Another year has passed, and we’re welcoming 2025 with excitement to continue our NFT journey and development. We introduced NFT XCM, the popular CodeCraft Grant Fund, minted 300,000 NFTs, and achieved the fastest NFT mint on record.

This year, NFT innovation flourished and sky-rocketed in the Unique and Polkadot ecosystem, achieving milestones and breaking records — we drilled down on ecosystem participation, uplifting projects (small and big) to leverage NFTs to their fullest capabilities, attended talks and conferences, built ground-breaking tech for cross-chain NFTs, and did we mention the team never slept?

A lot of coffee was involved.

Look back at our top 12 milestones from the Unique ecosystem, and discover our plans and vision for 2025!

Buckle up, grab a drink, and read on.

Spearheading NFT tech on Polkadot: NFT XCM Proposal Passes

Late last year, we announced Cross-Chain NFTs. What does this mean, exactly? The ability to transfer NFTs between projects and parachains on Polkadot makes them more versatile and usable and opens up opportunities for NFTs.

This was previously done for Fungible Tokens (FTs), but until now, transferring NFTs has been impossible. The Unique team has taken the initiative to spearhead this tech and bring NFTs to the forefront of Polkadot’s core mission and narrative. Together, we’re fulfilling Polkadot’s interoperability dream.

Earlier in the year, the proposal for NFT XCM (#379) passed with support from the community with 91.9% aye votes!

This kickstarted the work for NFT XCM with further developments and milestones being achieved throughout the year.

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Breaking Records: Achieving the Fastest NFT Mint — 100,000 NFTs in less than 19 mins!

An exciting development shook the Polkadot ecosystem: Unique Network alongside Forever Has Fallen, achieved the fastest NFT mint, surpassing records by Polygon and Solana — minting 100,000 NFTs in less than 19 minutes!

  • Forecasted Speed: 4930 NFTs per minute
  • Actual NFTs minted: 100,000 in 18 min 42 seconds
  • Approximate minting speed — across 3 batches: 5347.59 NFTs per minute.

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We encourage you to take a quick look at our blog to get a full overview of this incredible achievement and discover the story of how this collaboration started.

Or, learn more in the video below:

Taking Gameplay to a Whole New Level: Minting 300,000 NFTs with DED MINE

If the previous highlight didn’t excite you enough, this next one is a true banger.

Earlier this year, we collaborated with DED MINE, a brick-breaking game on Polkadot. Built by DED Games and made for the community, sees you play as a flying bird collecting ecosystem puzzle pieces, climbing up the leaderboard, and collecting all the project NFTs.

And the incredible result? Over 10,000 players played the ecosystem game and we minted over 300,000 Nested NFTs with DED MINE. Everyone was collecting NFTs like crazy, and this highlighted the potential and ground-breaking opportunities that Web3 games have to offer.

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Empowering developers to build the next in NFTs with the CodeCraft Grant Fund

Earlier this year, we introduced the NFTs 2.0 $250,000 CodeCraft Grant Fund. Aimed at bringing like-minded developers, designers, and enthusiasts together, to explore and create innovative solutions using cutting-edge NFT technologies.

The main theme for the grant fund is advanced NFTs, inspiring you to take on the challenge to create something new and utilize the power of advanced NFTs in creative ways that haven’t been seen before.

With over 100+ applicants, we’re pausing applications for the CodeCraft Grant Fund until next year. However, if you’d still like to fill out the form, please leave us your name, email, and project idea and we will consider your project for the 2025 batch!

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CodeCraft Winners

Later in the year, we introduced our CodeCraft winners! These incredible projects (showcased as part of the CodeCraft fair), are made by a group of talented individuals and teams, all looking to integrate Advanced NFTs and demonstrate the power of digital assets on Polkadot.

Our winners so far (with more to come this year!):

  • Forever Has Fallen
  • DED MINE
  • MusicMoon
  • Chess On Chain
  • Softlaw
  • KooponCraft

Check out our announcement post here:

The Cross-Chain NFTs Think Tank

During Polkadot’s Sub0 event in Bangkok, the team traveled to showcase the power of NFT XCM, and with that came the Cross-Chain NFTs Think Tank!

As part of our ongoing efforts with NFT XCM, the Cross-Chain NFT Think Tank brings in more valuable and thought-out use cases to the Polkadot ecosystem. Innovating new ways to leverage cross-chain NFTs and maximize NFT growth among projects.

The Cross-Chain NFT Think Tank aims to set the groundwork by establishing Polkadot as the leading ecosystem for interoperable NFTs.

The Beginning of the NFT Journal

Diving into all things NFTs can be tough, it can be overwhelming, nonsensical, and overall difficult to understand. That’s why we created the NFT Journal — which aims to delve into NFT innovations in each edition, showcasing the most advanced use cases and the latest developments in NFT tech within the Unique Network and Polkadot ecosystems.

NFTs have evolved far beyond simple collectibles, profile pictures, or in-game assets. We’re bringing a new, fresh perspective—NFTs 2.0. That’s exactly what the NFT Journal is all about:

NFTs 2.0 elevates the core concepts and ideas that we know of regular NFTs, such as customizability and interoperability but now grows ownership and boosts engagement, expands the NFT interoperability via XCM transfers, and acts as carriers of complex data structures — using advanced NFT structures.

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Cheering Conor Daly at the Indy500: The Polkadot Loves Conor Campaign

This year, we proudly celebrated Conor Daly—Polkadot ambassador and race car driver—at the legendary Indy 500!

On the 9th of April, it was announced that the Polkadot community voted in Polkadot’s Open Governance system (OpenGov) to sponsor race car driver Conor Daly in the upcoming Indianapolis 500 in May 2024.

Conor Daly took 10th place and led 22 laps, earning him the “Biggest Mover” trophy.

