What are NFTs?
In 2021 a real mania about NFTs started within the crypto world. But NFTs are not only a topic within the crypto space, they are also starting to conquer the world outside of crypto, rapidly. Multi billion dollar companies like Visa or Adidas and a lot of celebrities are getting hold of this new trend.
NFTs - Non-Fungible Tokens
The appreviation NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. While, for example, a Bitcoin is fungible - trade one Bitcoin for another Bitcoin - a non-fungible asset is one-of-a-kind. An example would be a one-of-a-kind trading card.
NFTs can really be anything digital (drawings, pictures, music, videos, ...) and its data is stored on a blockchain. NFTs can be bought, stored and also sold.
The most NFTs are created and traded on the Ethereum blockchain but every blockchain with NFT support can be the foundation of a NFT.
The reason to invest and buy a NFT can be that you like the look of it or you want to become part of the community but in most cases NFTs are bought by traders to sell it for a higher price shortly afterwards. Some NFTs also come with usecases like in-game usability within a video game.
CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Beeple
CryptoPunks is a NFT collection created on the Ethereum blockchain. Altough it was launched in 2017 the real craze about the project started in 2021. The highest sold CryptoPunk (as of Feb. 2022) was CryptoPunk #7523 which was sold for $11.75 million at a Sotheby's auction.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is also an Ethereum based NFT collection of 10.000 unique apes. The hype about this collection did not stay within the crypto world for long. Celebrities like Eminem, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon and as of lately Justin Bieber are proud BAYC-owners. The highest sale of a Bored Ape (as of Feb. 2022) is Bored Ape #232 for around $2.85 million.
Mike Winkelmann - known as Beeple - is a NFT-artist. The highest sale of one of his artworks was $100 until October 2020. On the 11th March of 2021 he sold his collage 'Everydays: The First 5000 Days' for $69 million at Christie's. That puts him among the top three most valuable living artists according to the auction house. His first series of NFTs was sold for $66,666.66 which has been already resold for $6.6 million.
