After a gigantic increase in the international financial markets volume, due to a monetary policy carried out to fight the pandemic’s ills, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were reaching prices never seen before and an unthinkable sum of money entered the NFTs market.
With auctions putting the NFT market in the spotlight, artists and collectors alike focused on innovating using this technology that enhanced and continues to enhance the commercialization of collectibles by creating an open-access public record of provenance, price, ownership, and authenticity.
We always talk about it, in an era where technology is part of our lives and most of the population spends more time interacting digitally than physically, trading valuable items that only have utility in the digital world makes sense as a natural extension of human progression.
While digital art has been around for a long time, it has been difficult to find a way to market it in a way that is valuable to both the artist and the buyer. NFTs finally allowed people to “Buy” art digitally as it creates a “receipt” after each transaction with the most important data that corresponds to that file. Among them we can find the price, the creator, the buyer, previous buyers, where it is stored, etc.
Many of the early adopters were “crypto millionaires” and their intention was not to make more money than they had, instead they wanted to support the creators who trusted and used NFTs as a vehicle to market themselves.
We all know how fundamentalist or foolish fanatics can be. They talk a lot but do nothing, although in this community everything is different, in this community they don’t talk about collaboration, they collaborate and then they talk.
Early adopters are characterized by strong, often irreversible decisions with strong financial implications.
Collectors try to establish values or ideas through their purchases. I guess we all know Beeple, the famous artist who made headlines after selling an NFT for 69.3M at Christie’s auction house. His buyer’s name is “Metakovan” and he pointed out that one of the reasons he bought the NFT was: “To prove Indians and people of color that they too can be patrons of the Art”.
We cannot forget that at the end of the day, money often leads our lives. Crypto Art is a visual language that communicates the ideals of cryptocurrency and its potential to cultivate a social and financial revolution. While succeeding in this market is not easy and requires a lot of dedication along with specific knowledge, execution and timing… Many people have succeeded and as a result have completely changed their lifestyle and made themselves and their families financially free.
In an interview with Artsy, TokenAngels said: “There are two kinds of players in the space, the real collectors and the traders or flippers. I am a collector, so I advise you to buy what you like… what gives you emotion.”
The flippers are speculators, investors, generally enter the projects by FOMO and try to generate money at the cost of the success of that project. Is it wrong? No, but it is definitely not the kind of collector you want because it’s not loyal, when another project can give him more money he will sell your NFTs without a blink of an eye.
Most of the true collectors look for artists with a unique and identifiable style/narrative, that’s why to attract this kind of people you have to focus on developing quality artworks in all aspects. I would emphasize that working on the visual aspect and the storytelling of the work are the most important things.
NFTs run on decentralized and censorship resistant technology, which is no less important. How many times have we been harmed by stupid rules set up by big corporations designed to maintain monopoly and repress individuals? I believe that many, and although it sounds strong to say it, we must have it in our subconscious when choosing where to create and protect our wealth.
Is it better to use means that let everyone be who they are and express that? Or to live under a system which allows talent to develop without limits exposing new realities? There is no best answer, no best way, but definitely if you want to live under your own standards, using a decentralized system such as NFTs or Cryptocurrencies would be the best.
The NFT community is so welcoming that anyone who wants to can be part of it, the only thing you must have to buy your first NFT is internet access – you don’t even need cryptocurrencies!
We all have to be careful, but as we should be careful everywhere else. As it is an easily accessible market, hackers try to capture the weakest prey, which are usually the beginners. If someone asked you for your bank password, would you give it to them? Unless you’re crazy, your answer would be no. The same with cryptocurrencies, never give your password to anyone and try to navigate through secure sites to avoid exposing yourself to a potential hack.
To start collecting NFTs, you don’t necessarily need cryptocurrencies but to have access to any platform it would be good to have even a few. All platforms will allow you to use cryptos as a medium of exchange and a few, like Rarible, will also allow you to use fiat.
Getting started shouldn’t be too difficult, although we tend to be very insecure when we get into something we don’t know much about, I recommend you to jump in as soon as possible. Browse in a marketplace of your interest and buy the NFT that caught your eye. It doesn’t need to be pretty, expensive, with a great utility, and much more – buy your first NFT, whatever it’s, it will be a success for you and for the community!
Social proof. The social proof associated with the project behind an NFT is one of the decisive factors that determine the NFT’s value. Checking their profiles on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram can help one gauge their acceptability.
Selling NFTs isn’t just for digital creators. Some collectors trade from their collection of NFTs. If you have previously purchased an NFT from a creator or from another collector on a marketplace, you can list those for sale as well.
Finally, the most expensive NFT to ever sell was Pak’s ‘The Merge’. The $91.8m price tag was a record for an artwork sold publicly by a living artist. The NFT was sold on Nifty Gateway to 28,893 collectors who purchased 312,686 units of mass (which were single NFTs).