If a collectible is worth what someone will pay, then what are NFTs worth?

If a collectible is worth what someone will pay, then what are NFTs worth? Now? In the future? The space is sending many conflicting messages. Are NFTs thriving or crashing? There are strong arguments both ways.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet was purchased for $2.9M by Sina Estavi. When Estate attempted to resell it at auction, no one offered more than $280K. NFT sales fell to 19,000 this week, according to NonFungible, the world’s largest NFT data resource. In September, that number was 225,000. 

NFT wallet activity is also sinking fast. There were 119,000 active wallets in November, whereas there were about 14,000 last week, adding up to an 88% decline. ApeCoin, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, dropped in March from a high of $39.40 to a low of $7.75 on March 17. The Wall Street Journal points out that search activity for NFTs has also dramatically dropped from its high point in late 2021, showing a drop of roughly 80% since that time. Ethereum sidechain Flow has also seen its biggest NFT product, NBA Top Shot, fall from grace in recent months, with secondary market sales volume dropping over 80% since February 2021.

On the other side of the coin, as reported in Cyptobriefing, Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs conducted the largest NFT sale in history. The drop, consisting of over 55,000 land plots for its upcoming Metaverse game Otherside, brought in over $310M in initial sales. Less than a week since launch, the collection has exceeded $700M in trading volume across more than 27,000 sales.

Throughout the first four months of 2022, several new collections such as Azuki, Okay Bears, Moonbirds, and VeeFriends Series 2 have sold out after hugely anticipated launches. Trading on secondary marketplaces like OpenSea has boomed (it saw $3.4 billion worth of trading volume last month), returning handsome profits for keen flippers.

Since January 2022, CryptoPunks are rockin’. Total transactions have grown substantially, leading to a $2B sales volume. It also saw a surge in unique monthly users, reaching 501 transactions in January. Meanwhile, the total transactions increased 187% in March, reaching around 1,400. It left CryptoPunks with a sales volume of $98.5M compared to January’s $6.1M. Moreover, in August 2021, the project reached a new milestone of $679M, with over 2,500 transactions. 

So are NFT on the rise or on the decline? Idk. Are NFT’s a good investment or a fad? Idk that either. Maybe it’s a question of hold period… get in early and get out fast before interest wanes? 

NFT’s long-term viability and stability as an investment? Your guess is as good as anybody's. But keep an eye on DeGods…