It would be an understatement to say that the growth of NFTs in 2021 was astounding, and 2022 brought with it new NFT trends. In 2021, NFTs far surpassed everyone’s expectations. The tremendous technological advances made in improving, protecting, storing and transacting in NFTs have been matched by the increased attention and popularity this new technology has received over the year. This begs the question: what does the year 2023 hold for this emerging digital asset class?
One thing is certain: NFTs will continue to gain popularity, with many being sold at exorbitant prices. While they will continue to be a source of income for artists, not every artist will succeed. As the NFT market matures and the value of digital artwork rises, a natural refining process will emerge. High-quality artwork will naturally separate itself from lower-quality artwork, resulting in more factors for determining which NFTs are more valuable than others. As collectors and marketplaces practice more curating, less attention will be paid to fictitious mints. Additionally, there will be more and more need for a reliable NFT floor price tracker.
This article will examine the next chapter for NFTs and highlight what we should expect in the new year.
NFT trends shaping the future of the industry
1) NFT gaming
In 2017, a new computer game that allows users to gather, breed, and sell NFT kittens exploded in popularity. The popularity of CryptoKitties was such that transaction volume exceeded the Ethereum network’s bottlenecks, halting cryptocurrency transactions.
In 2023, hundreds of games based exclusively on NFTs will be available. In fact, existing games are already being updated to include NFTs. NFTs may even have the ability to change the way in-game marketplaces work.
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Play-to-earn gaming
With blockchain technology and NFTs, the gaming industry has potential. Axie Infinity and Blankos Block Party, for example, are capturing attention with their play-to-earn (P2E) models, which pay gamers serious money. They have grown in popularity and media coverage in the last year, particularly in developing countries. After all, who doesn’t want to earn a profit playing video games?
The most well-known P2E game is probably Axies Infinity. The game was inspired by Pokémon and is based on purchasing, breeding, and mentoring Axies to send into battle.
The Axies are NFTs, and players can earn Smooth Love Potion – a cryptocurrency trading for real money on the secondary market – by fighting them. The Axie platform is one of the most valuable NFT ventures globally, with over $1 billion in transaction volume.
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The Metaverse
If you’re unfamiliar with the metaverse, it’s a digital public space that blends virtual and physical reality.
The concept of the metaverse is built on an aspiration to build a virtual world that blends business, pleasure, and social interaction. The metaverse is being heralded as the future of online interactions and many of the following stages of the internet. For example, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced Facebook’s revamp as Meta, as well as the company’s ambition to become a “metaverse company.”
What does this mean for NFTs?
In Zuckerberg’s announcement, he stated that the metaverse must include privacy, security, and interoperability. As our lives become increasingly digital, we’ll want more secure methods of proving ownership of our identities and digital assets.
NFTs play a role in this.
Consider the metaverse to be a digital representation of reality. You can interact with others, explore, shop, and complete challenges. NFTs in this area enable the same non-fungibility of assets that we see in the real world.
Scarcity and utility are the factors that influence asset value. NFTs also allows developers to incorporate scarcity and utility into the metaverse, developing a unique economic system.
Decentraland and Sandbox, two leading metaverse startups, leverage NFTs to tokenize everything from usernames to in-game wearables and real estate. Twitter (Meta) and Facebook (Meta) seem to be planning to follow suit. Take, for example, real estate. Real estate is limited in Decentraland and can only be owned as an NFT. The land you buy in Decentraland is yours, just as would be the case in real life. You can use it to create a home, a company, an art gallery, or a place to display advertisements.
Just as in the real world, your land is valuable not only because of its utility to you but also because of its scarcity and potential utility to others. Property values are influenced by location, square footage, and market trends. This means that the higher the level of interest in an area, the more valuable the property in that location becomes. You can also sell the property for a profit and transfer ownership to someone else because you own this property as an NFT.
2) NFT ticketing
Several firms, such as GET Protocol and Centaurify, are introducing NFTs to the realm of tickets. The ability to create tickets as NFTs allows you more control over the resale market, more secure ticket storage, and the ability to view tickets as digital treasures.
