The global blockchain ecosystem is rapidly evolving as new, innovative applications are being developed. This year, digital collectibles called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a popular trend in the blockchain space, as artists, celebrities and various businesses already generated huge sales.
What are NFTs?
In the simplest terms, NFTs transform digital works of art and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets that are easy to trade on the blockchain.
As part of the blockchain ecosystem, NFTs require a platform where the assets can be easily purchased and sold. An example of an NFT marketplace is The U.S. National Basketball Association Top Shot marketplace, which allows fans to buy and trade NFTs in the form of video highlights. The average price of a Top Shot “moment” slumped to USD 27 in June, after peaking at USD 182 in February.
NFT Innovations Happening Faster Than Expected
NFT innovations are happening faster than expected and it is bringing blockchain technology into the mainstream. According to a report published yesterday by Forbes, NFT weekly trade volume across the top NFT marketplaces surged 3,300% from the beginning of the year (USD 5.9 Million) to its peak in February (USD 198 Million) before diving 82% to USD 35.3 Million in May. Since then, NFT activity has been grinding higher, and reached USD 78 Million in transaction volume the last week of June, a rebound of 120% month-over-month.
Here we discuss recent announcements from some of the innovative players in the NFT domain – Scienjoy Holding Corporation, Funko, Inc., Liquid Media Group Ltd., ZK International Group Co., Ltd., and WISeKey International Holding AG.
Scienjoy Holding Corporation
Scienjoy Holding Corporation has entered into a strategic partnership with the Global Friendship Exchange Foundation (“GFE Foundation”), a U.S-based non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young artists from around the world. The partnership will help young artists sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from original artwork across various platforms and establish a livestreaming studio in New York.
Through the partnership, Scienjoy will support the artists in GFE Foundation’s network in their efforts to mint NFTs from original artwork or music for sale and promotion across various platforms, galleries and exhibitions. NFTs are one-of-a-kind tokenized digital assets that are tracked by blockchain. The technology allows artists to create unique artwork tokens, thus enabling the virtual art pieces to be bought and sold similar to physical property. For young artists – who often struggle to place artwork in galleries under normal conditions – reaching art collectors became an even greater challenge during the pandemic due to gallery closures and social distancing. Minting artwork through NFTs offers young artists an alternative route to sell artwork directly online and build a community of fans, all with safeguards from digital art duplication.
‘Exploring innovative forms of NFT art and entertainment is part of Scienjoy’s DNA as a leading livestreaming video entertainment platform. Through this cooperation we hope to support young artists in reaching collectors and fans with our diverse ecosystem of 250 million global users. This strategic partnership further underscores our commitment to nurturing creators and elevating our content offering.’ said Mr. Victor He, Chairman and CEO of Scienjoy.
In addition to innovating with NFTs, the partners will open a video livestreaming studio in New York for young artists. The studio will be a place for them to connect with the Scienjoy livestreaming entertainment ecosystem and livestream about their creative process, engage with fans and collectors, and sell and exhibit NFT artwork. During the pandemic musicians and artists moved to livestreaming platforms as a way to engage with fans and collectors and monetize music and artwork in a new way. With this new livestreaming studio, Scienjoy and the GFE Foundation aim to provide young artists with the education, tools and support needed to easily start a livestreaming channel and build an online presence.
Helen Back, Director of GFE Foundation, commented, “We are excited to partner with Scienjoy to help young artists enter the NFT art market and establish the livestreaming studio in New York. With our network of artists, collectors, curators and art galleries, we hope to offer Scienjoy further diversity to its platform entertainment.’…”
Funko, Inc.
In April 2021, Funko, Inc. acquired a majority ownership stake in TokenWave, LLC, the developer of TokenHead, a leading mobile app and website for showcasing and tracking Non-Fungible Token (“NFT”) holdings. TokenHead is available on iOS and Android, and currently displays over 10 million NFTs and has more than 100,000 visits per day. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. The investment accelerates Funko’s initial entry into the NFT market and will extend the Company’s pop culture platform to include digital assets. Funko expects to launch its initial NFT offerings in June, featuring a unique property each week at a starting price point of $9.99. Products will be sold on the WAX platform, the leading decentralized wallet on the blockchain, which provides verifiable authenticity for purchases of Funko NFTs.
Liquid Media Group Ltd.
Back in April this year, Liquid Media Group Ltd. announced that their premier Red Carpet NFTs will be released, known as a drop, in May 2021. Bringing fans up close and behind the scenes with some of their favorite Hollywood personalities and movies, Red Carpet NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will be as much about experiences as they are collectibles. “We’re excited to showcase the creativity and versatility NFTs can bring to fans, the entertainment industry, and IP holders,” said Ron Thomson, CEO of Liquid Media. “When fans get the opportunity to own never before seen footage or a chance to capture a rare experience with a celebrity or walk the Red Carpet at a future movie premiere, the world will quickly understand the value NFTs will offer.”
xSigma Corporation
In May 2021, ZK International Group Co., Ltd. announced that its subsidiary xSigma Corporation, a blockchain R&D lab, will launch xSigma NFT Marketplace on the 25th of June. xSigma also said that the xSigma NFT Marketplace will be supported by both the Binance Smart Chain (“BSC”) and the Ethereum network upon its launch. The Company has chosen to use the BSC as it has gained impressive traction so far by the blockchain community, where they are transacting over 7 million transactions a day, it has more active wallets than Ethereum, and the Total Value Locked in DeFi projects on the BSC has reached $36 billion. The NFT industry keeps growing and attracting more creators and customers. Since the Company’s last announcement about the xSigma NFT Marketplace, the NFT industry’s cumulative sales volume has surpassed $1.6 billion, according to DappRadar.com.
WISeKey International Holding AG
WISeKey International Holding AG last month lunched its NFT platform for the collectible and luxury market under the brand name WISe.Art (https://www.wise.art). The platform follows a series of market tests – selling high value NFTs and testing the appetite of the art and collectible community – and incorporates the needs of this exclusive and high-volume marketplace. Following the needs of buyers and sellers of high-value goods the WISe.Art platform evolves the original collection of WISe.Art and is a fully fledged marketplace with its own digital currency, the ability to include curators and multipliers, while-labeling options and a special NFT design.
NFT is currently booming and one of the most active domain in the blockchain space with a lost of announcements coming every week. However, most of the announcements revolve around consumer use cases of NFTs, mostly as collectibles. It remains to be seen how this important feature of blockchain penetrates into enterprise and how soon we see widespread adoption in the business segment.