Unique and the Polkadot community celebrated this spectacular moment, leading up to the race with the Polkadot Loves Conor Campaign — a community-inspired and driven initiative to wish Conor the best of luck with engagement activities, competitions, raffles, and lots more.

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Not only that, the Unique team met up with Conor at Consensus in Texas, one of the biggest crypto events of the year. We hosted an exclusive Polkadot Loves Conor raffle, giving away to 3 lucky winners mini-helmet collectibles signed by Conor himself. Take a look at some pictures below:

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Where Web2 Gamers Meet Web3 — Collaboration with TapNations!

This year we announced an exciting partnership with TapNations on the new “Reward Mode” project, boosting user growth for the Polkadot ecosystem and bridging the gap between Web2 gamers and the world of Web3 and Polkadot!

TapNations is a leading mobile gaming publisher (with over 1 million gamers), set to redefine the mobile gaming experience and transform the technological landscape by leveraging Web3 tech for a seamless integration into mobile games.

Exciting updates are coming in 2025 as our collaboration with TapNations continues to grow—stay tuned on our socials for all the latest updates!

NFT XCM goes live in Dev Environment

Following our NFT XCM developments, this year we introduced NFT XCM transfers in a developer environment for projects and parachains to test. Using NFT XCM’s technology, developers can move NFTs between Asset Hub, and Unique!

From the first Proof of Concept announcement at the beginning of the year, to extensive behind-the-scenes work, transferring NFTs was made into a reality, fulfilling Polkadot’s interoperability dream.

Need a quick re-cap on the milestones and achievements of NFT XCM? Check our latest update:

Winning the 63rd Polkadot Parachain Auction!

An exciting start to the year kicked off when Unique won the 63rd Polkadot Parachain Auction! This means Unique Network will stay as a Polkadot Parachain for another 2 years–we’re excited about our continued growth and striving for NFT success on the Polkadot network!

To learn more about parachains, check out this educational page here.

From NFT Collective to NFTMozaic: The Launch

In late 2023, we introduced a new project idea; the NFT Collective. This idea aims to establish Polkadot as the leading ecosystem for pushing the boundaries of NFTs and digital assets — committed to bringing adoption by focusing our efforts on providing effective technology, BD, support, and marketing efforts.

We officially launched the NFT Collective as NFTMozaic, an alliance and NFT hub on Polkadot for all things NFTs, collaboratively working alongside projects and parachains to create one common vision of success for NFTs.

If you’re someone interested in getting involved, fill out this short form:

Learn more about NFTMozaic:

Also, catch the video below to dive into NFTMozaic:

Conferences, Community Events, Partnerships and Media

2024 was an extraordinary year for Web3, marked by a strong market recovery and a whirlwind of events. The Unique team traveled the globe, proudly representing NFTs on Polkadot. From hosting booths and engaging with new users to organizing exclusive giveaways and raffles, they made their presence felt at countless Web3 conferences!

Take a look below at some of the most prominent Web3 events we attended:

This year was also the year of Community Calls and ???? Spaces! Need a quick catch-up? Find them all below:

Key partnerships of 2024 include:

  • Meta Carbon
  • Forever Has Fallen
  • DED Mine
  • HydraDX
  • Acala and Zeitgeist on the Cross-Chain NFTs Think Tank
  • AngelHack
  • G6 Networks
  • Our friends and partners who collaborate with us on the Polkadot Loves Conor Campaign
  • Polkadot Insider
  • TapNations
  • The Sovereign Nature Initiative
  • EasyA
  • Airlyft
  • The Polkadot Championship Hackathon
  • Chess on Chain
  • Our community members, and friends; thank you!

Plan and Vision for 2025!

Last year was the year of growth, and true NFT innovation, with challenges, wins, and groundbreaking achievements. This year, we’re even more thrilled to be continuing our journey and working towards a future with endless NFT possibilities on both Unique and Polkadot.

Our mission and vision stay the same; creating the next generation of advanced NFTs for everyone to use on Polkadot, we’re striving that with our success from 2024 and tapping into new technology and innovation to inspire developers, project owners and users to innovate the next in NFTs.

Thank you for your incredible support throughout the year! We look forward to bringing you more developments, updates, and NFT tech in 2025!

Buckle up, because this is going to be one exciting year you won’t want to miss!

Join the Unique Ecosystem!

Unique Network is the number one next-generation NFT chain for Polkadot and Kusama, bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 by giving you all the necessary tools and platforms to achieve your dreams as easily as possible.

Step into the world of Web3 with the NFTs 2.0 CodeCraft Grant Fund, complete with unlimited advanced NFT features built for today and the future. Build your unique dApp or Micro dApp, join a community of developers, and get direct support for your project.

Learn more about the dApps and projects actively using Unique Network today:

dApp

Description

Visit Page

Conor Daly Insider Pass

A unique Digital Insider Pass to promote Fan Engagement in Web3 and bridge non-crypto natives to the Web3 world.

www.conordalypolkadot.net

Sovereign Nature Initiative

One-of-a-kind Proof of Attendance Badge on the Blockchain, that evolves into an exclusive DOTphin NFT.

www.sovereignnature.com

DED Games

A brick-breaking game, showcasing NFTs to gamers as they try to complete challenges and reach the leaderboards.

www.ded.games

Forever Has Fallen

Bringing Bounty Hunter Tickets as NFTs to gamers, unlocking challenges, riddles, and an exclusive lair to those who seek.

www.foreverhasfallen.com

Stay Up To Date

Follow Unique Network to get all the latest information, and join us to start your own unique, development journey:

  1. Follow us on Twitter @Unique_NFTchain
  2. Join our community Telegram
  3. Join our community Discord
  4. For Developer Queries: [email protected]
  5. For Any Other Queries: [email protected]