NFTs and the Art Market

Apr 1

Apr 1 NFTs and the Art Market

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The Bossy Mealz Newsletter
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Are NFTs Art?

Although I included the rise of digital transactions to purchase physical artworks in my 2021 predictions, the immediate whale of a story is the recent sale of a digital artwork and store of crypocurrency called an NFT at Christie's for $69M. I must admit I knew very little about NFTs prior to this sale, thus I hope to use this newsletter as an opportunity to share additional information about this bourgeoning market. Are NFTs art? Yes they are created by creative individuals with visual depictions but their real use case is as a store of value, a digital collector's item. But are they art? Read on to find out.

“Everydays — The First 5000 Days” sold at Christie's for $69M. It is collage of all the images that the artist known as Beeple has been posting online each day since 2007.

NFTs and The Art Market

To understand what the acronym NFT (Non Fungible Token) means and how they work, I would advise watching this short video the WSJ posted explaining this emerging market. Here is my take on how the NFT market impacts the fine art one:

Although Beeple claimed this is "just another form of artwork," what sets an NFT apart from digital artworks in general is that their value is tied to the Ethereum cryptocurrency, and you must use the Ethereum blockchain to acquire them. You cannot divorce the rising market for NFTs from the rising value in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, as early adopters and Crypto “Whales” look to deploy their new found wealth within this ecosystem and acquire assets (like art!) - a large percentage of which are natively digital and stored in digital wallets.
Unlike traditional art sales, you can fully track who owns the NFT and how often it is sold. You can also verify authenticity and set terms via Ethereum’s “smart contracts” that may give the original creator a stake in each sale of the NFT in the future. The portability of these contracts across platforms is not always guaranteed, and there are many technical nuances, but I personally LOVE the possibility of ensuring creators and their beneficiaries continue to be compensated for their work even when it is resold.
There are several NFT active marketplaces already such as Open Sea, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Rarible, any many others in the works. You will certainly see more NFT activity at traditional auction houses as well.
If you want to learn more about NFTs and digital art, the conference call app Clubhouse is the place to be--let me know if you need an invitation to join.
In sum do I think NFTs are art? NO. Do I think they are here to stay? YES.

Shoutout: This week's newsletter would not be possible without the expertise of digital graffiti artist @lilmissgnarly find her on clubhouse @CR40 and please follow her #WomenofEther project.