According to research done by Adam McBride, Terra Nullius was the first NFT on ETH. Defined as land that is legally deemed to be unoccupied or uninhabited, Terra Nullius created a new frontier for investors. First minted on August 7, 2015, Terra Nullius is a project designed to allow users to “Stake a claim on the blockchain”.
Pre-dating most established NFTs by two years, this is the first product that is considered a true NFT. While most major NFTs today mint thousands of their products, Terra Nullius flew under the radar with only 22 minted at the initial launch. To date, the dev team has minted an additional 25, leaving their total at only 47.
Due to their relatively limited launch in comparison to some of the larger projects that marked 2017, it is easy to see why Terra Nullius was overlooked for so long. In fact, the devs responsible for Terra Nullius did not refer to their creation as an NFT. Instead, they simply identified it as an “interactive Ethereum Contract”.