First Ethereum NFT

The first non-fungible token (NFT) to use the Ethereum blockchain was "Terra Nullius", which was minted on 7 August 2015.

The Terra Nullius NFT was announced in a Reddit post titled "Introducing Terra Nullius, the first interactive Ethereum contract", written by its creator, a user called "Semiel". It comprised a smart contract that logged the ownership of a set of 4,000 blocks in the Ethereum blockchain. Users could use this smart contract to "stake a claim" on the blockchain and write a short message to their "claim".

The Ethereum blockchain, which supports the creation of smart contracts – which are self-executing contracts, with the terms of agreement written into a computerized code – is today the most commonly used standard for NFTs. Today, more than $20 billion worth of NFT transactions have taken place on the Ethereum blockchain, compared to just $1.3 billion for its nearest competitor, Solana.