The market for nonrefundable tokens has been spiraling down after sales sank sharply and the prices of popular NTFs plummeted since the beginning of the summer.
In January, data aggregator CryptoSlam recorded $4.8 billion in NFT sales. In June this have plunged to below the $1billion mark, while the JPG NFT Index was down by about 70% since its April launch.
Finally, as of October, NFT sales had broken another milestone, shrinking to under $500 million. Although booming in recent years, this misty investing opportunity seems to be breaking down.
The ability to claim unique digital ownership of a favoured artwork via the blockchain just doesn’t seem that attractive any more.
Cryptocurrencies have seen similar implosion as the NFT market, since the two are intricately linked. Most non-fungible token are bought and sold using ether, a cryptocurrency which has seen a sharp value dip this year.
The total market value at large has slumped from nearly $3 trillion a year ago to around $1 trillion. Metaverse is, in theory, one of the most favorite areas for still using this asset class.
But given Meta’s recent problems, investors may not buy this kind of fickle affairs any more, where too much digital could pose way too many risks to the more concrete, physical world of business.
Another potential ray of hope, according to Reuters, is the continuing interest among brands such as Lacoste in adopting NFTs.
Yet Lacoste’s so-called UNDW3 range of NFTs mimics the traditional collectible craze of owning digital assets by selling unique digital versions of the company’s famed crocodile.
This doesn’t sound that original or cool enough to be sustainable on the log run.
The fact of the matter is that NFTs cannot make the exception from an economy generally affected by higher prices, fought with higher interest rates, and ending up with less available income to invest.
If the investment decision is made, it will take a more promising outcome for investor’s money than NFT.