Digital collectibles not an easy world to play in
As co-founder of a website tracking the spectrum of digital collectibles, Gauthier Zuppinger has seen it all. Drawings of toads, apes, abstract blobs, octopuses on heads, firebreathing devils, and more. Since last month, as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) supplanted meme stocks and minor coins in speculative imaginations, his website has added 169 collections — more than in the prior 12 months combined.
For anyone convinced they possess an investing edge to become the industry’s Warren Buffett, the chief operating officer of Nonfungible.com has a word of warning. “Maybe 90% of collections minted today are totally useless and meaningless,” Zuppinger said from Paris.
Last week’s $24m (about R352m) Sotheby’s auction of ape tokens, the $180m Doge meme and other surreal superlatives from the summer of NFTs have all painted a pixelated picture of easy money. But the market is in fact a vast sprawl of varying investing outcomes, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“It’s just really a tiny piece of the community and some extremely lucky or well-informed people,” Zuppinger, an early enthusiast of virtual worlds, said in reference to the market success stories.
“Ninety-nine percent is about being in the right circle, having the right information at the right time,” he said.
“In the NFT space, you live with this constant frustration that you have missed a chance to make one billion dollars.”
He would know. Back when CryptoPunks could be bought for literally nothing in 2017, Zuppinger saw them as an experiment with little aesthetic value. Just last weekend, one token was sold for a cool $7m.