins aka “sweeping the floor.”
• These Penguins are taken out of circulation (“burned”), which reduces the overall supply of Pesky Penguins.
• This rewards holders by reducing supply, increasing the floor price and creating upward buy pressure for all Pesky Penguin NFTs
• As a result the value of Pesky Penguin NFTs continue to grow

Burned Pesky Penguins can be viewed in the Pesky Graveyard and at the time of me writing this, The Snowball has claimed 17 victims.

Pesky Penguins hold a lot of potential for NFT investors due to it’s art style and NFT burning.

The Snowball NFT burning feature in particular makes it very promising, especially when you consider how cryptocurrencies like BNB have skyrocketed in price due to its token burn feature.

If you’re investing in NFTs, Pesky Penguins is definitely a collection you should take into consideration.

You can buy a Pesky Penguin on Magic Eden and DigitalEyes. The current floor price is 4.30 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

5. Thugbirdz

Thugbirdz are a collection of 3,333 uniquely generated, collectible thugbirdz on the Solana blockchain.

These gangsta birds come with multiple random traits including chains, smoking style, face tattoos, shades, and positions within the gang.

The Thugbirdz gang is divided into four different positions. The higher rank, the higher the rarity of the thugbird.

You can see each Thugbird gang position below:

1. Boss – Only 1 Thugbird has this position.
2. Underboss – Only 25 or 0.9% of Thugbirdz have this position.
3. Enforcer – Only 315 or 9% of Thugbirdz have this position.
4. Thug – 2970 or 89% of Thugbirdz have this position.

Another interesting trait for a thugbird is what rapper they listen to, and the thugbirdz are old-school. Their favourite rappers include Nas, Tupac, and Mobb Deep.

In total there are 9 different rappers which Thugbirdz can be a fan of:

1. Biggie (Notorious B.I.G.)
2. D.I.T.C – Diggin’ in the Crates Crew
3. Gang-Star – Gang Starr
4. Jay-Z
5. Mobb Deep
6. Nas
7. Outkast
8. Tupac
9. Wu-Tang (Wu Tang Clan)

The thugbirdz team is working on multiple interesting projects for NFT holders which include:

• ThugDAO – Solana based DAO to govern thugbirdz and support artists
• 8 Bit thugbirdz game
• Produce egg NFTs for the original 3,333 thugbirdz
• Collaborations with other NFT projects
• Custom merchandise
• Get thugbirdz featured in a rap song

Thugbirdz have turned out to be a profitable NFT collection on Solana, the mint price was 1-3 SOL and the current floor price is 65 SOL, a 21-65x increase.

You can buy a thugbird on Solanart or DigitalEyes. The current floor price is 65 SOL, so a thugbird will cost you at least $11,000.

Despite the current floor price, I believe thugbirdz can still be profitable for new investors, especially if they deliver on the upcoming projects they have planned.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

6. Lotus Gang

Lotus Gang is a collection of 2,000 Lotus Lads and 2,000 Lotus Ladies on the Solana Blockchain with Asian-inspired attire.

The project draws inspiration from Cryptopunks and Solana Monkey Business, whilst adding Asian-inspired traits to its characters.

Lotus Gang is a community-focused NFT project with vision of creating tools and resources to help investors navigate the Crypto/NFT space.

Each Lotus Gang NFT is hand-drawn and accessories include chains, helmets, scouters, and Asian-inspired clothing such as sari’s, sherwani’s, bhangra’s, Thai crowns, and samurai armor.

Lotus Gang donates 10% of the proceeds generated from its mint event to charity. United Sikhs is one of the first charities to receive a donation from the Lotus Gang team.

As part of their community focus, Lotus Gang has published guides on the NFT ecosystem and Operational Security (OPSEC) to help crypto investors protect themselves from cybercriminals.

Lotus Gang is an NFT project worth considering for investors interested in new, upstart NFT communities with charitable aspirations.

Lotus Lads and Lotus Ladies are also one of the more affordable NFT projects listed here.

You can buy a Lotus Gang NFT on Magic Eden. The current floor price is 0.59 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

7. Aurory Project

Aurorians are a collection of 10,000 generative NFTs which give perks to players of The Aurory Project, a play-to-earn desktop game on the Solana blockchain.

Aurorians serve as an avatar for early adopters of The Aurory Project and provide the following benefits to owners:

• Aurorian NFTs appear as 3D skins in single player and future multiplayer game modes
• Early access to future game modes before public release
• Access to special game modes with boosted rewards
• Eligibility for free NFT airdrops (both collectible and functional in-game NFTs)
• Owners can vote in the DAOrory’s decision making process

The Aurory Project is a play-to-earn game where players travel across the world of Antik and Cryptos.

During their journeys they will come across Nefties, magical creatures which can be caught, traded and used in battles.

The game has its own token, AURY which is used inside the game, creating a virtual economy. The AURY token can be earned through PvE and PvP game modes, as well as staking.

The Aurory Project is backed by investors including:

• Solana – Proof-of-Stake Blockchain platform and Ethereum competitor.
• Animoca Brands – Team which acquired The Sandbox and invested in Axie Infinity, OpenSea, MetaMask and CryptoKitties.
• Alameda Research – Invested in projects including Solana, 1inch and Acala. They also manage over $1 billion in assets.

Aurorians is a very promising NFT project, especially when you include its play-to-earn game, plus the reputable and large investors backing the project.

