The NFT Frenzy: Bubble or New Frontier?
Digital artworks auctioned for nearly $70 million, Cristiano Ronaldo NFT cards selling for $289,900, monthly trading volume exceeding $200 million, and Google search volumes hitting all-time highs... NFTs seem to have truly broken into the mainstream.
March 11 is considered a date that should be recorded in crypto art history, as on this day, "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" by pioneering digital artist Beeple sold for $69.35 million at Christie's, one of the world's premier auction houses. This sale placed Beeple among the top three highest-selling living artists, surpassed only by "King of Pop Art" Jeff Koons and landscape master David Hockney.
According to Cryptoart data, Beeple's current crypto art collection is valued at over $100 million, ranking first in the crypto art space.
An online collage selling for nearly $70 million not only skyrocketed Beeple's personal value but also propelled NFTs into mainstream consciousness, further fueling NFT mania.
The B.20 (Beeple 20 Collection) token issued by Metapurse, the buyer of "Everydays: The First 5000 Days," surged to a high of $23.66 according to CoinGecko data, representing a 6,472% increase from its public sale price of $0.36, before settling back to around $14.40.
Reportedly, B.20 was created to enable shared ownership of landmark, high-investment-value open art projects. Simply put, the issuer recognized that not everyone possesses the expertise or purchasing power to invest in art. Therefore, the B.20 issuer acquires valuable artworks, and B.20 holders effectively own a stake in these pieces indirectly.
However, since Beeple was also a B.20 holder and Metapurse happened to be the buyer of this record-breaking work, questions were raised about whether the astronomical price was the result of coordinated market manipulation.
Just the day before yesterday, Sorare—an Ethereum-based football NFT collection game that raised $50 million and has been dubbed "the football version of NBA Top Shot"—announced that an NFT card of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo sold on its platform for $289,900. This represents the highest single-item sale price for a sports NFT, surpassing the $208,000 LeBron James player card previously sold on NBA Top Shot.
The Ronaldo NFT card sold by Sorare also became the highest-priced football card ever sold (including both physical and virtual cards), breaking the previous record of $124,200 set by Erling Haaland's Topps physical card.
On March 16, The Block Research data showed that as NFT platform user numbers approached 400,000, searches for "NFT" on Google reached an all-time high. Google search volume is scored on a scale of 0-100, where 100 represents the maximum value for the defined time period. Starting March 8, Google search volume hit 100, compared to 15 in mid-February and 64 in early March.
The week beginning March 8 saw NFT platform users reach a record 398,800, with NBA Top Shot accounting for the largest share at 379,000 users, followed by the Ethereum-based NFT game Axie Infinity with 12,260 users.
However, at the same time, weekly NFT trading volume has shown significant volatility, inconsistent with the week-over-week increase in user numbers. NFT trading volume hit an all-time high in the final week of February, with total trading volume of $196 million, of which NBA Top Shot contributed $125 million, accounting for 63.78%. CryptoPunks ranked second with $62.67 million in trading volume.
Recently, with the UEFA Champions League knockout stages and NBA regular season in full swing, football and basketball NFT tokens have garnered significant attention, with prices soaring. Combined with the frequent record-breaking sales of NFT collectibles and artworks, this has added more fuel to the entire NFT ecosystem.
However, as of March 16, CoinGecko data shows that the total market capitalization of the top 100 NFT tokens is $7.799 billion, representing only 0.46% of the $1.7 trillion cryptocurrency total market cap, while DeFi accounts for 5.12%.
It can be seen that since entering 2021, NFTs have experienced an explosive surge, but their overall scale remains very small and still in early stages. This "early stage" requires us to view it dialectically. On one hand, selecting quality assets and investing now could yield returns of tenfold, hundredfold, or even thousandfold. On the other hand, early stage also means wild growth, with scams and bubbles proliferating as everyone seeks to capitalize on the opportunity.
Crypto artist Beeple stated when discussing NFTs that NFTs are currently in a bubble. If they aren't in a bubble now, they likely will be at some point, because too many people are flooding into this space.
Also on March 16, Musk tweeted that he was "selling this song about NFTs as an NFT," attaching a roughly 2-minute-20-second video. Beeple responded that he would be willing to bid $69 million to purchase it, subsequently sharing his created NFT work "NON-FUNGIBLE ELONS." Justin Sun has already commented below, "Sell it to me." One wonders what price this piece will ultimately fetch?
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