The announcement caused a stir in the non-fungible token (NFT, “non-fungible tokens”), these lines of code referring to a virtual work whose authenticity is guaranteed thanks to blockchain technology. On January 4, OpenSea, one of the leading marketplaces in this area, raised $ 300 million (€ 264 million), bringing its valuation to $ 13.3 billion.
The crypto-arts market is booming as the Financial Times estimates it at $ 41 billion. Almost as much as the traditional art market, estimated at around $ 50 billion. “I would rather situate the volume around 22 billion to 27 billion dollars”, However, John Egan, director of L’Atelier BNP Paribas, a subsidiary of the bank specializing in research and innovation, notes. But, says this seasoned observer, “That’s already a lot for an area that people knew almost nothing regarding a year ago”.
Since the record of 69 million dollars won, in March 2021, at Christie’s, by an NFT of Beeple, a then unknown artist, the whole world has been engulfed in the breach. Sotheby’s, which in one year sold NFT for $ 100 million, has counted 78% of new buyers, half of whom are under 40. The rise is such that the Nike brand plans to produce virtual sneakers, while the former first lady of the United States Melania Trump sells, in January, the NFT of a design reproducing her azure gaze … “We have all the elements of a ‘mania’, summarizes Mr. Egan. People buy things they don’t understand, often trivial. And this market is experiencing enormous manipulation and questionable transactions. “
Social markers
Beware, moreover, of magnifying glass effects! No crypto-art has come close or far near the record of $ 69 million. According to Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis platform, transactions under $ 10,000 also represent 75% of the NFT market. And art represents less than 10% of this market, dominated largely by collectibles – the collectibles, in the jargon – which maddens the counters. Because almost everything can be transformed into NFT. So the dribble of an NBA basketball player, the first tweet of Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, sold for $ 2.9 million. Or the very first SMS in history, sold in December 2021 for 107,000 euros.
Some NFTs now have the value of social markers. This is the case of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of monkey avatars published in 10,000 copies, which particularly seduced the rappers Snoop Dogg and Eminem. Their sales crossed the billion dollar mark in December 2021. Same success for the CryptoPunks, small pixelated characters with different attributes, produced in 2017, in 10,000 copies by the New York studio Larva Labs. At the time, these galéjades were exchanged for a few hundred dollars. In September 2021, one copy reached $ 11.8 million at Sotheby’s. “CryptoPunks like Bored Apes will keep their value, as their buyers join a community, esteem M. Egan. You pay millions of dollars, and you end up in a Telegram group alongside celebrities. “
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