NFTs
NFTs are back and they’re useful
NFTs (photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Getty Images
In 2020, “fungible” became one of the most searched words on Google
GOOG
and by 2021, Collins Dictionary made “NFT
NFT
” is the word of the year. That same year, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs for short) were really all the rage, with over $40 billion spent on digital assets and artwork. only on Ethereum. After the boom came the bust.
2022 saw NFT values all but eliminated. Just ask Justin bieber, whose $1.3 million Bored Ape NFT (500 ETH) is now valued at less than $60,000 in one of the most publicized examples. Blockchain data providers suggest NFT crash saw entire NFT market volume fall 97%contributing to an overall crypto crash that wiped around $2 trillion in value from the industry.
Reflecting on the crisis and why penguins were important
When I look at it all, it’s pretty clear what happened. Exaggerated advertising drove up prices and the “Greater Fool” theory prevailed (there is always a bigger fool to pay more for an overvalued asset – until it ceases to exist). Useless 8-bit character JPEGs were almost doomed to crash, as was warned by experts like Gary Vaynerchuck. However, there were glimmers of hope in some progressive projects that NFTs would eventually find their place in society. Now, I’m pleased to say they did.
Pudgy Penguins was a project that stood out from all the hype, managing to avoid extreme price volatility. While other collections were in chaos, CEO Luca Netz was busy accelerating the brand, establishing exciting retail partnerships and proving usefulness. That’s not to say the Pudgy Penguin story isn’t without obstacles and setbacks, but the brand’s appeal and adaptability have led it to thrive year-round.
In 2023, Chubby Penguins announced the launch of a line of physical toys which is available at Walmart
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and Toys R Us. Each toy comes with a QR code to take shoppers to Pudgy World, your home on Web3. At Art Basel, he announced the Pudgy World alpha release, an immersive digital environment that will be accessible to everyone when the initial version launches in 2024. Players will be able to explore an open world, customize their unique penguin characters, embark on a story-driven journey, and interact with friends throughout the game. path. Pudgy Penguins also announced two new hero characters, Pudgy and Peaches, who will drive the game’s narrative, expanding the company’s IP. This caps off an incredible year for Pudgy Penguins that began with the company raising US$9 million and ended up innovating in the retail and gaming spaces.
Chubby Toy Clip-Ons
chubby penguins
Luca told me: “Much of the NFT market has left me frustrated and disappointed. The community and venture capital raised a lot of money for so many NFT projects, and the result was weak, consisting of a lot of jargon and little usefulness. It seemed like many of the projects were trending and not really innovative. Instead of sitting idly by, we decided to take a more targeted approach to developing NFT projects, and the results speak for themselves. In fact, we have moved beyond NFTs and are working in new areas that will promote greater utility and value for our community.”
What is driving the NFT market boom?
For most of the NFT market’s lifespan, OpenSea has been the largest and most active NFT marketplace. In 2023, however, it was surpassed by a new rival called Blur
BLUR
.io. The main reason why Blur managed to reach the top spot was because of a new fee structure that offered collectors 0.0% transaction fees and 0.5% royalties claimable on open and decentralized charges, as well as increased speed and more opportunities to beat bots. In short, it’s faster, cheaper and more authentic for collections and their collectors, which is why it now controls about 80% of all NFT trading volume. Finally, NFT markets are innovative and competitive again, which could be indicative of a strong comeback for the sector.
I believe the recent surge in NFT activity is about more than just coin prices; It’s all due to the emergence of utility-based NFTs.
Distilleries, charities and female empowerment
There are countless NFT projects that offer real utility, tangible rewards, and even work for the greater good. An excellent example is the Umoja Foundation. If usefulness is rooted in making our lives a little better or easier, shouldn’t there be big projects aimed at helping those who have harder lives? This is part of Umoja’s mission, working with school children in Uganda to create digital art NFTs that can be sold to help local orphanages. His most recent collection is at auction on Rarible now. NFTs have four uses: early access to future NFT releases, VIP entry to virtual and IRL events, discounts and giveaways, and governance on future projects with the Umoja Foundation.
