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Nobody Buys an NFT Just for Artby@sergey-baloyan
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Nobody Buys an NFT Just for Art

by Serge BaloyanFebruary 16th, 2023
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In 2021, NFTs burst into our lives, and hundreds of thousands of people decided to try their hand at it. A huge number of collections have been successful at the mint and primary sales, but are terrible at selling further. What do new (and old) projects need to do if they want to be active in this market?
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I get a lot of questions on Twitter about the current state of NFT markets. Which NFTs can be interesting for the audience? How to gather and engage a community?


Here are a few thoughts on the current market and how to make your NFTs more engaging.


  1. In 2021, NFTs burst into our lives, and hundreds of thousands of people decided to try their hand at it. You know the story - the million-dollar sales, the outrage and the arguments about how you can give a lot of money for a jpeg from the Internet.


  2. Indeed, what we are seeing now is, among other things, a secondary sales crisis. A huge number of collections have been successful at the mint and primary sales, but are terrible at selling further. Some of the examples are really ridiculous.


  1. I have said many times that the basis of the 2021 boom is speculation. Yes, art is important, and yes, NFT will change the idea of copyright, and many other industries, but what we saw was speculative hype that was supported in different ways, both by the market and by the projects themselves.


  1. But what do new (and old) projects need to do if they want to be active in this market? You need to add internal mechanics to your NFTs that add value. Yes, cool art is important. Yes, the bigger your name or that of your collaborators, the better. But how do you get people to buy your NFTs on the secondary market? How do you get them to hold it?


  2. Utility must be added to your NFTs. But it has to be more than just a pretty wrapper, it has to be useful.


Here are examples: Moonbirds give you the ability to stack the original NFTs. In the future, they will be used for the metaverse that the company creates. Plus, many holders of this NFT are already getting drops of other NFTs.


Otherdeeds are the initial parts of the overall picture of the metaverse from BAYC. That is, current holders are waiting for the good news and the launch of the project. Others, who will believe in this project, will want to buy this on the secondary market. And positive news should bring even more value to these collections.


Music NFTs, of which I am a collector, pay royalties from streams. And the more popular the artist becomes, the more valuable they should become.


Another example is the NFT of private communities such as PROOF - the bigger and more influential such clubs become, the more the price of NFT grows.


One of the biggest trends right now - NFTs that are used in games. It will become more valuable as these games become more popular.


We see an interesting case by Nike and RTFKT, which will also put real merch on the table.

And we can go on and on with such examples.


  1. If it all has some cool technical background, such as dynamic NFT or really impressive 3D art and concept, such a collection is nice from all sides.


  2. Old projects that have already released NFTs and want to let in fresh air for the collection and holders, can come up with new use cases, utilities, collaborations with brands and other projects, events and private clubs, and so on. That will make NFTs more valuable, HODLble, and make the community tell everyone about it (including Veblen good theory).


If you are interested in learning how to promote NFT/Web3/Crypto project and how to add value to it, drop me a line.


P.S. Check out my previous articles at HackerNoon: