[Prices correct at the time of writing. They’ll change… but you get the idea.]
A year ago, who could have imagined that pfp profile pictures or a piece of generative art would change hands for millions of dollars?
Crazy talk, right?
And yet here we are, with top-tier NFTs going for insanely high prices.
A while back CryptoPunk owner Richerd refused an offer of $9.5 million for his Punk, #6046. More recently, Punk #4156 sold for 2,500 eth, or about $10.26 million.
And the floor price of Bored Apes – once touted as the poor person’s Punk – is now at over 50 eth … about $200,000.
On the art side, a floor Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs can be had for 80 Eth, give or take. Or about US$350,000.
That’s the floor Fidenza… the least expensive out of a series of 999.
Snoop Dogg made headlines when he purchased Fidenza #938 for $8.5 million.
So the answer is yes, at this end of the market NFTs have become a playground for the very, very rich.
And no disrespect… many of them are in that position because they were smart and early.
The fat middle of the market is also for the rich.
Let’s go down a tier to pfp projects and art that is a little more accessible.
Cool Cats have a floor of 7.3 eth. About $30,000.
And a floor Archetype, an amazing art series by Kjetil Golid, will set you back about 13.8 eth, or $57,000.
You can find wonderful art for a fair bit less. Like the Edifice series by Ben Kovach. It has a floor of just 3.15 eth. Or $13,063.
But still… do a survey in your neighborhood and ask how many people can afford to spend $13,063 on a piece of art.
My guess is that not many people would raise their hands.
At this level, NFTs are still only for the rich.
Is this what we had in mind? An aristocracy and class system?
Who would have guessed that the world of NFTs would become inaccessible to almost everyone?
There were a lot of ideals wrapped around the emergence of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Part of the promise of decentralization was that we could build something that was separate from the old world… from traditional financial institutions.
The plan was to create something quite apart from the aristocracy of Wall Street. The one percent.
Something a little more egalitarian, even.
And yet, here we are…
The next generation of NFT enthusiasts will likely ignore us, and our projects and platforms.
When platforms like Coinbase open the doors to mass adoption, very few of those new buyers will come armed with tens of thousands of dollars to spend.
Most will want to participate at a level that suits a more modest budget.
The smartest of those new platforms will deliberately meet the needs of these lower-budget buyers, and they’ll lower the barriers to entry as much as they can, including credit card payment options.
For more adventurous new buyers, with no history or loyalty when it comes to blockchains, they’ll be more likely to use Tezos and the like, avoiding Ethereum and its crazy gas wars.
On fxhash, paying with Tezos, I can already mint pfps or some really interesting art for under $100. Fees included.
In other words, most people in the next and much larger wave won’t be coming to play with us in our playground… they’ll be taking their money elsewhere.
That will be quite the wakeup call for many of today’s dominant platforms.
The future is going to look a lot different…
Yes, a weird aristocracy has taken root in this space. A well-heeled moneyed class too.
But I think that’s temporary.
The future of this space won’t be defined by a few rich people with millions of dollars, but by millions of people with a few hundred dollars each.
In the meantime, keep collecting.
And remember… from an aesthetic standpoint, money doesn’t dictate the quality of a collection. It really doesn’t.
Some collectors flex. Others spend less, but curate with more care.
So whether you’ve been here for a while now, or are fresh new to the space, don’t compare yourselves to the whales and their millions.
You can create beautiful collections and join amazing communities for a much, much smaller investment.