NFT Gold Rush - From Billionaires to the Brands

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm. It is the latest trending topic on the internet, and seemingly everybody is eager to join it.

From billionaire Mark Cuban to the toilet paper brand Charmin – who isn’t joining the trend? Tesla and SpaceX CEO and billionaire Elon Musk tweeted about turning a song about NFT into NFT. However, he opted out of it, before knowing if he was being serious or joking about it. The incredible thing is that that too had received an offer of $1 million.

So, what exactly is a non-fungible token? And, why are people losing their minds over it?

Non-fungible tokens are a form of digital art that is backed by blockchain technology. NFTs are a special kind of unique crypto assets on the blockchain that is guaranteed non-interchangeable with one another for equal value. NFTs are different from cryptocurrencies as they offer unique value.

What is NFT?

A non-fungible token can be anything – a video game, a video clip, a work of art, a collectible card or image, a gif, a special moment, an audio file, or any other unique object - which is stored and managed on a blockchain.

It is the guarantee of ownership that creates the real value of the crypto-art. All the transaction history is recorded in the digital wallet which ensures the ownership of the buyer. This could be compared to the physical art collection. Anybody can recreate a Picasso or Van Gogh, but the original painting would cost a fortune.

It has been always difficult for the original artist to claim proper credit on the internet as anything can be easily copied, downloaded, collected through screen-shot, or recreation. The introduction of the NFT can change the game. And, therefore, the NFT Gold Rush began.

The Rush:

The demand for NFT is at an all-time high. Just a week ago, historical auction house Christie’s stunned the whole world when they sold a Beeple artwork for a mesmerizing $69 million in an online auction. It wasn’t the only Beeple work that scored this high; another of his work titled ‘crossroads’ was resold previously for $6.6 million. The trend shows the growing interest in crypto-art and it might increase more in the coming days.

Who hasn’t?

Dallas Mavericks owner billionaire Mark Cuban is selling one of his motivational quotes as NFT. It will be a digital image of his with the quote written which says – ‘nobody ever changed the world by doing what everyone else was doing – on top of it.

Quartz has converted an article of their own into NFT, following the sale of Associated Press who had sold an NFT for $180,000 a few days ago. Toilet paper manufacturer Charmin is also selling its own NFTs for each of its five designs.

Artist Grimes sold $6 million worth of her digital artworks after putting them up for sale at the Nifty Gateway marketplace. The collection contained a series of ten pieces titled ‘WarNymph’. Youtuber Logan Paul sold $5 million worth of NFTs. He sold a digital Pokemon image featuring an anime version of himself through Bondly – a cross-trading blockchain.

The co-founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has put his first-ever tweet for sale as NFT. The highest bid for it is $2.5 million. The latest celebrity to join the NFT train is the actor and singer Lindsay Lohan. She sold her Daft Punk-themed NFT for $59k. She has partnered with Justin Sun (founder of Tron) to sell her NFTs in Tron.

However, the first big celebrity to join the NFT trend was William Shatner. He packed 10,000 NFTs featuring 125,000 collectibles based on his life and career back in July 2020. Fans bought those cards at light-speed, in just nine minutes according to a report.

Paris Hilton sold an NFT of her cat for 40 ETH or $17k the last august. 3LAU, an electronic producer, sold NFTs worth $11 million in less than 24 minutes in February 2021.

Rapper Azealia Banks sold an audio sex tape as NFT for $17k, but she got furious when the same tape was put for resale for $6 million.

NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes is planning to drop his own NFT collection for sale in the marketplace. The band Kings of Leon has also released an album as NFT lately. Other notable artists who have joined the crypto-asset train are Lil Pump, Shawn Mendes, and Ozuna.

Others:

While NFL star Mahomes is yet to join, NBA superstar Lebron James is already hitting the sky with NBA collectibles. NBA has collaborated with DapperLabs and NBPA to create its own marketplace NBA Topshot, where they sell official highlights of unforgettable NBA moments as digital assets. Lebron James, Zion Williamson, and JA Morant clips are being sold for a fortune in the Topshot marketplace. The most valuable listing is worth $250,000 now.

Christian Ronaldo, however, topped Lebron James in the valuable listing when his collection earned $290,000 in the soccer collectibles marketplace Sorare.

The Crypto-asset market caught more attention when an internet meme, named Nyan Can, which was originally created in 2011, was sold for $600,000 in February. Since then, the Crypto Punks took over the market, and they were making headlines and being sold for hundreds of thousands. The Crypto Punks were created by Larva Labs in 2017. They created 10,000 unique 24*24-pixel punk characters, all unique. A pipe-smoking punk character was sold for $7.5 million just last week.

The NFT market started its journey in 2014. It gained popularity in 2017 when Crypto Punks were created. Finally, they have taken the world by storm since late 2020.

With the increasing interest, it is expected that more and more artists and celebrities will join the NFT Gold Rush.