The great and the good of the NFT space descended on Malta this week for the third edition of the ftNFT YoCerebrum Awards, recognizing the most outstanding achievements in the field of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Artists, creators and collectors gathered at Fort Manoel on Malta’s Manoel Island for the awards, which were selected through a public voting system on the blockchain combined with data from the fnNFT marketplace, and a jury drawn from the worlds of art and Web3.

Winners were selected across 12 categories, receiving a “Bahamut” trophy commemorating Fastex’s layer-1 blockchain and 2,024 Fasttokens (FTN).

The ftNFT YoCerebrum Awards are about “bringing together a lot of artists, industry players, our partners from the group and from Fastex,” the exchange’s CLO Vardan Khachatryan told Rug Radio’s Ben White. The event is an opportunity to, “show what the industry achieved, showing gratitude towards them,” he added.

Zack Ritchie, who won the “Most Innovative NFT Collection” award for Cacticrew, told White that in real life events like the ftNFT YoCerebrum  Awards are, “the best—you don't just meet and speak about business, you get to know the person, you build experiences together.” The Maltese designer explained that his winning Cacticrew collection is based around Beppe, a prickly pear that “represents the landscape of Malta.”

Fastex is “doing a great job” in bringing the awards to Malta, Ritchie added, pointing to the island’s vibrant crypto scene and local communities like Cryptohub. “A project like this, an event like this, will further push the whole community,” he said.

Malta is “a great country with amazing opportunities,” Khachatryan said, lauding the island’s innovation and “crypto native” regulators.

Other award recipients included Kane Tallowin/Defaced’s “You Could Suffer in Heaven,” which won NFT Project of the Year for its rich “tapestry of imagery” and allusions to works by the likes of Hieronymous Bosch and Goya.

The full list of winners is:

• NFT Project of the Year: You Could Suffer in Heaven, Kane Tallowin / Defaced
• Best Art Exhibition in Phygital Space: The Joker Collection, John Charles
• Rising NFT Star: Anastasia NFTart
• Best Phygital NFT: Tempus Impromptu, Paradigmstories
• Most Innovative NFT Collection: Cacticrew, Zack Ritchie
• Best Motion Art NFT: Mind Your Scrolling, Gingerpotter
• Best Akneye Artist During Biennale 2024: Satenik Ghulijanyan
• Best Akneye Artist: Rafael Megall
• Best Space in YoCerebrum: Dubai Sports Track
• Best Fashion NFT Project: LAGANZA
• Best Dream Factory Project: Vardan Tepikyan Art Gallery
• Best Web 3.0 Media Coverage: HackerNoon