In the crypto bull market of 2021, it was all about NFTs. Yes, Bitcoin smashed past its all-time highs and various alts posted insane performances as well, but the mainstream narrative surrounded NFTs. Celebrities were posting about them, starting their own NFT lines – with artists like Grimes making $5.8 million in just 20 minutes – and people were predicting that they’d change the world.
Then, surprisingly, they simply faded during the bear market and haven’t bounced back this cycle. Could this mean that it’s still early in the bull market? Will NFTs make a grand return after Bitcoin mania reaches all-time highs again?
Raoul Pal Bullish On NFTs
Raoul Pal is one of the most influential figures in the crypto space, having been an early predictor of $100,000 BTC as far back as 2013. The investor has made some calls that have turned out to be true in recent times, and now expects the famous “banana zone” phase of the Bitcoin macro cycle to be taking off. Indeed, he thinks this could run until the end of 2025, when the markets will take a downturn again.
In a recent X post, Pal advised his followers to own as much crypto as possible first. After that, he says people should focus on owning as many NFTs as possible, as he believes that “art is upstream of wealth”. The crypto influencer was an early adopter of CryptoPunks, which are now selling for extraordinary sums of money. Indeed, the cheapest one available is currently 46.60 ETH, with plenty more expensive ones than that.
Despite Pal’s bullishness on NFTs, the rest of the crypto community has been quiet on them during this cycle. Indeed, this time, the main attraction has been memecoins. The concept of the memecoin has existed since Dogecoin’s inception in 2013, but now there are millions to choose from with more cropping up every day.
NFTs Serve Greater Purpose Than Memecoins
Despite having gone quiet for a few years, there’s a chance that NFTs could make a comeback. That’s because they serve a purpose, and could have a greater function in the online world in the future. Some musicians, including Snoop Dogg, have already found selling their material as NFTs to be a lucrative way of giving fans their own individual products.
Indeed, along with album releases as NFTs, bands like Lords of Acid have previously released their own entire collections. These give fans a chance to gather some collectibles related to their favorite artists, providing a new way to engage with them.
NFTs could in fact serve a greater purpose across many disparate areas of the entertainment market. For instance, Netflix already proposed the idea of NFTs in video streaming with a unique idea for future TV ratings in Love, Death + Robots. This is in keeping for Netflix, who has been a major forerunner of streaming tech for some time, having made recent strides offering games and other interactive media alongside their films and shows.
The casino industry is always quick to adapt to new tech as well, with sites like online casino Betway making great use of live streaming in recent years with titles like Sticky Bandits Roulette and Football Roulette, among many others. It would not be surprising, therefore, if in the future people could be allowed to own NFTs in these virtual casinos. The NFTs that typically gain the most traction are those based on truly unique collectibles, and in games of random chance, unpredictability is part and parcel of the experience, making the tech potentially apt for the market.
Furthermore, there is much room for innovation within the VR industry for NFTs. There has long been talk of expanding VR metaverses in the near-future, where people could socialize and work. Pew Research Center expects these environments to become highly immersive by 2040, at which point VR may almost be indistinguishable from real life. In this scenario, NFTs could allow people to buy products and property within the virtual worlds with a level of security more analogous to physically owning them.
NFTs Could Make a Return During Mania Phase
Bitcoin has been steadily rising for the last couple of years, and it recently hit another all-time high. However, there’s still no NFT hype like there was around the peak of the last cycle. It could be coming soon, though, as this phase usually sees more retail investors flooding in and looking to jump on the latest trends. During this mania phase, if celebrity influencers start promoting NFTs again, they could boom like last time.
NFTs are far from over, but they have been quiet in recent times. They could potentially make a comeback in this crypto cycle but, if they don’t, they should be able to bounce again in the future. This is because their potential use cases are manifold, and could broaden horizons for engagement for a lot of different industries.
Source: https://www.side-line.com/
