Ethereum co-founder Anthony Di Iorio said he thinks the market for non-fungible tokens has become “saturated” as the space has gained mainstream adoption in 2021.
“The NFT market, I think, is figuring itself out right now. I don’t know if the value of it is really showing through yet,” he told CoinDesk TV Thursday.
NFTs are digital representations of artwork, sports cards, or other collectibles tied to a blockchain, typically on ethereum. Each NFT has a signature that can be verified in the public ledger and cannot be duplicated nor edited.
When people buy NFTs, they gain the rights to the unique token on the blockchain, not the artworks themselves. But the fact that the information on a blockchain is next to impossible to alter makes NFTs appealing, especially to artists.
This year, NFTs have soared in popularity. The market thus far has seen immense growth and buyers now vastly exceed sellers, according to a report from L’Atelier BNP Paribas.
But for Di Iorio, a Toronto-based investor, the deluge of NFTs is contributing to its declining appeal. He did add the caveat that he has been working on NFTs for over a decade.
“You get a lot of projects that are coming out that I don’t find very sexy at all,” Di Ionio, who also made his fortune as an early adopter of bitcoin, said. “It’s not interesting too much to me.”
Many have speculated the space is in a bubble, and evidence shows the craze may be cooling for now. The average price of NFTs has fallen from its highest point in February, and between February and the end of March, prices plunged 70%.
But I think over the next few years, we’ll really see how it does provide value,” the co-founder said. “There’s, there’s a lot of good value in it.”