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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs or “crypto art”) are all the rage online right now. We want to provide a primer before your crypto-obsessed cousin starts spamming family group chats with NFT mentions.
- What they are: NFTs are digital assets and a type of cryptographic token.
- What they’re not: Interchangeable, like cryptocurrencies. Each NFT represents a unique digital asset that can be bought and sold in an open marketplace.
The skeptic’s take: You can just screenshot an NFT without buying it. Rebuttal: The asset doesn’t belong to you, since ownership is authenticated and recorded on a perpetually updating ledger. The blockchain taketh and giveth the NFT ownership.
Momentum
The NFT market tripled in 2020 to $250+ million, according to a new report by NonFungible.com with support from L’Atelier. The number of active wallets nearly 2x’d.
NFTs are off to an even hotter start in 2021. On Feb. 8, somebody with the online moniker “Flying Falcon” purchased an NFT: nine plots of Genesis land in the Axie Infinity virtual world. Worth ~$1.5 million at the time, the 888 ether (ETH) deal was “the largest digital land sale ever recorded on the blockchain,” the seller tweeted. Probably not for long.
More momentum:
- YouTuber Logan Paul sold 1,772 NFTs on Friday for $3.5+ million.
- NBA Top Shot, an NFT marketplace for basketball highlight reels, has cleared $95 million in sales in the last seven days.
- This week, Christie’s will become the first major auction house to offer a purely digital NFT.
One artist’s take
Matty Mo, who goes by the online name of “Most Famous Artist,” has sold 7.98 ETH (~$15k) of artwork since February 6. NFTs first came on his radar in October.
- Then: “At first, I was skeptical. The digital-native art I saw selling for large sums did not appeal to my sensibilities so I sat on the sidelines,” he told Emerging Tech Brew. “I didn't get it.”
- Now: “The core technology, the programmability of contracts, the capacity for royalties, and all of the possibilities made me look much deeper. I am now convinced it will empower artists of all kinds to gain power over the antiquated power structures of the art world.”