Maliha Abidi (photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Twitter)
Getty Images for Twitter
I have a crush on Women rise, an NFT project focused on inclusion and diversity and launched by Maliha Abidi. This 10,000-piece computer-generated NFT collection features women artists, professionals, scientists, programmers and more from around the world. Some of the utilities include airdrops of Abidi’s book “RISE: Extraordinary Women Of Color Who Changed The World”, surprise giveaways, and hand-drawn traces of Women Rise NFTs. The project reports that about 40% of the approximately 5,600 Women Rise holders purchased Women Rise as their first NFT.
“There were few female-led NFT projects when Women Rise first launched, and it was important for us to take up space in a busy and competitive crypto space. I was eager to establish Women Rise as a woman and Pakistani-led team with a global community that could leverage NFTs to represent women and also campaign for girls’ education on many different platforms and stages. To that end, NFTs have been very supportive of our mission,” Maliha Abidi, founder of Women Rise NFT and member of Web3’s 100 Most Inspiring Women.
Women rise
Women rise
The next one is Degen Distillery. This is a crowd-sourced, community-driven spirits brand that has partnered with Scottish brewer BrewDog and Google. His first NFT collection contained 721 NFTs – 360 days, 360 nights and 1 unique. The Unique NFT winner received a trip for 2 to Las Vegas for three nights with a $750 bill at BrewDog BrewPub in LV. All 721 NFT holders could exchange or burn their NFT for a collector’s edition bottle of 721 Vodka. Only 721 bottles were made.
Those who held Degen’s NFTs received lifetime membership prices, access to events and some guest lists, priority access to upcoming releases, and more. I love how this project combines the digital and the physical, leverages a passionate community, and makes owning the NFT more attractive than selling it. As part of Google’s involvement, Degen will have access to Google Cloud credits, a Web3 enterprise community, funding, Google’s unparalleled network, and Google’s technical support team.
Degen Distillery
Degen Distillery
Other projects supported by public services in the real estate sector, carbon credits, fractionalized Bitcoin
Bitcoin
mining and renewable energy also spark the imagination. At this point, though, I want to return to my point about the utility supporting the recent NFT boom.
The 2021 NFT boom was a proof of concept
When I zoom out and look at the entire lifespan of NFTs, I realize that 2020 and 2021 were just a proof of concept. Many people despised them, but I remembered that novelty usually precedes usefulness and I was confident that over time they would become good.
The first NFT boom might never have happened if not for the pandemic, lockdowns, and the state of art, popular culture, and technology at the time. Many factors contributed to the first NFT boom, and I’m starting to see a similar pattern now. There are established markets, a Bitcoin ETF appears to be on the way, cryptocurrency prices are rising, Web3 is flowing well, tokenization is preparing to become a multi-billion dollar industry, and there are new dynamics with AI and spatial computing that will irrevocably change culture as we know it. The setup for a second NFT boom appears to be in motion.
Of course, now the NFT market is saturated with cartoons and renders, and AI has only propagated this, so it is the responsibility of utility NFTs to distance themselves from non-utility-backed NFTs to achieve their success. Making NFTs useful rather than flexible will elevate this new generation of digital assets.
A company that has loudly, proudly, and defiantly continued its march into the NFT world despite all the market twists, busts, corrections, and complications It’s Nike
NKE
. Nike knew that building collections probably wouldn’t mean long-term success in the NFT space — building an ecosystem, however, would. On the top of More than $185 million in revenue earned from NFTs, they invested heavily in Web3 integrations, the Metaverse, blockchain-based community growth, and more. They are having the last laugh.
In 2024, NFTs will be relevant again
This is good news for everyone. Space will finally move away from flexible and speculative commerce to drive genuine utility and progress. I’m all for it and can’t wait to see what happens! NFT markets are competitive, innovative new NFT utilities are making headlines, and the rise of Web3 will stimulate demand.