Guide to Open Edition NFTs

While the majority of NFT collections thrive on scarcity, a new type of NFTs emerged amidst the bear market with unlimited supply. The unlimited supply here doesn’t mean that there are an infinite number of NFTs in the collection (though it could be possible in some cases). It means that the collectors can mint as many NFTs as they want or can afford, either for a limited time (say, 48 hours) or indefinitely. Once this period ends, the number of NFTs minted becomes the total supply.

So, it’s the participants of the mint that dictate the total supply of the collection themselves.

Also, Open edition NFTs are usually seen following an ERC-1155 multi-token standard instead of the popular ERC-721 standard. This means that the NFT creators can use a single contract to create a large number of NFTs, making the process much cheaper. But the mint is equally affordable for the collectors as well because Open Edition NFTs usually have a really low mint price.

Low Price + Unlimited supply =?

Reaching a large number of people.

Open Edition NFTs have such a low entry barrier to reach a wider audience. Artists usually release such open mints to either make their art more accessible for people who are already a part of their community or to expand their community by luring in more collectors.

The first Open Edition NFT collection was by Jack Butcher named Checks NFT. Its mint lasted for 24 hours between the 3rd and 4th of January and ended in a total of 16,031 NFTs with over 2000 unique collectors. Till now, the Checks NFT collection has generated over $30 million in secondary sales.

On witnessing its huge success, a lot more collections like Opepen and Killa Chronicles followed the same distribution strategy later in the year. The rise of infrastructure-minting platforms like Manifold and Zora also pushed the trend further.

Regardless of whether the credits are entirely theirs or not, the introduction of Open Edition NFTs did cause the NFT market to see a 38% increase in sales, which amounts to almost a billion dollars. While some people argue that such open mints can make the community perceive the art as unworthy, it hasn’t happened with any such collection so far.

The artist behind Checks NFT, Jack Butcher believes that such accessible distribution channels far outclass the others despite being low-priced. With the participation of popular creators like Snoop Dogg, open-edition NFTs are still going strong.