The NFT market has been a rollercoaster as of late this game-changing tech came out running from the gate but recently has shown signs of slowing down. With many projects losing the majority of their value, their area many are starting to wonder if NFTs are a bad decision. Here’s some valuable insights into the NFT market and timing your next purchase.
What are NFTs
NFTs are blockchain assets that are non-fungible. Fungibility is a term that refers to the ability to swap assets without losing value. For example, nearly all $10 bills are worth $10. There is some rare exception like miss prints and older bills but other than these rarities, USD is fungible.
The same goes for fungible digital assets like Bitcoin. Every Bitcoin holds the same value. You could send someone your Bitcoin and they could send you theirs and there would be no change in value. NFTs are non-fungible meaning that they can’t be exchanged between each other.
NFTs can be issued as one token to represent unique items on or offline. They can also be issued in sets or collections. The ability to represent chain assets on the blockchain has brought a lot of advantages to many markets. For most people, art NFTs are how they first heard of the technology. Today, there are NFT use cases in nearly every industry.
Why You’re Not Too Late
Trading volume in the NFT market has slowed by +90%. However, there are many factors to look at when taking these losses into account. For one, NFTs were still riding their initial break-out wave. Similarly to cryptocurrencies in 2017, the tech had a wave of speculative traders entering the market.
This sudden growth in the user base led to higher demand and rising prices. Rising prices then led to more demand and the cycle continued until the market corrected. The latest correction was the result of a culmination of factors including overpricing, hype, and speculative traders exiting the market.
Corrections are a necessary part of any market. They can help to sort out low-quality projects and traders who don’t support the industry. They also provide a way for traders to pick up some cheap tokens. The key to leveraging this strategy is learning how to evaluate a project and determine if it has long-term potential.
What Caused NFTs to Lose Value
There are a lot of factors that have caused NFT values to drop despite growing use cases. For one, the market was overpriced as people fought over tokens due to FOMO (fear of missing out). Many of these NFTs were digital art that was geared toward the trend.
Fraud
Another issue that caused NFTs to get some bad press was stories involving fraud. There are a lot of platforms that enable anyone to convert nearly anything into an NFT easily. The issue with this approach was that some people were uploading others’ works to the blockchain and selling their art as if it was their own.
This scenario led to artists complaining and platforms adding and uploading restrictions. It also created a negative news cycle for the technology which corresponded with a downturn in overall market values. When you combine this scenario with the fact that most high-paid NFTs were art and therefore held very little to no utility, it’s easy to see why the sector has seen liquidity dry up over the last few months.
Art NFTs have a Major Problem – A Lack of Utility
Art NFT traders usually purchase tokens to hold them for a while and then trade at a later date. The thing about this type of trader is that they will make an initial trade into the market and then they will hold their asset until it hits their sell thresholds. This can take years which means that there is a lot of liquidity locked up in the NFT market not serving any purpose except speculative trading.
DeFi NFTs
Recently, developers have created multiple ways for users to unlock their liquidity from their NFTs. Some networks enable users to leverage advanced DeFi protocols to improve their returns. Users may stake, farm, and even lend out their assets to unlock liquidity.
NFT Stats for 2023
There are a lot of statistics that a trader can review to help predict the future of this market. For example, according to recent reports, the market has experienced an 18% decline in unique wallets this year.
Additionally, the average price of an NFT has dropped from around $900 down to under $200. There was an 80% decrease in the average cost for most NFTs which can be attributed to the number of buyers outpacing the number of sellers leading to oversupply and less demand. Notably, Q1 2023 represents the first time the NFT trading sector recorded losses. A combination of long-term traders, market conditions, and oversupply are all factors
Still Some Expensive Tokens in Circulation
Despite the losses, there are still some art NFTs that fetch millions. The most expensive NFT sold last year for $532 million. The NFT features a white-haired female with green eyes and black lipstick. Specifically, it’s the Crypto Punk #3,840
However, when you review the purchase you will learn that the token was purchased by the same owner. This revelation caused many people to point out that the move was done to hype up the token and market. Whenever a trader purchases their tokens to conduct this type of maneuver it’s called a wash trade. Wash trades are frowned upon because they dilute stats and serve no real purpose except to help the NFT owner hype up the value.
Legit Sale
Once you eliminate wash trades, there are still some impressive token prices. For example, there was an NFT called “The Merge” that fetched $91.8M in Q4 2021. The now-famous NFT sold on the Nifty Gateway. The unique thing about this sale was that the seller enabled a group of traders to purchase the token.
