NFTs continue to post impressive numbers amid the ongoing cryptocurrency slump.
Analysts and investors expect that the rise of non-fungible tokens or unique tokens (NFTs) will continue this year, as well as the expansion of its global market. In fact, experts are not shy about showing their optimism about this segment of crypto, which is still bullish, despite the recent falls in cryptocurrencies.
Compared to traditional financial projects, NFTs have shown an impressive growth in the last year. They went from 100 million dollars in 2020 to more than 21,000 million dollars in 2021. This increase has attracted many investors, from institutions to individuals, and has caught the attention of many experts. “We believe that the best is yet to come,” as asserted from Van Eck, a global investment manager with offices around the world. “NFTs land in mainstream culture with millions of users, and the next big use cases to emerge will be sports ticketing, loyalty points, and electronic sports.”
Last year big names like Mercedes, Lamborghini, Nike, and Adidas made headlines for joining NFTs. Nike even released some products in the form of such tokens. Also, big-name artists like Steve Aoki, Shakira, 3LAU, and Eminem have jumped on the bandwagon. Entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, for example, believes that NFTs will end up amassing more value than Bitcoin itself.
The figures handled by the sector support these statements. According to data presented by tradingplatforms.com, non-fungible tokens have reached an average price of $49,490 in the last month (from mid-December to mid-January), a figure at which the CryptoPunks, the small images of characters from 24 x 24 pixels, contributed more than 50% of the total. Today there are 10,000 little 8-bit punks, all with unique features, and some of them have sold for millions of dollars at auction houses like Christie’s.
“NFTs are bullish due to the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies,” comments Edith Reads, from Tradingplatforms.com. It also states that CryptoPunks “is an important project in the NFT sphere. The project is dominant because it is a pioneer in asset development.” “That aspect attracts more investors every day due to the development of social status among holders of CryptoPunks,” he adds.
The expert also highlights that NFTs continue to record impressive numbers amid the current cryptocurrency slump. The total average price of these assets is around $50,000 in the last 30 days, but 80% of this figure comes from just two projects.
CryptoPunks contributed 55.5%, while LooksRare contributed 24.51% of the total median asset price. Most of these NFT projects have lowered their average prices compared to the previous month.
CryptoPunk lost 29.98% from the previous month’s prices. CryptoSlam, on the other hand, saw a price increase of more than 600%. Similarly, BloctoBay revalued in approximately 407%.
How this is Possible
Blockchain technology and NFTs provide artists and content creators with a unique opportunity to monetize their products. For example, artists no longer have to rely on galleries or auction houses to sell their art. Instead, the artist can sell it directly to the consumer as an NFT, which also allows them to keep a larger share of the profits. Additionally, artists can schedule royalties to receive a percentage of sales each time they sell their art to a new owner. This is an attractive feature, as artists generally do not receive future earnings after they achieve their first art sale.
Crypto Art and NFTs: Entry Door for Cryptocurrencies?
Although many critics beyond the crypto community remain skeptical of crypto art, a few pioneers are more than willing to spend a lot of money on digital art. Crypto artist Beeple sold his collection, ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’, for $69.3 million, at an auction held by Christie’s on March 11, 2021. A month earlier, Beeple had sold a 10-second NFT video for $6.6 million on Nifty Gateway.
Thanks to NFTs, artists can now verify their artwork, making it harder for someone to fake original pieces of art. At the same time, they make it easy for enthusiasts to collect pieces from their favorite artists.
“It is clear that the cryptocurrency industry is taking important steps and changing the way we see art,” says Reads. Although it is still a bit early to know what direction the sector is taking, “it is clear that every day there are more people coming on board. Perhaps crypto art NFTs, along with sustainable DeFi projects, offer the gateway we’ve been waiting for to mainstream crypto mass adoption,” he concludes.
By Audy Castaneda
