Advocates argue that the NFT market’s decline shows it is maturing into a ‘real utility’
According to Web3 executives, the price drop should not be seen as a sign of concern, but rather a sign that the technology is maturing.
“I wouldn't say the NFT market is back. Rather, it's maturing,” Yemel Jardi, executive director of the Decentraland Foundation, told Cointelegraph.
Jardi's comment comes after analyzing more than 73,000 NFT collections in a September report from DapGamble and finding that about 95% of the NFTs studied are worthless, as prices, sales volumes and transactions have slipped over the past year.
Jardi emphasizes that markets are cyclical and it is natural to have periods of adjustment.
He described the drift in NFT floor prices as partly “speculative trading” and said the price of NFTs should be based on their utility instead.
“As people learn more about NFTs, their use cases and utility, the market will stabilize and the focus will shift from speculative trading to real utility and innovation.”
Anjali Yang, co-founder of tokenized community-management platform Collab.Land, is also unsurprisingly anti-NFT sentiment.
“Any innovation – especially this one with financial impact, cultural value and status – attracts questions when it falls,” she said.
Young believes many projects have stalled since marketplaces such as OpenSea removed mandatory royalty payments at the end of August.
Despite this, Young says he expects NFTs to be “here to stay” and to be used more for loyalty programs, rewards, advertising and authentication in the coming months.
95% of NFTs have left us all dead.
But the reality is very different.
Look no further than car companies and their NFT technology
From procurement to supply chain, perhaps no industry is more bullish on Web3.
Short thread
— Rarity Sniper (@RaritySniperNFT) September 23, 2023
Cumberland Labs Chief Operating Officer Tama Church recently opined that NFTs are “not dead,” arguing that recent developments in the space still show signs of life.
While the NFT market is primarily driven by digital art, imperishable tokens will continue to be an important tool for the broader digital landscape, as ownership of tangible assets can be conveyed to users in new ways.
Wow, someone just listed a $26.5 million building in one of New York City's most popular neighborhoods as #nft.
Handling patents with NFTs is a very interesting use case for cutting out the middle men. #realestate #nfts #NFTCCommunity #nftcollector pic.twitter.com/PowOwwMZsb
— Chris Wieduwilt (@deloreanchris) June 6, 2022
Jardi believes that governments and institutions will use NFTs for various use cases in the future. On October 9, the Chinese government newspaper China Daily announced plans to open a platform to trade digital collections.
Related: Major NFT adoption is largely driven by their services.
According to Scott Lawn, CEO of sports betting platform Candy Digital, the entertainment sector is another big market for the NFT industry to capture.
Lawn told Cointelegraph that 24% of Major League Baseball fans who entered stadiums with mobile tickets in 2022 took their commemorative digital tickets from Candy as souvenirs.
“All these utilities of NFTs are real-time,” added Lau.
On the brand side, Adidas, Bud Light, Gucci, Prada and other companies entering the NFT space have recently increased the number of active users on their Discord channels, Yang said.
According to Forbes Digital Assets, the NFT market capitalization currently stands at $5 billion. CryptoPunks and Bored Up Yacht Club, owned by Yuga Labs, are the two largest, with market values of $710 million and $400 million, respectively.
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