Traders could join in on the purchase for as little as $575. The seller then increased the price slowly over the next few hours. Impressively, over 30k buyers joined in on the excitement. When it was all said and done, the NFT had reached a new all-time high in terms of sales value.
Pak, the artist behind the NFT has a reputation for delivering high-priced art to the market. For example, he sold another token called “The Fungible” for $17M just months earlier. Others may argue that group purchases shouldn’t count. When you eliminate them from the roster, you end up with Beeple’s “Every day: The First 5000 Days” which secured $69.3 million. Interestingly, the NFT was a collection of Beeple’s works throughout his career in the sector.
NFT Global
The majority of people have never heard of NFTs and therefore, have not entered the market yet. Statistics reveal that California is the state with the most NFT holders. The US, in general, is still very new to the idea of digital art on the blockchain with around only 4% holding the tokens. Asia tops the charts with China and Hong Kong residents joining the NFT hype
Trends
According to Google search trends the overall hype of the industry has begun to fade. In January 2022, the market hit its peak performance in terms of search results. The market was hot and people were scrambling to get in on the action. However, today, NFT Google search results have dwindled significantly.
Is This the End for NFTs?
When you review the stats it can seem like NFTs are on their last leg but the truth is much different. There are now more NFTs in circulation and being issued than ever. The main difference is that these new NFTs serve utility in the market rather than just being speculative assets. Here are some of the ways that NFTs are helping crypto adoption other than art.
Gaming
You would have to be completely out of the crypto loop to not notice the growing number of NFT assets making their way to the gaming sphere. In-game and user-relevant NFT provides developers with a way to empower users to secure ROIs. You can see that these assets are finding more support from high-level gaming studios rather than just crypto developers making games.
This year, you will see the launch of immersive AAA-level NFT-powered games. AAA games are the top tier in the market. They usually cost millions to create and can take years to complete. Call of Duty is a great example of a AAA title that is well-known. Now imagine these developments integrating blockchain assets into the game. This could be the very near future for many popular titles.
Metaverse
NFTs hold special value in the metaverse. The metaverse is a vast digital landscape that enables the user to create new assets within its ecosystem. The metaverse is still in its infantile stages. However, there are billions of dollars getting poured into this tech by some of the largest and most technically proficient firms in the world. Companies like Microsoft and Google are making their impression on this tech.
NFTs are ideal for the metaverse because they provide verifiable authentication to any assets. Currently, there are a lot of different types of NFTs in use in the metaverse. The majority of NFTs are avatars or properties. NFT properties in the metaverse continue to fetch a healthy asking price with some selling for millions. Additionally, there have been more celebrities buying virtual properties which helps to improve prices further.
Business
The business sector has embraced NFT technology quite. While the headlines were all about Beeple selling NFT tokens for millions, the business sector quietly integrated this tech into their systems. Companies can use NFT technology in a variety of ways. They could implement an NFT-based identification system. This strategy enables firms to improve security and trackability without kicking up their overhead.
Additionally, businesses can use NFT technology and oracle sensors to automate payment processes. Imagine you purchase a car from your dealership. Every payment you made gets registered automatically by an off-chain sensor called an oracle. Once the system registers you are paid in full, the oracle will issue an order to complete the sale and issue you your title.
Government
The same goes for governments that can use NFTs for everything from identification to improving voting. Mainly, governments can store confidential and critical data on NFTs to keep them secure. The ideal thing about a blockchain network is that it can notify you when breached and what was altered. This strategy helps prevent major losses due to hacks or errors.
You could soon see NFTs used for everything from property registries, all the way to patient information. The main advantages are lower overhead and easier trackability. Additionally, a system like patent issuance mechanisms could be improved to enable anyone to conduct patent searches which would increase innovation and lower costs.
Future NFT Uses
In the future, NFTs could become a daily part of nearly everyone’s life. Already, car manufacturers are seeking to use the technology to improve their self-driving vehicles. Additionally, you could start to see NFTs in use as identifiers for everything from gym memberships to your local grocery store’s discount strategy.
NFTs – Down but Not Out
It would be hard to argue that the NFT market didn’t need these latest corrections. It’s never a good sign when an asset continually rises in value without any falter. Market corrections are how assets lock in their true value. They also help to build confidence in the technology as subpar platforms fade into history.
What’s left now in the market is a combination of proven protocols and those with the potential to improve the market in the future. You can expect to hear a lot more about NFTs this year, albeit in a more business-like setting versus the art world. For these reasons and many more, you’re not too late to get in on the NFT movement. The main thing to consider is that a token needs utility to stand the test of time.