Key facts:
For Lee, NFTs attract new people to cryptocurrencies, but through FOMO.
Among the main NFTs in the market, more than USD 43 million have been moved in 7 days.
Not everyone is happy with the proliferation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the hot topic in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin, believes that NFTs will end up being worthless, and compared them to the ICO (Initial Coin Offerings) fever of 2017; and the rise of altcoins, peaking in 2013.
Lee made the comparison on Tuesday, February 2, via Twitter. In his opinion, the moment of popularity of the NFT shares several characteristics with the other two phenomena mentioned above and could lead to something similar: a bunch of worthless tokens.
For Lee, NFTs are similar to ICOs and altcoins in the ease of creating them, their simplicity to “understand and explain”, and the fact that they attract “tons of new people to cryptocurrencies.”
Also, the manager of the Litecoin Foundation considered the susceptibility of NFTs to market manipulation and artificially inflated prices. This generates, from their point of view, FOMO. That is to say, the fear of being left out of an investment possibility, as described in the glossary of acronyms of CriptoNoticias.
Finally, the creator of one of the top 10 altcoins in the market, according to its capitalization, predicted a not very promising future for NFTs, very similar to what happened with the coins launched via ICO and the proliferation of altcoins that has led to the existence of more than 8,000 cryptocurrencies: “few will hold and have value, most will not.”
Main NFT platforms, according to weekly volume in dollars. Source: NonFungible.
NFT fever on the rise
In such a young industry, with its base (Bitcoin) created just 12 years ago, exploring new opportunities has become the norm. Every so often, a new trend or fashion captures the enthusiast environment looking to capitalize on the rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.
During 2020, the trend was decentralized finance platforms; previously it was ICOs, altcoins and even the search for solutions with blockchains for practically any problem in the world.
Now, NFTs are emerging as an opportunity to capitalize on creative work and even fame. Indeed, according to NonFungible data, only among the top 10 collectibles platforms, more than USD 43 million were moved in the last 7 days. This possibility arises from the unique character of each token that is launched as an NFT, which gives it the potential to be collectible.
NFTs are not new. In fact, there are antecedents as old and popular as the Cryptokitties or Decentraland. But the new wave seems to grow bigger every day, and with heavier actors as time progresses.
The trend includes heavyweights like the video game company Capcom and one of its most popular titles, Street Fighter; the cartoon series Rick and Morty, the Bratz dolls, the MotoGP competition or the DJ Deadmau5, as this medium has reported.
In addition to those specific cases, there are also collectible-based platforms that have been gaining more and more recognition in the industry, such as the case of Sorare’s fantasy football, which has caught the attention of another giant in the video game industry, Ubisoft.