In today’s age of cutting-edge blockchain technology, there is yet another new idea that we must wrap our heads around: NFTs. It’s a recent development of technology called an NFT or non-fungible token. Think of an NFT as a unique proof of ownership over something you can’t usually hold in your hand. For instance, a piece of digital art, a digital coupon, even a video clip.
NFTs have been soaring in popularity, a fact supported in a recent interview with Alex Atallah, the 28-year-old co-founder and CTO at OpenSea, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). “Last year at this time we were doing about $1 million a month [in trading volume],” Atallah told Insider. “In January, we did $8 million in volume. And in February, we did $95 million in volume.”
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OpenSea facilitates the creation and trading of NFTs, which are digital assets that are bought and sold through blockchains like Ethereum. An NFT can come in many forms. It can be a one-of-a-kind digital art piece, a meme, an outfit designed to wear in a virtual world, or a digital key used to access a file like a music album. Even a tweet can be packaged as an NFT. The ownership of an NFT is authenticated by checking its status on the digital ledger. Like all blockchain-based technologies, they require a significant amount of energy to trade.
Interested in learning about digital transactions beyond NFT? Check out our list of the top cryptocurrency influencers here.
And as with many internet trends that have brought big paydays for some, influencers are embracing the format.
“I do think there’s going to be quite a bit of NFTs made by loads of celebrities,” Atallah said. “We’re getting quite a lot of inbounds about it.”
Several influencers have already monetized the idea of NFT’s by creating artwork that is being sold to fans. Logan Paul has been experimenting with NFT’s recently. Late last month, Paul sold $5 million worth of NFTs with his first launch in the crypto space. Most recently, he sold a set of digital Pokemon card images featuring an anime version of himself in three different colors: silver ($370 each, 777 minted in total), gold ($1,500 each, 111 minted), and matte black ($17,000 each, three minted). Paul has been partnering with Bondly, a peer-to-peer exchange that enables trading across any chain, and through any medium envolving his NFT ventures. This latest round of NFTs sold out for a total of $504,990 in sales.
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Logan’s brother, Jake, has also been taking advantage of the blazing hot NFT market as he is launching his own virtual avatar on Tuesday. He also plans to sell digital images of boxing gloves to fans in the coming weeks. He’s working with the digital avatar company Genies, which recently launched a line of NFT collectibles. It will be interesting to see what his avatar will be worth once these NFT’s hit the market.
As for other celebrity influencers, Paris Hilton sold a cat painting for $17,000, Decrypt reported. And Lyndsay Lohan sold her “Lightning” NFT for $50,000 and promised to donate the funds to charities that accept cryptocurrency, according to Decrypt.
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Now, you might be thinking about what kind of start-up cost is involved in the creation of an NFT? The barriers to entry for creators looking to test out NFTs are relatively low, though most artists have to pay a “gas fee” to set up an NFT on the blockchain, which can add up. If a creator is unable to sell their NFT, they won’t be able to make back those upfront costs. But for internet stars with millions of fans, the payouts from NFTs can be huge.
Looking for some NFT art to support? Check out this list of some amazing digital artists on Instagram.
With the recent uptick in blockchain technology fueling NFT’s it seems as if a new niche market has emerged seemingly overnight. That being said, there is still a lot of money to be made in the NFT space as more influencers are piggybacking onto the trend. The idea of owning a digital image may seem a bit gratuitous to many but like it or not NFT’s are here to stay.
