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Are RTFKT and Nike Behind CloneX NFTs Success?

pink image of Clonex logo on pink background image of Anime girl NFT
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CloneX has broken ranks in just 12 months to become one of the ten best-selling NFTs by all-time sales volume. It has generated approximately $775 million from December 2021 to date, data from NFT aggregator CryptoSlam shows.

While many articles online continue to give a vague explanation of what the NFT is, there is more to CloneX than just being pieces of digital art in the blockchain technology of Ethereum.

Launched in November 2021, CloneX NFT comprises a collection of 20,000 3D avatars called clones, designed with a broad focus in mind. The 20,000 3D anime avatars, the size of profile pictures (PFPs), come in eight deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) types.

The DNA types are Human, Murakami, Demon, Angel, Undead, Robot, Reptile, and Alien. Among them, the alien DNA subtype is the rarest. It has 15 to 50 avatars, representing just 0.075% to 0.25% of the total collection.

The second rarest clone comes from Murakami. Murakami clones came about in October 2021 when RTFKT announced, via its verified Twitter account, that it had partnered with Japanese pop art sensation Takashi Murakami for its CloneX avatar project. Murakami raised the project's profile due to his more than 300,000 Twitter followers being exposed to CloneX NFTs.

While half of the NFTs (about 10,000) are Human DNA subtypes, three-tenths (around 6,000) are Robots, and two-tenths (roughly 4,000) are Undeads, Reptiles, Demons, and Angels. You should note that a tiny fraction of the Human DNA subtype possesses the "vitiligo" trait. This is a disease that causes patches of skin color loss that became synonymous with pop icon Michael Jackson.

Each of the 20,000 clones is also a turnkey. Thus they are ready to be used with the global fashion brand Nike and with RTFKT Studios, which employs the latest Web3 technology to create digital artifacts such as one-of-a-kind sneakers' Metaverse.

The Metaverse is what many analysts in the computer industry believe is the future of the internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world facilitated via the use of augmented and virtual reality headsets.

Is CloneX NFTs' success down to Nike and RTFKT?

Like other digital collections in the NFT sector, CloneX NFTs would have remained unknown for some time without its direct links to the global reach of Nike since the NFTs are made by RTFKT (pronounced artifact).

Nike acquired RTFKT Studios in December 2021. President and CEO of Nike, Inc., John Donahue, said of the acquisition that Nike planned to invest in the RTFKT brand so that Nike's digital footprint and capabilities could be extended in the NFT sector.

Many industry experts expect the digital footprint to include the Metaverse, which has been forecasted to reach $824.53 billion by 2030.

Nike's acquisition of CloneX maker RTFKT impacted sales of the NFT, which soared in December 2021 to reach approximately $187 million from the activities of 3,785 unique buyers and 3,025 unique sellers who contributed to 6,482 transactions.

The average sale value of CloneX NFTs during the last month of 2021 was $28,867. Monthly sales volume for December 2021 remains at its all-time high, and that figure is still higher than the total sales volumes of MekaVerse, NFT Worlds, Adidas Originals, Okay Bears, Invisible Friends, Ethereum Name Service, Cool Pets, Gods Unchained, and World of Women Galaxy, as of 8 December, 2022.

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Nike impact on the NFT sector aside from CloneX NFTs

Nike Inc. filed for a patent for its blockchain-compatible sneakers dubbed CryptoKicks in 2019. The patent was officially issued in December 2019 by USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office).

With this patent, Nike can use the possibilities of blockchain technology through cryptography to tie digital assets to a physical product. Nike took advantage of its partnership with RTFKT by launching RTFKT Nike Dunk Genesis CryptoKicks, a collection of 20,000 NFTs, in April 2022.

As of 8 December, 2022, the collection has generated more than $19 million in all-time sales and falls into the top 300 NFT collections by total sales. CryptoKicks and other NFT activities which involve Nike have contributed to Nike Inc. topping a list of NFT brands by total NFT revenue.

As of 8 December, 2022, Nike NFT revenue was $185.74 million, seven times more than second place Dolce & Gabbana, which had $23.69 million.

Nike took another step into Web3 and the Metaverse by filing three trademarks for its DOTSWOOSH in November 2022 with the USPTO. The applications cover virtual, crypto goods marketplaces, virtual footwear, clothing, sports gear, and custom manufacture of real-world versions of digital footwear and apparel, among others.

How do I get CloneX NFT?

CloneX NFTs can be found on NFT marketplaces such as LooksRare and OpenSea. Since OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace by volume, we would like to direct you on how you can get the Clone digital collectibles on the platform.

Firstly, you must create a crypto wallet that will store your NFTs. Several wallets support OpenSea, such as TrustWallet, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow Wallet, and MetaMask. Once you create a wallet, private keys ranging from 12 to 24 words must be stored appropriately, and you need to buy ether (ETH).

As the second step, ETH is the native asset of the Ethereum ecosystem and oversees all transactions on the blockchain. CloneX is Ethereum-based and therefore needs ether to facilitate the transaction on OpenSea. Once you have ETH deposited in your wallet, you can connect it to OpenSea.

On OpenSea, you can search for CloneX and buy one of the 20,000 NFTs available for sale. Once the purchase is complete, the CloneX NFT purchased will be deposited directly into your crypto wallet.

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Author: Raphael Minter

Raphael Minter/ Albert Zuhnden (preferred pen name) is a crypto finance writer, data miner, and fundamental analyst. Raphael has written hundreds of articles about centralized and decentralized financial instruments such as precious metals, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies. He broke into digital finance in 2016 and believes digital assets and blockchain technology is the future of finance.

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