What are NFTs? A Brief Explanation

In 2009, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto completely changed the way we look at finances, encryption, centralization, and investing. Of course, back then, nobody took the idea seriously. Bitcoin was new, and only popular among niche cultures on the internet. In fact, for a long time, a huge chunk of the population believed that Bitcoin can only be used for illicit activities.

Today, however, most of us know better. As the world becomes more “online” many people are becoming more and more educated on various topics related to the internet, and it seems that in the past 2 years, cryptocurrency has been one of the top subjects that newer people are learning about.

According to surveys, it has been shown that close to 40% of the American adult population is interested in, or actively involved with some form of cryptocurrency (most notably Bitcoin, however other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Tether, Ripple, Dogecoin, etc. are also quite popular).

Needless to say, the crypto market is experiencing a boom in popularity and becoming more popular with each passing day. Recently, however, a new aspect of the crypto market has risen to prominence in the mainstream. It seems you can’t visit any social media website nowadays, without someone talking about non-fungible tokens, or linking to NFT platforms.

When people see the abbreviation NFT, often times they are confused about what it means. In this article, we are going to explain what NFTs are, and talk about some of the most popular NFTs on the market today.

What are NFTs?

So, just what is an NFT? An abbreviation of non-fungible token, an NFT refers to a piece of digital art, which, much like cryptocurrency, exists only as a digital document, and can be accessed through the blockchain. Non-fungible tokens, most often, are photographs or pictures, though can also contain references to a video or an audio file.

Proof of ownership of an NFT exists on the blockchain, and the owner can choose to transfer said ownership to someone else, which is how NFTs are traded. In other words, non-fungible tokens are not much different from cryptocurrencies.

The value of NFTs is determined in much the same way as the value of any stock. The higher the demand for a certain NFT is, the higher the price becomes. The fact that NFTs are so huge on various websites, has really made it possible for creators to use aspects of internet culture (most notably memes) to push their NFTs further into the mainstream.

For those who still don’t understand, think of NFTs the same way you would think about baseball cards. Collectible baseball cards rise or fall in popularity depending on demand and availability. To more available a card is, the lesser the demand for that card, and the rarer a card is, the higher the demand. The same can be said for NFTs, except they exist solely as a digital commodity.

The Most Popular NFTs

Even if you are unfamiliar with what an NFT is, if you spend any amount of time on the internet, the likelihood that you’ve seen an NFT is quite high. Last year, one of the biggest NFTs to hit the online market was the Bored Ape, produced by the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.

The image depicts a chimpanzee-like caricature, dressed up in various clothing, from preppy, polo shirts, to various uniforms, to chic streetwear. Quite a few of the Bored Ape were sold for a pretty hefty sum to various NFT traders on the internet, and it was very difficult to avoid it on any social media for quite a while.

Another popular form of NFT, are various NFT Sports Collections. We made the comparison to baseball cards, and the comparison remains viable. Sport-themed NFTs are a huge part of the crypto market. Whether it be basketball-themed, baseball-themed, soccer or football-themed, is irrelevant. All of these NFTs are hugely popular online, among various traders.

The last popular NFT we are going to take a look at, is the NFT video game industry which is growing in popularity. NFT video games are exactly what they sound like. Video games that exist on the blockchain, and can be bought through a blockchain and played online with various other players. The most popular of these so far is Axie Infinity, developed by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis.

Notable People Who’ve Endorsed NFTs

The popularity of NFTs has also reached Hollywood. Various celebrities have either endorsed, purchased, traded, or even created their own NFTs. Two of the most notable celebrities who have shown massive support of NFTs are Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, who have proclaimed they are proud supporters and owners of NFTs. Both women have created their own, rather successful NFT collections, which can be bought and sold online.