August Turned into Golden NFT Month
The NFT trend, which burned hot in April and May, only had a temporary slowdown. Instead of sinking like a temporary fad, the trend of non-fungible tokens and crypto collections further accelerated in August. Collectibles added to the overall positive performance of crypto markets, boosting turnover and mainstream adoption.
The NFT market, which had stalled in June and July, expanded most parameters in the past few weeks. The driver of price growth and secondary market deals were the top collections by popularity. But most of all, CryptoPunks set a series of notable records in terms of prices and popularity.
VISA Invests in Rare Punk
A notable moment in the past month was the purchase of a rare punk by card operator VISA. So far, rare Punks have also been offered at Christie’s auctions, growing into a mainstream form of art.
The sudden popularity of CryptoPunks by Larvalabs has created scarcity. While initially the images and NFTs were airdropped or could be acquired for a small ETH price, in August, the cheapest NFT runs at 78 ETH.
Punks Keep Setting Records
Crypto punks keep setting records, as currently the most expensive auction reached 4,300 ETH for Punk #3100. In just four weeks, the collection accrued sales above 172,000 ETH.
The collection only went through 12,755 sales in the past year, with most of the transfers at extremely low prices. The spike in Punks prices lifted the collectibles above the prices commanded by crypto artist Pascal Boyart, as well as Beeple’s earlier offerings.
But the logic of NFTs seemed to follow the rapid and unpredictable price gain inherent to crypto tokens. After months of doubts and sideways moves, the price and popularity of NFTs exploded.
Damien Hirst Enters the Game
While most NFTs are built on digital collections, artist Damien Hirst has offered his own twist for collectors.
Hirst is offering a series of physical paintings kept in a vault, along with their NFT version. After a year, the buyers will have a choice to destroy either the physical painting or the actual NFT.
The outcome of the experiment will be unknown, and will test whether a digitally transferable property would be deemed more valuable in comparison to a physical art object.
Are Whales Selling NFTs
One of the concerns about the NFT hype is that collections are exploiting new buyers. However, it may be that buyers are not actually trying to dump the tokens on a new batch of naive investors. Instead, there are signs some NFT owners may be retiring their images from auctions, thus making them not only expensive, but priceless.
NFTs thus may turn into long-term holding positions, boosting early adopters for owning even more scarce and unique items. Justin Sun, co-founder of the TRON network, is rumored to be among the biggest buyers of collectibles, possibly helping push up prices. His most recent purchase belonged to the crypto Rocks collection, reaching a record valuation of $1.3M.
What are the Hottest Collections
Besides the overwhelming influence of Punks, new collections are also making their way to success. Formerly hot Hash Masks lag on Opensea, commanding prices of about 0.5 ETH.
New arrivals Art Blocks, however, line up among the biggest auctions for the past week, with the most expensive auction at 1,000 ETH. Other collections commanding peak prices include Rocks and Apes.
Axie Infinity (AXS) also reflects the growing popularity. The asset still trades above $71, after a recent peak above $78. Despite the asset price growth, the Axies gaming collectibles still retail under 1 ETH.
CryptoKitties, one of the oldest collections that reached maximum hype in 2017, is also reawakening, with the most expensive offering up to 35 ETH. However, most kitties remain inactive, with only about 100 being actively traded.
NFT Markets Boost Alternative Blockchains
The performance of NFT collections is causing multiple crypto projects to pivot and offer new marketplaces.
Beyond Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain is one of the main sources of NFT tokens. In theory, collectibles may be available on any network, though the most successful ones are still built on Ethereum.
Airdrops are one of the most accessible forms of NFT acquisition, though users should be cautious of hidden fees or high gas prices. New markets are rarely vetted, but NFT offerings continue to appear each day.
The other risk of NFTs includes opening buyers to theft attempts, where the private key to wallets may get exposed. NFTs have been stolen in the past days, and there are reports of fake NFT markets attempting to gain access to MetaMask seed phrases.
NFT files are also in danger of losing their hosting, as there is no standard to keeping the actual images related to the tokens.
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