NFTs Through the Ages: A Timeline of Innovation

The world changes daily, and innovations like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) replace older ones in a short period. This has made it difficult to identify the accurate time that NFTs broke into the art industry or the financial markets.

In this article, CryptoGuideGH sheds light on the historical perspective on digital art and collectibles.

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Colored Coins

Our research reveals that Colored Coins, launched in 2012, were the first NFTs, marking the beginning of this digital asset class. These were small images of Bitcoin (BTC) with different colors.

The colored coins represented ownership of different types of real-world assets. Many people who were open to new ideas at the time bought precious metals, government bonds, automobiles, digital collectibles, paid-for digital television channels, and other cryptocurrencies with Colored Coins.

Colored Coins, precursors to NFTs, paved the way for this innovative ecosystem, transforming the art industry with new possibilities.

Quantum NFTs

Many NFT historians credit Quantum as the first mainstream NFT, despite Colored Coins’ earlier influence, recognizing its broader impact.

Kevin McCoy launched Quantum in 2014, a pioneering NFT project featuring a dynamic, pixelated octagon that shifted colors and expanded/contracted in rhythmic motion.

Namecoin, founded in 2011 as a Bitcoin fork, housed Quantum and utilized the same Proof-of-Work algorithm Satoshi Nakamoto introduced for Bitcoin.

Namecoin’s native asset NMC was among the pioneer cryptocurrencies in the industry and reached an all-time high price of $16.30 on 28 Nov. 2013. As of May 2025, NMC has lost more than 90% of this price and has been trading below $2.

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Ethereum’s foray into the NFT market

In July 2015, a man called Vitalik Buterin and seven others launched Ethereum. Unlike early projects under the blockchain umbrella, Ethereum aimed to decentralise the entire financial system.

Developers created the Ethereum Genesis Block, and shortly after, they launched the first blockchain-based game, marking a significant milestone.

The game was called Spells of Genesis (SoG). This game merged the functionalities of Trading Card Games with the point-and-shoot (PoS) features of arcade games.

In SoG, players collect and combine cards to build a strong deck and battle programmed villains within the game.

The best part of SoG is that players can convert the in-game items (cards) into non-fungible tokens on a blockchain, which can be traded for money or other cryptocurrencies.

The rise of Etheria

Etheria, the first NFT to be used by a market, was launched in 2015.

The team announced the project to an audience at the first Ethereum Developers Conference in London. The conference took place within 90 days of Ethereum’s launch.

Etheria was followed by PixelMap, Force of Will, and Rare Pepes in 2016.

PixelMap was created by Ken Erwin. Multiple news reports indicate that Alex Tew’s The Million Dollar Homepage, a site created to fund his tertiary education, directly inspired the project.

PixelMap is the first NFT that stored image data directly on the blockchain of Ethereum. Seen by many as an antique NFT due to its age, a single PixelMap sold for around $1,000.

Developers and gamers widely recognize Force of Will as the second blockchain-based game to tokenize in-game items, following Spells of Genesis.

Rare Pepes is the Dogecoin of digital collectibles due to it being the first meme-inspired NFT. Rare Pepe NFTs was inspired by SATOSHICARD, a blockchain card from the Spells of Genesis game. As of May 2025, there were more than 1,700 official Rare Pepe cards released across 36 series.

NFTs branch out into the mainstream

In 2017, the term non-fungible token and its abbreviation NFT became a mainstay in the crypto dictionary.

NFT projects like CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, and others went viral, capturing widespread attention with unique digital collectibles and gameplay.

Towards the end of 2017, BTC surpassed $20,000 in price for the first time, and this led to an extensive insight into the activities of digital currencies.

Not wanting its citizens to put their faith in virtual currencies, China placed a ban on the use of all cryptocurrencies.

This made 2018 one of the worst-performing years of the crypto industry. Since Bitcoin goes hand in hand with blockchain technology, the NFT market experienced some bearishness, and this extended into 2019.

DeFi tokens and NFTs rebounded with a surge in volume in late 2020, despite earlier lockdowns and market downturns.

Success of NFTs and global market value

According to a 2021 report by NFT data aggregator Nonfungible.com, the NFT market’s total value of transactions increased by 299% in 2020.

Transactions surged, with a year-on-year increase from $62.86 million in 2019 to $250.84 million, driven by activities like breeding, minting, and renting.

The success of the industry led to the creation of more NFTs,, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht, Moonbirds, and other mainstream digital collectibles that continue to add billions of dollars to global NFT market sales in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

As of May 2025, the total NFT market sales volume was approximately $70 billion. The sales came through from the activities of more than 380 million transactions.

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