Top 5 NFT Artists

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been all the talk in the crypto space during 2021. The buying and selling of these unique cryptocurrency tokens, usually in JPEG format, has made a huge splash on industries like sports memorabilia and the art industry. NFT sales over the past few months have seen unprecedented growth and shattered previous all-time highs. 

A collection of digital drawings by famed NFT artist Beeple recently sold for $69 million, the first tweet on Twitter sold for $3 million, and a rare CryptoPunk NFT sold for nearly $10 million. 

NFTs first appeared all the way back in 2012, but their popularity did not really become apparent until 2021 despite having a few brief flashes of popularity in 2017 with the blockchain game CryptoKitties. 

Anyway, we will cover the five top NFT artists at the moment. These artists produce NFT art that regularly sells for millions of dollars and have a large following in the NFT art space. Some of these artists made a name for themselves outside of NFTs and have simply moved into the digital space while others made their name creating NFTs. 

One thing they all have in common, however, is their ability to produce unique art that can fetch a large price tag. 

Top 5 NFT Artists

Our criteria for choosing the top NFT artists mostly relies on their ability to produce art that sells for a large amount of money. 

However, the industry is still so new that not many NFT artists sell art for millions of dollars. Most of these artists have sold at least one NFT for over $1 million USD, but it is extremely difficult to consistently sell NFTs for over $1 million USD. 

That said, all the artists on this list will likely continue to see continued growth in their popularity, which should make their art continue to appreciate in value. 

Beeple

Beeple always ends up at the top of every top NFT artists list for a very good reason. 

He is the number one NFT artist.  

Beeple, real name Mike Winkmann, holds the record for highest sale price of an NFT with the $69 million price paid for his “Everydays – The first 5000 days.”

In fact, Beeple not only ranks as the top NFT artist. He also ranks as one of the top artists, period. He’s at the top of the list for living artists with valuable artwork. 

Note: Most of the valuable artwork only experienced price appreciation after the death of the artist.

Beeple has also started transitioning into selling various types of merchandise with his artwork printed on it. This shows that NFT artists have multiple ways to monetize their artwork – they do not need to constantly pump out new NFTs. 

XCOPY

XCOPY is an anonymous NFT artist that has created art that has sold for over $1 million USD. That is obviously no small accomplishment and will almost always get your name on a list like this one. 

Now, XCOPY has a large Twitter following with 100,000 followers on the social media platform. Most of the promotion for their artwork occurs on the platform. However, XCOPY has also received some mainstream media attention, which serves as good marketing for the unique artwork they offer. 

One last thing, XCOPY does not produce as many NFTs as the other artists on this list. 

That is not necessarily a bad thing, though. Pumping out a new NFT everyday can sometimes dilute the value of the other NFTs if the artist does not have a large enough brand (ie. Beeple). 

Fewocious

Fewocious is the youngest artist on our list. The artist is only 18 years old, but began their art career at 13, so they do have some experience in the space. Fewocious began selling NFTs at the age of 17 netting a little over $17 million their first year selling NFTs. 

They actually caused Christie’s auction house to crash because of the popularity of their art. 

One interesting thing about Fewocious is that the artist is trans-sexual, which offers a unique twist on the message behind their artwork. 

They are certainly an NFT artist that you should follow as they have huge potential to become a major artist in the burgeoning industry. 

Mad Dog Jones

Mad Dog Jones, real name Micah Dowbak, has dropped NFTs that sold for millions of dollars. 

Again, earning over one million USD from a single NFT drop will earn you a spot on just about every top NFT artist list. 

However, Mad Dog Jones has bigger plans for the future. They have collaborated with Philip’s (the conglomerate) on a project called “Replicator.” Replicator will create a new NFT every 28 days – it’s a cool concept, but we are not sure why Mad Dog Jones needed to collaborate with Philip’s for it. 

Anyway, Mad Dog Jones has many rabid fans of his art, so we fully expect him to continue to grow in the future. 

Trevor Jones

Trevor Jones is one of the more unique NFT artists because he chooses to produce physical art and then turn it into an NFT. 

Most NFT artists simply create digital art. 

We really like that about Trevor Jones. And it shows that physical artists can still earn money in the NFT market. 

Trevor Jones has had artwork sell for over $1 million USD. The most notable example is a painting of his called “the Bitcoin angel” that sold for over $3 million USD. 

Jones is an artist that you should follow if you have any interest in the NFT art industry.  

Closing Thoughts

That covers it for the top 5 NFT artists of 2021. We strongly recommend continuing to follow these artists if you have any interest in NFT artwork. 

These artists have shown that they understand the future of the art industry and have positioned themselves as pioneers of the place where the art industry is moving. 

We fully expect all these artists to continue to see growth in popularity and total value of their art.