The growth of digital components in the ticket income stream is expected to emerge as one of the more significant changes in the industry over the next five years. The combination of ticketing sales and NFTs is an excellent example of this. Customers would receive two types of value. The opportunity to attend a live entertainment event and an exclusive and personal digital asset.
NFT Ticketing goes even further. In the future, NFTs in Ticketing will provide buyers with lifetime value, exclusive access, and additional incentives. NFT Ticketing has already been used in a variety of creative ways, including:
- Kings of Leon sell non-transferable tickets (NFTs) that entitle buyers to lifetime front-row seats at their concerts.
- DC Comics, a division of WarnerMedia, gives out comic book NFTs and tickets to its DC FanDome event.
- Gary Vee‘s Vee Friends NFTs also serve as exclusive tickets to VeeCon for three years.
- The NBA has announced that Mark Cuban wants to bring NFT tickets to the league.
- An NFT of Andy Murray‘s 2013 Wimbledon victory featured two VIP tour experiences and tickets to the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Final in 2022 and a 30-minute tennis match with Murray himself.
- Coinbase‘s partnership with the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York provided customers with a free, one-of-a-kind NFT and entry to the VIP lounge.
3) Avatars & PFP NFTs
NFT initiatives including profile pictures (PFP) and avatars are among the most successful in the history of NFTs. With the publication of the now-famous CryptoPunks in 2017, the stage was set for these projects.
In 2017, 10,000 CryptoPunk NFTs were algorithmically generated and distributed for free to anyone with an Ethereum wallet. By the end of 2023, the cheapest of the 10,000 was worth over $400,000, and the NFT series has generated over $4 billion in sales.
CryptoPunks may now be found on the Twitter profiles of Jay-Z, Visa, Snoop Dogg, and Odell Beckham Jr., as well as on the Met Gala red carpet.
They serve as digital identities for thousands of people, allowing access to and membership in extremely active networks.
After changing your Twitter PFP to an NFT icon and posting about it, members of the community will welcome you with open arms, following you and engaging with you. Many of these groups provide members with perks such as access to private Discord chat rooms and the ability to own the photographs they buy. For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club, a highly successful PFP NFT series, organized a $200,000 treasure hunt for Ape holders, solved by a team of skilled code breakers.
This is a significant step forward in legitimizing NFTs by one of the world’s largest social networking sites. Giving Twitter users the ability to prove ownership of their profile images allows them to establish a distinct and unique digital identity while confirming their membership in the NFT community.
4) NFT fragments
Fragmentation is a new trend that makes high-value NFTs more liquid and accessible to investors. It is the process of breaking down a non-fungible token (NFT) into smaller pieces (ERC-20 tokens). This way, individuals can buy small bits of a more expensive NFT.
It’s easier to think of NFT fragmentation in terms of corporate shares. You buy a tiny portion of the corporation when you purchase a share. Similarly, an NFT can be fragmented into millions of small pieces or shards. Users can buy their portion of the NFT at a lower price by fragmenting it.
Returning to the stock market analogy, while there isn’t an exact match for Microsoft. Your shares in the company are the same as Bill Gates’—though you almost certainly would have fewer shares. Shares in corporations and NFT fractions are fungible, whereas companies and NFTs are not. Non-fungible token shards, on the other hand, are fungible, meaning they may be traded or swapped for an identical item.
The notorious Doge meme was purchased as an NFT for $4 million earlier this year. The NFT’s owner recently fractionalized it into billions of pieces, allowing users to buy Doge for less than a dollar.
5) AI NFTs
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next significant disruptor in technology, following blockchain. It’s no surprise that the two are being combined.
AI-generated art
The creation of NFTs by AI is the first major trend here.
However, since the introduction of NFTs, the value of digital assets has become widely recognized. Moreover, new AI initiatives are constantly cranking out new artwork pieces and minting them as NFTs. This isn’t uncommon. In 2018, for example, Obvious Art sold an artwork created by an AI named GAN at Christie’s for more than $400,000.
iNFTs
Intelligent NFTs (iNFTs) are the second significant result stemming from the combination of NFTs and AI.
