One of the pet peeves I have about the crypto space as a whole is how many “news” articles I read where they’re either parroting other articles or making assumptions without doing their homework. They’ll conduct interviews without doing any background on the ecosystem, interested in how much the coin or company is going to pump while glossing over the fundamentals. The same people who didn’t bother to Google info a year or two ago don’t bother to use Chatgpt or other AI, despite the fact that it makes it faster and easier. Even if they did use these tools, they wouldn’t bother to fact-check, even when it’s obvious that Grok’s gone off the deep end after reading way too many coin-shilling posts.
Those in the digital collectibles sphere are far from immune to this; if anything, not double-checking these articles is a great way to trigger a whole range of digital collectors. Nothing gets me shouting at the screen and banging out heated messages as one of these writers announces: “and this is the first time this IP has ever been on the blockchain!”
Cue the tribalism trigger.
Seriously, it’s not that I want to be tribalistic, but thems fightin’ words! Gloves off, face flushed, I am sick to death of people forgetting we are here. I am sick of our collectibles getting ignored. I am sick of Ecomi being ignored, and being blown off as inconsequential! People need to fact check their stuff, and company representatives need to speak up and acknowledge when these interviewers attribute them as being first when they are not.
But it also needs to be a two-way street.
If we want our favorite companies to get their due respect as having the first Batman on the blockchain, the first Batcowl, the first Superman, the first DC Comic, the first Disney NFT, then we need to be just as respectful when a different company that we don’t collect on was the first.
It matters just as much to the owners of those collectibles as it does to us, regardless of whether or not the company that issued it is currently relevant or not.
Collecting is a personal thing, I get that. But either firsts matter to you or they don’t. With that in mind, here’s a list of interesting firsts on the blockchain.
Caveat #1: I’m not getting into the debate of “which was minted first on the blockchain” vs. “public mint”. This is because a lot of the earlier digital collectibles were moved from the original chain, merged, re-issued and so forth. Not being technically minded, my personal preference is the mint number that’s attached to the collectible’s token. Again, collecting is a personal choice, as is which way you find more valuable as a collector.
Caveat #2: I made this list using personal recollections of the last four years, Chatgpt, and Google. The hardest part of the research project involved researching Recur, because a lot of the information surrounding the Recur drops was unfortunately wiped clean. Surviving NFTs from Recur live on Polygon and Ethereum in personal wallets and markets such as OpenSea, and their main token data is stored on Filecoin. This is an incomplete list meant to give you a taste of history, and hopefully encourage others to do their own research before making bold claims of “this came first” without looking it up.
Before I post the data, I do want to answer one question: What is the first digital collectible on the blockchain?
To me the answer is obvious: It is Bitcoin. From the very beginning, back when it was worthless, some collected it as a novelty. From the start, they began looking for special dates, or Satoshis from the earliest blocks mined. Well before Ordinals was conceived, well before ETH, teams were making Colored Coins and Rare Pepes.
Therefore, I believe that digital collecting has been on the blockchain from the very beginning.
Batman on the Blockchain
VeVe (2020) — Batman Black & White Series 1 introduced officially licensed Batman NFTs, headlined by Todd McFarlane’s sculpted piece that became VeVe’s defining early collectible.
Palm NFT Studio (Apr 2022) — DC Bat Cowls launched DC’s large-scale customizable project, letting collectors own and personalize cowls tied to verified DC FanDome IDs — the earliest interactive personalization line under the DC banner.
Todd McFarlane Collectibles (Mar 2023) — The Spawn Figure XP Series 1 marked McFarlane’s own blockchain debut on Polygon, the first time a legacy toy designer issued an NFT line directly linked to his physical figures (McFarlane later extended his comic work onto the Drip Haus art platform, releasing limited Spawn cover pieces in 2024).
Superman on the Blockchain
VeVe (Dec 2021) — Superman #1 Statue became the earliest officially licensed Superman digital collectible.
HRO (Mar 2022) — Superman #1 (1939) cover art appeared as a hybrid NFT card — the earliest on-chain rendering of that historic cover.
Palm / DC3 (Oct 2022) — The full readable Superman #1 issue arrived as DC’s premier comic-book NFT.
Spider-Man Digital Collectibles
VeVe (Aug 2021) — Spider-Man Statue Series introduced the first officially licensed Marvel character NFT on the blockchain.
AMC / WAX (Dec 2021) — Limited Spider-Man movie ticket NFTs were distributed for Spider-Man: No Way Home, marking the first theater-tied digital collectible campaign, though not a traditional market mint.
Marvel Comics on the Blockchain
VeVe (Aug 2021) — Marvel Comics #1 (1939) debuted as a readable NFT with rarity covers — the inaugural officially licensed Marvel drop.
