Bloomberg: Falling prices suggest the NFT craze could be wiped out

A rapid 70% drop in the average price of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) suggests that the latest ‘crypto-rage’ may be eradicated – just as fast as it took the world by storm recently, Bloomberg’s experts pointed out yesterday.

According to data provided by Nonfungible.com, a platform that monitors various NFT markets, the average price of crypto collectibles peaked at about $ 4,300 on February 22nd. $ 4,400 by April 4th.

Notably, the all-time record coincided with the record sale of “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” – an NFT artwork created by crypto artist Beeple – for more than $ 69 million. Shortly thereafter, the average price of NFTs dropped to as low as $ 650, although it briefly rose again to $ 3,600 on March 11th.

At the same time, some experts have argued that despite price fluctuations, it is difficult to call the NFT market a ‘bubble’.

Chris Wilmer, an academic at the University of Pittsburgh who also co-edited a blockchain research journal, said at the end:

‘It does not make sense to characterize a concept as a financial bubble. NFTs are not in a bubble, only ‘cryptocurrency’ is a bubble. There will be mania and irrational exuberance, but the cryptocurrency is clearly here to stay with us for the long term, and NFTs probably are too. ‘

NFTs are for ‘international crooks and fraudsters’

The sheer price of Beeple’s NFT makes it the third most expensive piece of art ever sold by a living artist – just behind Jeff Koons and David Hockney. The latter recently revealed that he is not a fan of digital collectibles, calling it a tool for ‘international crooks and fraudsters’.

In 2018, Hockney sold his physical painting, called “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)”, for $ 90.3 million via Christie’s auction house – the same one that recently sold Beeple’s artwork. During the podcast “Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art”, Hockney argued that NFTs can be easily lost and not compared to real physical objects.

Hockney noted:

‘Things can get lost on the computer, right? And they will be lost on the computer in the future, even if the cloud gets going. There’s going to be so much going on, how will you find it? ‘

Although his description is fairly broad, Hockney’s concerns may well deserve it. This is because NFTs do not actually contain the artwork associated with them. In essence, such tokens are only encrypted links to traditional files offered on a server. And if this server goes down, owners of NFTs may not even have direct access to the media files that represent their tokens (apart from downloading other third-party resources).

Hockney was also not impressed with Beeple’s pioneering work, calling it a collection of ‘silly little things’. He comments on Beeple’s artwork:

‘I saw the pictures, but it just looked like stupid little things. I could not figure out what it was. ”

Meanwhile, the blockchain development company Enjin recently announced the launch of a whole new decentralized network dedicated specifically to NFTs. Whether it’s a bubble or not, technology does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

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