To coincide with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Benzinga launched an NFT Madness 2022 Tournament with 64 NFT collections competing for the championship.
What Happened: The tournament kicked off on March 19 pitting 64 NFT collections against each other for the crown of Benzinga’s fan-voted Best NFT Collection.
The tournament contains the 50 largest NFT projects of all time by sales volume and includes collections that have appeared on Benzinga’s NFT show “The Roadmap.”
Readers can select which NFT collection they think should move on to the next round with the winner being the NFT with the higher percentage.
The voting rounds are:
- First Round: March 19 to March 22
- Second Round: March 23 to March 26
- Third Round: March 27 to March 30
- Quarterfinals: March 31 to April 3
- Semifinals: April 4 to April 8
- Championship: April 9 to April 14
The Bracket: The majority of the higher seeds are based on their place on the all-time sales volume chart.
Number 1 seeds in the tournament are Bored Ape Yacht Club, Axie Infinity, CryptoPunks and Art Blocks, which are the four biggest NFT collections by sales.
Number 2 seeds in the tournament are NBA Top Shot, VeeFriends, CloneX and Mutant Ape Yacht Club.
Number 3 in the tournament are Cool Cats, Meebits, Bored Ape Kennel Club and Doodles.
Yuga Labs, which recently announced its acquisition of the rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits, has five of the top 12 seeds in the tournament and could have a good chance of producing a winner and some Final Four teams.
The tournament could be a good indicator as to which NFT projects have the largest and most passionate NFT communities and also highlight how important newness is to a NFT project in momentum.
Will voters fade older projects such as Mekaverse, Loot, Pudgy Penguins and Curio Cards that aren’t as active and have lost some appeal?
Likewise, will voters favor newer projects and ignore the seeding for recent NFT mints such as Azuki, Starcatchers, mfers and Invisible Friends?
Among the largest communities that have watched “The Roadmap” episodes were interviews with Sappy Seals, Lazy Lions, CryptoDads, The Doge Pound and Wall St. Bulls. Will these strong followings help pull the upset?
The tournament also shows the strong influence the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) blockchain has on the NFT industry with the majority of the 64 “teams” minted on ETH.
Included in the tournament are several projects from Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) including Solana Monkey Business, Degen Ape Academy and Photo Finish.
The Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX) blockchain is represented with Crabada, a fast-growing, play-to-earn NFT game.
NBA Top Shot, which is a. No. 2 seed, uses the Flow blockchain (CRYPTO: FLOW) for its sports moments.
The Sandbox (CRYPTO: SAND) uses Ethereum and its native token.
Number 1 seed Axie Infinity uses the Axie Infinity (CRYPTO: AXS) token.
Farmers World is built on the Wax blockchain (CRYPTO: WAXP).
Follow along with “The Roadmap” to hear the latest updates and watch the hosts make their selections live on air.
Photo: Screenshot of Benzinga's "The Roadmap" on YouTube
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