What was once an internet hobby among a certain subset of tech and finance nerds has now been catapulted to the mainstream. NFTs – non-fungible tokens are the registration of a digital object’s unique “ownership” on a blockchain.
A video of basketball legend LeBron James dunking a shot sold for $208,000 in January to a group of investors who despite the fact that anyone can rewatch the clip free on the internet, expect its value to increase because it’s a rare original and verified piece of sports memorabilia.
When it comes to a digital sports moment, the sale and purchase of an NFT involving it do not prevent the object from being freely viewed or shared by non-owners. Instead, the NFT is a new type of digital asset that has grown exponentially in popularity during the pandemic. as enthusiasts and investors have rushed to spend enormous amounts of money on items that only exist online.
NFTs can almost anything online, ranging from digital artworks and sports cards to pieces of virtual land or exclusive use of a cryptocurrency wallet name, similar to the rush for domain names in the internet’s early days.
More and more artists are turning to NFT market places such as Rarible NFT marketplace and Opensea NFT marketplace. The popularity is such that even auction house Christie’s has just launched its first-ever sale of digital art, a collage of 5,000 pictures, which exists solely as an NFT. The artist is Beeple, who in Spring 2021 had a 10-second video artwork of his sold for $6.6 million.
On the Rarible NFT marketplace and Opensea NFT Marketplace, there exists the Official First Edition Bitcoin NFT 1/1 Serial #0001. The 18-second video clip of a rotating Bitcoin is One of one, meaning only one will ever be minted and is available for 70 ETH which values it just over $100,000 making it most likely the most expensive Bitcoin NFT available.
The Official First Edition Bitcoin NFT 1/1 Serial #0001 is a prime example of an NFT which has the potential to skyrocket in value in a marketplace that tripled in value in 2020, growing 300% to $250 million and showing no signs of abating in 2021 and beyond.
