There’s no question non-fungible tokens and the metaverse have created explosive hype that has caused powerful ripples across the blockchain stratosphere. Moreover, they haven’t just impacted the digital world but have also influenced a slew of other industries such as art, gaming, finance, fashion, and much more.
Businesses and investors are injecting staggering amounts of money into various NFT and metaverse projects. And there’s no surprise that some of the most prominent social network platforms, such as Reddit, Twitter, and Meta, are engaged in several NFT projects using blockchain technology.
So, the main question here is, what will the future bring for us? In light of this, we need to talk about 5 of the most exciting NFT trends to watch out for.
5 Emerging NFT Trends to Keep an Eye On
1. Fractional Art Ownership
The NFT hype has become a reality. Major investors and traders are buying and selling different types of digital art on a variety of NFT marketplaces. But to be brutally honest, investors trading at a much smaller scale face tremendous difficulties owning a piece of the action, especially considering how expensive NFTs are getting daily. Today, popular NFTs cost thousands of dollars, becoming totally out of reach of smaller investors and traders.
But not anymore. Thanks to something called “fractional NFTs”, multiple users can now easily share ownership of any NFT art – working together to pull prices down a notch. One of the best examples of fractional NFTs is the renowned “Gorilla in a Street Mask” created by Banksy (a reputable NFT artist). Banksy fractionalized the piece of art into 10,000 NFTs. So, to own 10% of the artwork, you would need to buy 1000 of the NFTs. When first minted, each NFT cost $750.
2. Gaming space
With world-renowned gaming companies like Ubisoft and Square Enix developing NFT assets for in-game environments, there’s no surprise gaming and finance, or simply “GameFi” is gaining rapid prominence amongst both gamers and game developers across the globe. One of the biggest names in the gaming NFT universe is Axie Infinity. By market cap, Axie Infinity ranks #3 with a value of over $1.1 billion, according to statistics from Chainplay. The company took direct inspiration from Pokémon, in that you can own and trade collectible NFT pets known as ‘Axies’.
You’d be surprised to know that Axie Infinity quickly generated massive gaming assets amounting to $1 billion, and users can buy and trade these tokens in in-game ecosystems. Furthermore, Axie has passed $4 Billion in sales.
3. Hollywood and NFTs
If you have the chance to become a partial investor in helping produce your favorite actor’s movie using an NFT, would you jump on the opportunity? Of course, you will! NFTs have quickly made big splashes in the film and entertainment industry. And experts speculate that NFTs in the filmmaking and streaming sectors are perhaps the next big thing.
And rightly so, in 2021, the overall NFT trading volume exceeded $23 billion across multiple industries and businesses. This simple fact has exponentially inflated the hype. Filmmakers, streaming companies, and independent movie products are all investing in NFTs, directly incorporating them into their production using a variety of exciting ways.
4. NFTs and the Fashion Industry
While several prominent fashion companies and brands have involved themselves in the web3 stratosphere, things picked up when Gucci released their trendy $12 digital shoes. This is essentially where the hype increased, and several reputed brands embraced blockchain, incorporating both crypto and NFTs in their marketing and products.
Some of the most well-known names in the world are already engaged in exciting trends. One great example is how Burberry collaborated with Mythical Games to release their exclusive and one-of-a-kind NFT collection. Similarly, an NFT collection launched by Birkin, called “Baby Birkin” sold for a whopping $23,000 at an auction.
5. Non-fungible tokens and the Music Industry
Blockchain experts speculate that NFTs are on the verge of completely overhauling the music industry. And we can see that a lot of popular albums, album art, lyrics, and songs are transitioning into NFTs. The first music band to dive into the NFT stratosphere is Kings of Leon. They were the first to release an album entirely as a digital collectible.
Similarly, Mike Shinoda (from Link in Park) successfully raised more than $11,000 to release his exclusive drop. Both prominent and independent artists are now stating that they are finally being compensated fairly for their craft. They are making a sizeable amount of profits just from NFTs.
Bottom Line on the new project trends in the space
Thanks to the demand and popularity of NFTs, much of the pop culture is now gradually transitioning into the crypto world, helping exponentially boost the prominence of non-fungible tokens across industries such as gaming, entertainment, fashion, etc. While there’s still a lot to be discovered about the future of NFTs, these are some of the best trends you can look out for if you’re considering investing in digital assets. The NFT space is only at the beginning of a long journey.