DC Comics on the Blockchain
Palm NFT Studio (late 2021 – early 2022) — Early DC NFT “comic disk” promos were released through the original DCNFT site before the main Palm migration. These were stylized rotating cover disks rather than full readable issues, but many collectors view them as the first official DC comic NFTs.
Palm / DC3 (Oct 2022) — The full readable Superman #1 issue arrived as DC’s premier comic-book NFT.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
WAX / Funko Digital Pop! (Aug 3 2021) — TMNT Series 1 introduced officially licensed turtle collectibles on the blockchain.
RECUR (Dec 2022) — TMNT: Origins expanded the brand with story-based lore NFTs under Nickelodeon’s license.
VeVe (Nov 2025) — TMNT Animated Diorama added the original 1987 theme song and intro animation — the earliest TMNT NFT combining synchronized audio and motion.
Star Wars Digital Collectibles
VeVe (Nov 2021) — Golden Moments: R2-D2 and C-3PO were the first Star Wars NFTs ever minted on-chain.
VeVe (May 2022) — Star Wars #1 (1977) digital comic and 3-D collectibles introduced the franchise to blockchain.
VeVe (May 2022) — Star Wars Lightsabers Series featured Luke, Vader, Mace Windu, and Yoda lightsabers.
VeVe (Jun 2022) — Darth Vader Series 1 marked the first animated Star Wars character collectible and Vader’s debut on-chain.
VeVe (Jun 2022) — Obi-Wan Kenobi Series introduced the first Obi-Wan NFT, tied to the Disney+ show.
VeVe (Jul 2022) — Boba Fett Series 1 added the first Boba Fett NFT collection.
VeVe (Dec 2022) — Ralph McQuarrie Yoda Holiday Poster was the first visual depiction of Yoda on VeVe.
VeVe (May 2023) — Luke Skywalker Character Series introduced the first fully rendered Luke Skywalker collectible.
Cryptoys (Oct 2023 – May 2024) — Star Wars Volumes I–III on Flow featured Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Grogu, Din Djarin, Bo-Katan, Yoda (as a character) as interactive toy-style NFTs — their first 3-D versions.
Disney Pinnacle (2024 – 2025) — Launched digital pins for Star Wars characters on Flow, a new pin-style collectible format distinct from statues or comics.
Disney Universe Collectibles
VeVe (Nov 2021) — Disney Golden Moments introduced Disney’s entire portfolio to blockchain, debuting Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Simpsons IP in a single event tied to Disney+ Day.
Disney Golden Moments: Partners Statue
Depicts Walt Disney holding hands with Mickey Mouse
Released as part of the original Golden Moments collection celebrating Disney+ Day
First Mickey Mouse NFT on the blockchain.
First officially licensed Disney character NFTs
VeVe (Jan 29 2022) — Disney Mickey & Friends Lenticular Cards Series 1
Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto.
First depictions of these characters as NFTs
Cryptoys (Sep 25 2023) — Mickey & Friends Volume I
Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto.
First interactive toy-style Disney NFTs
Disney Pinnacle (2023 – 2024) — Built by Dapper Labs on Flow, Pinnacle launched tradeable digital pins across Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises — including characters and park-exclusive icons unseen elsewhere.
Both VeVe and Disney Pinnacle have a long list of First Appearances of Individual Disney Characters based on specific movie franchises, so many that I’m not listing them all.
For info about a specific character, DYOR.
WAX Platform Highlights
Funko Digital Pop! (2021 onward) — WAX became the primary platform for hybrid pop-culture drops including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, My Little Pony, and Hasbro crossover collectibles.
Hot Wheels NFT Garage (2021) — Mattel launched its first NFT series through WAX, later expanding to its own platform.
Coca-Cola (2021) — Limited-edition WAX airdrops celebrated International Friendship Day, one of the earliest major brand entries to the NFT space.
Postage Stamp NFTs
Austria Post (2019) — Crypto Stamp 1.0 combined a physical stamp with an Ethereum NFT — the first large-scale “phygital” stamp.
United Nations Postal Administration (2021) — UN Crypto Stamps on Polygon promoted the UN Sustainable Development Goals — the earliest multinational stamp NFT program.
USPS via VeVe (Oct 2021) — Day of the Dead Forever Stamps became the United States’ entry into blockchain postage.
Early NFT Collectibles
CryptoKitties (2017) — Dapper Labs’ digital cats brought NFT collectibles to the mainstream.
CryptoPunks (2017) — Larva Labs’ ten-thousand-piece pixel portraits defined generative PFP culture.
Pre-NFT Digital Collectibles
Rare Pepes / Counterparty (2016) — Meme-card trading on Bitcoin’s Counterparty layer seeded the NFT collector mindset.
Colored Coins (2012 – 2013) — Early satoshi-level metadata experiments that pre-dated ERC tokens.
Bitcoin (2009 +) — The original digital collectible in concept: finite, provable, and tradeable without a central issuer.