If The Aurory Project becomes a success, Aurorian NFTs will be worth a lot more than they are right now.

You can buy a Aurorian on Solanart, Magic Eden or DigitalEyes. The current floor price is 27.1 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

As a bonus mention, you buy the AURY token on Kucoin with USDT which you can get from CEX or Bitpanda.

8. Solsteads

Solsteads is the first-ever surreal estate collection on Solana, with 2,472 unique homes that also function as digital real estate.

Each Solstead NFT comes with a unique street address (i.e. 791 Battle Street) and a beautiful, surreal art style home.

Solsteads also function as galleries where you can showcase any Solana or Ethereum NFTs you own. This is made possible through their Solsteads directory.

All you have to do is make sure that your other NFTs are stored on the same wallet that your Solstead is stored on.

In a way, you can have your other NFTs “live” inside your Solstead.

For example, you can have a group of Lotus Gang members who live alongside some Solana Monkeys, Galactic Geckos, and Pesky Penguins.

Or you could just use your Solstead as an excuse to flex on everyone else, showing them the rare and collectible NFTs you own.

Kind of like an MTV cribs on the Solana blockchain with famous NFT guests.

10% of the funds earned from the mint sale are being donated to Rebuilding Together: New Orleans, a charity dedicated to repairing homes in low-income neighbourhoods.

Solsteads have a lot of potential to become a blue-chip Solana NFT in my opinion. The project has a very unique use case, a low supply and it supports both Solana and Ethereum NFTs.

We might even see a gold rush for NFT collectors scrambling to find their NFTs a good home. This is another project serious NFT investors should consider.

You can buy a Solstead NFT on Solanart, Magic Eden and DigitalEyes. The current floor price is 9.60 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

9. Solarians

Solarians are a collection of 10,000 animated robots that each have their own unique set of attributes with varying rarities. It is also Solana’s first on-chain generative NFT project.

What stood out the most to me about this project, is the fact that the team behind Solarians was involved in the creation of DigitalEyes, Solana’s first open NFT marketplace.

Because of this collaboration, 4% of all DigitalEyes marketplace service fees are donated to the RoboDAO.

The team behind Solarians is also working on Rumble Worlds, a 3D metaverse that will feature 3D versions of all 10,000 Solarians.

The game will be play-to-earn with its own in-game utility token Rumble Coin (RUMB).

Rumble Worlds vision is to build a metaverse “mash up” game where players can take part in party games using 3D versions of their favourite Solana NFTs.

Benefits of holding a Solarian also include access to the RoboDAO, a community-goverened organization.

Members of the RoboDAO contribute to decisions involving the overall direction of the organization and the use of treasury funds.

To join and participate in the RoboDAO, members need to buy a Solarian and join the Solarian Discord channel.

Solarians is an ambitious NFT project and there are many reasons why an investor should seriously consider buying a Solarian:

• The team behind Solarians was involved in creating Solana’s first open NFT marketplace
• Low floor price – Prices start at 1.64 SOL or $287
• Solarians is the first On-Chain Generative NFT Project on Solana
• Rumble Worlds metaverse game currently being developed

You can buy a Solarian on DigitalEyes. The current floor price is 1.64 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

10. Degen Ape Academy

Degenerate Ape Academy (or simply Degen Ape Academy) is a collection of 10,000 degenerate ape NFTs on the Solana blockchain.

Benefits of holding a Degen Ape include:

• Ability to elect “student council” members who can make proposals for the community
• Ability to vote on student council proposals
• The ability for rare twin, triplet and quadruplet ape’s to breed and mint new apes
• The future ability for regular, non-twin apes to breed and mint new apes
• Ape Kart, a planned racing game

Owning a Degen Ape also gives you access to the Degen DAOO, a Discord NFT community.

Members of the Degen DAOO can earn passive income by staking SOL via the Degen Infrastructure Core Services (D.I.C.S) validator node. You can earn 6-7% APY with a 0.01 SOL minimum staking amount.

Staking SOL via the Degen DAOO also helps the community to fund any future projects they have planned, including merchandise, giveaways and real-life events.

Degen Apes are also one of the most popular NFTs on Solana with over $110m worth of apes being traded since they hit the market.

You can buy a Degen Ape on Solanart. The current floor price is 30 SOL.

If you need to buy SOL, use CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe only) and send your SOL to your Phantom or Solflare wallet.

Conclusion

As Solana and NFTs continue to grow in popularity, I can’t wait to see how these projects turn out. If you’re holding any Solana NFTs you could end up sitting on a considerable fortune.

If you want to invest in a Solana NFT, you can buy SOL from CEX (Worldwide & USA) or Bitpanda (Europe) and use a Solana wallet like Phantom or Solflare wallet.

I’ve listed the marketplaces for each NFT under their own section in the post above.

I hope you enjoyed this story; feel free to check out the useful resources below:

CEX Exchange — Good exchange to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon (MATIC), Polkadot (DOT), Binance Coin (BNB), and more from anywhere in the world with cash. Available worldwide

BitPanda —  If you live in Europe, one of the best exchanges to buy cryptocurrencies with cash, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), and many more. Only available in Europe, Canada, and Mexico

Kucoin – Great exchange where users can trade over 750 different cryptocurrencies, including new, low market cap cryptocurrencies. Available worldwide, INCLUDING the USA.