Demand for NFTs is growing to the point that collectors are willing to invest real fortunes to get their hands on some of the most exclusive tokens offered on the OpenSea digital marketplace.
2021 has been a year of great progress for the crypto industry. Bitcoin, the main cryptocurrency on the market, reached a record of $64.800 per unit in April, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrencies, grew to $2,2 trillion, the decentralized finance ecosystem (DeFi) surpassed $150.000 billion in total liquidity and the non-fungible tokens o NFT They rose in popularity, becoming a digital trend, which raised its supply to several hundred thousand dollars per token; a value that was unsuspected the previous year.
NFTs, which were quickly adopted by the art and gaming industry, are now impacting different areas of society. From art, gaming, finance, sports, design, fashion, film and more, driving change.
The value proposition of NFTs, which show a more creative way of revaluing the work of creators and artists, offering exclusive content and protecting ownership, has made these tokens the most popular in the crypto industry, driving investors and collectors to invest small and significant fortunes for objects that are completely intangible and many of which have already been part of our lives for some time.
According to data According to DappRadar, trading volumes on the OpenSea NFT marketplace have skyrocketed by 120.000% since the beginning of the year, growing from an average of $49.400 in January to over $60,1 million today. The number of active users within this marketplace is also impressive, with over 24.500 traders. Some of the most popular NFT crypto collectibles projects Wines Currently traded on OpenSea are CryptoPunks, Art Blocks Curated, Meebits and Cool Cats.
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OpenSea and NFTs
OpenSea is currently the industry's largest peer-to-peer digital marketplace for buying and selling crypto collectibles, ranging from in-game items to digital artwork and cryptocurrency-backed virtual goods. blockchain. This NFT market ranks first among the rest of the platforms that offer a space for the negotiation of non-fungible tokens and is the most used project on the network of EthereumAccording metrics Dune Analytics' gas consumption, with nearly $17 million in commission fees per day.
Demand for OpenSea usage began to grow exponentially in May, when cryptocurrencies began to lose value, and has only grown more rapidly over the past month, as shown in the DappRadar chart.
Source: DappRadar.
Although not all NFTs traded on OpenSea are worth thousands of dollars, tokens from the most popular projects fetch an average value of over $30.000 per token; such as Art Blocks, with an average price of 2,7 ether ($46.000) or the cryptopunks, valued at around 44 ether ($142.000) per NFT.
The value of scarcity and digital ownership
The key to the popularity of non-fungible tokens lies in digital scarcity and authenticity. While the arrival of the Internet democratized access to content by allowing unlimited reproduction of any item, with the arrival of NFTs, creators and artists have a new opportunity to protect their content and preserve its value. In addition, the authenticity, originality and exclusivity that NFTs allow are highly valued qualities for collectors and investors.
In March, a collector paid nearly $70 million at auction for an exclusive digital artwork by crypto artist Beeple called «Everydays – The First 5000 Days»; the most expensive piece of NFT art sold so far. Also, music artist 3LAU sold his “Ultraviolet” vinyl collection for nearly $12 million. The most expensive CryptoPunks in history sold for up to $7,5 million and virtual land is reaching impressive values within metaverses like Decentraland and Axie Infinity.
On the other hand, the digital rock project EtherRocks is also enjoying an explosive boom in recent days, with several of its scarce digital rocks, which have no specific utility, valued at up to $250.000.
Video game companies are also receiving impressive amounts of funding from investors looking to boost their businesses. For example, decentralized gamer organization play-to-earn Yield Guild Games (YGG) raised $12,5 million in July in an initial DEX offering that lasted just 31 seconds, with 35 wallets participating and selling out the supply. This highlights the growing interest and conviction in all things NFT. For YGG, non-fungible tokens will attract a new wave of users and investors to the crypto world.
Continue reading: Companies will reinvent themselves with NFT technology, says Lubin of ConsenSys
