NFTs
How Artists Can Navigate the Cult of Crypto and NFTs
In March 2024, Bitcoin reached a market capitalization of more than US$1,000,000,000. The global crypto and NFT community faced a bear market in 2022-2023, where many naysayers in the media proclaimed, “I told you it was a scam!”
Now crypto is reaching new highs in conjunction with the next evolution of NFTs. In addition to jpegs and digital art, NFTs are expanding into major corporate brands like rewards programs, memberships, and VIP experiences. One example is the partnership between the Coachella concert festival and OpenSea. They are offering a limited edition NFT as a VIP ticket and pass with access to hospitality tents, and premium seating NFTs are no longer complicated deals. They are a big money business.
What has the trillion-dollar industry learned from all the bad news surrounding the FTX collapse and the winter bear market?
My personal experience as an artist and NFT collector is that if you want to be successful in NFTs, it’s a full-time job. It requires time and commitment like any worthwhile profession. For me, it’s about forming relationships, friendships, and community — not the superficial “Hey, Twitter Fam” kind. It’s about the creative journey, not the destination.
It’s also a cautionary tale like any forum where there’s a lot of money. Be very careful out there. If someone sends me a link online, even someone I know well, I Facetime or call their number to find out if they are actually contacting me or if it is a hack attempt.
During the height of the 2020-2022 NFT bull run, countless artists, musicians, and photographers found a new door through NFT to advance and establish a profitable career. They found their own collectors and communities without the need for gallerists, agents or museum curators.
NFTNYC will return in April 2024 to the Jacob Javits Conference Center. They started modestly in 2018, with just a few hundred attendees in a hotel ballroom. Within three years, they experienced rapid exponential growth by simultaneously hosting events at Radio City Music Hall, The Town Hall, and renting out every billboard in Times Square to display NFT art. This year, use cases have expanded to include brands like Baltic Airlines, which is offering NFTs as a rewards program for frequent flyers.
Editors’ Picks
NFT artist Patrick Amadon recently formed the 404 Arts Foundation, a 501c non-profit organization. They are dedicated to “championing digital art and artists” with a mission to help foster a more inclusive and accessible digital art ecosystem. The foundation supports digital artists from diverse backgrounds by providing resources and platforms to ensure equal opportunities for recognition and contribution. In the fiercely competitive art world, imagine if Picasso helped emerging artists gain support like this? It is a generosity of conscience.
Many people in the space are anonymous, like collector BatSoupYum. He joined a group of investors to create a fund to buy NFT art. It is a risk of early entry. I noticed that although he owns several CryptoPunks, the highest valued NFT series, most of his attention goes to unknown artists, thus giving them exposure and sales and helping to launch their careers.
Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invite-only community for influencers, innovators and creatives. Do I qualify?
In interviews, Batsoupyum warns of a worrying trend. In 2024, people are pursuing get-rich-quick projects like meme coins with names like DogWifHat and Pepe. This has similarities to the Gamestop frenzy of 2021, making early investors rich, only to crash and burn the amateur investors left holding the bag. Others, like the Etherrock NFT sales, have me scratching my head. It’s a boring clip art jpeg of a rock. One recently sold for over a million dollars. Art has always been valued by scarcity, provenance and the eye of the beholder, like Duchamp’s Urinal, Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans, etc.
Related
Bitcoin thought leader Michael Terpin has a book titled “Bitcoin Supercycle”. Having been in crypto since the early days when everyone laughed at it as being a vapor currency, he has proven many colleagues wrong by becoming a millionaire many times over. Terpin studied the patterns of cryptographic cycles that rise and fall. Unlike normal stocks, where there are leaders and laggards rising and falling completely separately from each other, the NFT sector appears to rise and fall in tandem and completely in sync when crypto does the same.
There are also technological advances happening at lightning speed, so fast that some of what is written here may be out of date by the time this article is published.
SuperRare is a platform for artists and collectors curated more like Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Most NFTs use the Ethereum blockchain to mint NFTs, just like an iPhone’s iOS is the underlying technology that runs your phone’s text messaging, email, and social apps. SuperRare is among the few early companies to adopt Ordinals, a process for minting NFTs in Bitcoin rather than Ethereum. By opening new frontiers, it further establishes that this new technology will be accessible to more people.
Even with trillions of dollars in market capitalization, this emerging space is still underappreciated. Wikipedia has a section on what qualifies as a notable source for verifying a person’s achievements. Top Web3 news sites like Coindesk, Cointelegraph, and NFTNow are according to Wikipedia, not notable sources like The New York Times or Artforum. A person can be super famous as an NFT artist, but have their achievements deleted by an annoying Wiki editor.
I’m not a fortune teller. If I tell you what to buy or sell, do the opposite. Those feeling the first thaw of the crypto and NFT spring, according to data predicted by Michael Terpin and others, are in for a feast. Be cautious and go slowly. When you see the next shiny meme coin rising astronomically in value and feel like it’s too late… know that the world is late.
Trending
You might be late to a party that hasn’t started yet.
The information provided here does not constitute investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult a licensed professional for advice regarding your specific situation.