Times Square was painted in multi-colour crypto this November.
NFT art made a splash on the massive billboards that adorn the iconic hub in New York City in celebration of NFT.NYC.
NFT.NYC occurred in early November, the third-year rendition of the NFT conference. It attracted thousands who have already delved into an almost wholly digital sphere. A multitude of personas, artists, investors, speculators arrived to take part in what for them would potentially be the event of the year, congregating in one place to discuss art, trends, regulation and to show off a little.
#NFTNYC2021 is in the mainstream of the big apple. 🍎 pic.twitter.com/rs7RWbV3R9
— José Ignacio Trajtenberg (@JoseTrajtenberg) November 2, 2021
What’s all the fuss about NFTs?
For anyone on the outside, they may seem bizarre, as many still struggle to wrap their heads around the inherent value of JPEGs backed by digital tokens.
It may seem easy to brush off this seemingly nascent industry but don’t trick yourself.
As a reference point, on Saturday Nov 13th, the daily trade of Ether more than doubled on NFT marketplace OpenSea, from $48m to $105m. Much of the surge was due to the sales volume of the highly popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. Post Malone bought two of his own this past week for a sum of 160 ETH ($734,401).
However, this large sum pales compared to the more significant NFT sales seen this year in mainstream auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The record-holding NFT sale is currently a colossal $69.3m for EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, created by famed digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann.
Are NFTs Currency?
While some NFT’s most definitely have enormous valuations (the highest purchased even competing with traditional art prices). There remains an argument currently put forward to regulators that NFTs should have their own distinctive parameters. As even though they are on the blockchain, technically, they’re limited prints of digital art.
All these questions were more or less on the minds of all the participants of NFT.NYC.