NFTs: Taking the Art Out of the Gallery

If you’re an investor in 2021, chances are these three letters have made their way into your consciousness: NFT.

Many NFTs — non-fungible tokens — are selling at astronomical prices, with celebrity purchases helping to popularize the industry.

Look at Larva Labs, the team behind the pioneering NFT project, CryptoPunks. The project topped sales at $305 million in just one week!

The self-described “creative technologists” are newly signed with Hollywood agents to represent them for intellectual property deals in TV, film, video games, licensing and publishing.

This has made Larva Labs one of the first “crossover” companies after originating in the crypto and blockchain space, and it’s now transitioning into the realm of mainstream entertainment.

Hefty price tags are just one reason why NFTs are making headlines these days. But if you take a closer look, you’ll see that the emerging NFT market is much more than offbeat GIFs and expensive avatars.

In fact, new Weiss Crypto Ratings NFT strategist Joel Kruger says part of the industry’s innovation lies with transcending digital art.

Joel, whose background is in traditional financial markets, describes how blockchain technology and smart contracts have created this vibrant new asset class:

It really comes down to being able to apply supply-and-demand economics to any digital asset. There’s a provenance, there’s a record that says, ‘this is the owner of that asset.’ There’s a utility that extends beyond just the art, as well, and that’s something that we’re seeing a tremendous value in.

Joel was an early Bitcoin (BTC, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) investor and recognized the power of the crypto art market back in 2017. Now, he’s not only an avid NFT collector but a prolific digital artist himself.

In a few weeks, he’ll launch a new service that will guide investors to unique NFT opportunities — projects he’s passionate about as well as those with huge profit potential. And as a currency expert, Joel sees parallels in the world of NFT art:

Trading and strategy, trying to isolate and identify opportunities that might be of benefit to people trying to speculate, or understand the direction of things. And so NFTs, and specifically digital art, have become something that I’m very passionate about. I love it.

In this special six-minute video segment, you’ll see striking digital artwork as we take a comprehensive look at this new technological terrain. Joel explains how the NFT space allows digital artists to claim ownership of their work, which is an advantage to both artists and collectors. And until recently, it’s something that only existed in the traditional art world.

Joel says e-commerce is being revolutionized:

Up until this new economy around NFTs, a digital artist really didn’t have the same kind of opportunity as a traditional artist.

Traditional artists can paint what they want to paint and that’s being sold and collected by collectors all over the world because of its rare status. A digital artist, up until a few years back, didn’t really have that same opportunity because they create digital art, and anybody can see it. It can go viral. Anybody can right-click and copy it, so they don’t have that same opportunity around the supply-and-demand of rarity, as a physical piece of art.

Now, you have the rise of the NFT and smart contracts, which basically say, ‘we can now create a mechanism that allows for the digital asset to be a one-of-one, or to have a certain form of rarity.’ 

Therefore, now the playing field is level. I actually say that the playing field is more than level because with a digital asset, it can go viral — so everybody can see it, and right-click and copy it — and yet, only a certain amount of people that are designated with this NFT, this smart contract, have this rarity with the supply-and-demand built into it.

In this video, Joel discusses:

•  Why the NFT space should appeal to every type of investor.

•  The current NFT bull market and why a pullback can be positive.

•  A famous NFT he owns and how much it’s appreciated in value since its purchase.

And more!

The information in this short segment couldn’t be timelier. I suggest you watch it now.

Happy investing! 

Jessica Borg 
Financial News Anchor 
Weiss Crypto Ratings

About the Contributor

Beth Canova is a veteran of the publishing industry, specializing in cryptocurrency-related information and guidance. As the Managing Editor of some of world’s most astute cryptocurrency experts — Juan Villaverde, Dr. Bruce Ng, Marija Matić and others — she's continually immersed, and well versed, on everything crypto.

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