NFTs with an AI personality is known as iNFTs, they can converse with you, learn new things, change their personalities, and be blockchain-based.
The iNFT phenomenon is being driven by Alethea AI. They sold the iNFT below, Alice, at Sotheby’s for about $500,000.
Alethea AI secured $16 million in funding from major NFT players recently. They’ve used this to create their iNFT-filled metaverse called Noah’s Ark. They intend to introduce a new revenue model called “train-to-earn” that will allow players to train their iNFTs to become more intelligent while also earning money by competing in “Battle of the Minds.”
Users might engage with these iNFTs as if they were other participants in the game if they were put into other metaverses like Sandbox and Decentraland.
Your iNFT may one day reside in your virtual house in Facebook’s metaverse. Your buddies may drop by your virtual home when you’re not online to talk to your own AI, which has your personality. She’ll tell them where you are and a bit about what you’ve been up to recently. She’ll be waiting for you the next time you log in, telling you that James came to see you and inquired about your family.
Promoting your NFT
As NFTs become more trendy and more digital creators release new NFTs, it’ll become even more crucial to promote your NFT effectively so that you can stand out from the crowd. While you might need to partner with PR experts who have experience in the NFT space, here are some things that you can do on your own to get your NFT in front of the right audience.
Create an eye-catching teaser to advertise your NFT drop
Just as a movie trailer piques public interest before the release date of a movie an NFT teaser can spark curiosity in your NFT before the date for your NFT drop. With a creative teaser, you can not only capture attention among NFT collectors but also drive these people to your landing page. If your NFT drop is still far off, publishing a signup form on this landing page can help you keep in touch with these people and remind them when the NFT drop is close.
Reach out to NFT influencers
While working with influencers is now standard procedure for the average brand, people tend to forget to reach out to influencers when they’re working in a niche space like the NFT industry. Don’t make this mistake. There are several NFT influencers who can help you connect with your target audience. As always, when you’re reaching out to an influencer, you should take time to build a mutually-beneficial relationship before you ask for any favors. Take time to find out what kind of space they occupy in the NFT industry. This way, you’ll be well-positioned to send an effective pitch that will intrigue them and drive them to find out more. If you can highlight how you can help them, instead of focusing on how they can help you, you’re more likely to get a positive response.
Create a whitelist
As you’re interacting with other NFT enthusiasts in online communities, you can mention your project and offer to add them to the whitelist if they’re interested. This is a good strategy to use if you want to generate hype before your NFT drop. What’s more, someone who is interested in your project will appreciate being notified of your NFT drop before everyone else. After all, this means they get to purchase your NFTs before the mining craze begins. Even better, once someone has purchased one NFT from you, they’re more likely to purchase more. Over time, this creates a community of people who are invested in the long-term success of your project.
Conclusion
The NFT market is constantly evolving. Every day, a new NFT initiative pops up. People are developing new NFT applications even as we write this article. Recent examples of NFT applications in the real world include the Busan Metropolitan Government in Korea holding an NFT conference and the International Cricket Council launching cricket NFTs to CoinRunners selling NFTs to support a movie. With the steady growth of NFT technology and the rising interest in them, we’re set to see even more fascinating trends emerging in the next few years.
Do you want to create content that can draw people’s attention to your NFT? You might appreciate help from a PR agency that has experience working with other projects in the NFT industry.
Pressfarm works with NFT startups and companies of various sizes to create quality content that they can distribute to media professionals or publish on their owned channels. The Pressfarm team has experience with creating winning press releases, engaging guest posts and eye-catching media kits that can boost your brand image.
This team of PR specialists can also help improve your SEO with an effective distribution strategy. By submitting your content to the right media outlets, startup directories, and professional networks, Pressfarm can ensure your project ranks in relevant search results across different search engines. Once you sign up, their Account Executive will also create a customized media list containing the best media professionals in your niche. When you combine this with Pressfarm’s media database of 1 million+ journalist, bloggers, and influencers, you’ll be able to do extended media outreach for your brand for up to a year.
With an affordable package from Pressfarm, you can get your NFT project the publicity it deserves.