In the hours before the gas wars of Otherside metaverse land sale, the fever-pitch euphoria caused by nonfungible tokens (NFT), reached its all-time highs.
According to most reliable accounts, after almost a year’s worth of rapid exponential growth, speculation, and cultural spotlighting the market was in dire need of a break. It has taken a break from producing drama. It is now officially in its first bearish cycle.
OpenSea statistics paint a sad picture of the market’s financial futures. The floor prices for some popular collections have more than doubled since peak highs.
Bored Ape Yacht Club’s eminent status is now at 98.8 Ethereum, down from its peak price HTML156 Ether ( ). This drop was made from May 1st to May 1. CryptoPunks also saw a drop in value from 125 Ethereum on Oct 2 to 50 ETH at the time of writing.
Similar fates have been experienced by other profile picture projects (PFP), such as RTFKT Studios CloneX, Azuki and Doodles and even metaverse lands The Sandbox, Decentraland.
The most dramatic reductions in value have been experienced by the top collections of Cool Cats and World of Women, which were just six months ago blue-chips because of their innovative approach to intellectual properties and community spirit.
This trend is not limited to the NFT market. The catastrophic collateral damage to the Terra stablecoin crisis has added to macroeconomic factors such as inflation, stock declines and lack of affordability.
Yet, despite the calm social environment and cultural admissions of the falhoods of WAGMI’s cultural admissions, there is an undercurrent sentiment among veteran artists, founders, and advocates of this space that the bear market will be an opportune time for reflection and rebuilding.
In addition to this, core shareholders and founders are excited about the opportunity to shift the conversation away from greed-obsessive floor pricing to more conscious topics such as utility and societal impact and IRL interactions.
As in the 2017-18 crypto winter: humility, resilience, determination are the key pillars required to create a revival.
Tom Farren, Cointelegraph’s tech reporter, spoke with several experts in the space to get a complete overview of how NFT projects can maintain and fulfill their founding philosophy and community values.
Aleksandra Artamonovskaja is a passionate NFT spokesperson, and she was recently appointed as Joyn’s partnerships lead. She shared her conviction that bearish cycles are the perfect time to align your vision, before saying:
“When the market heats up, it’s difficult to focus because of all the noise […] This downturn has served as a clearing mechanism for all the speculation taking place. Investors will be able to see clearly which projects are building on their values and will have a better understanding of them. This is a great way to prove that they will persevere regardless of the circumstances.
We keep moving forward despite everything
Thanks for having me @OFFFest pic.twitter.com/SDNoDvzJ49
— Aleksandra Art (@aljaparis)
May 11, 2022
Artamonovskaja commented on the topic of 1/1 artists. “Two years ago, artists who were selling 1/1’s did not have that much support.” But now, “it’s a totally different case due to NFT galleries, marketplaces and artists residencies. Exhibitions, competitions and more.
She says that it is not perfect, but that it offers artists the opportunity to engage with buyers and the ecosystem. Before concluding that connection is a good direction to go, she said, “It’s not ideal.”
Similar: The resurgence of NFTs in art galleries could be attributed to NFTs.
TIME Magazine is a recognized leader in the transition to decentralization and announced a series of crypto adoption initiatives for 2021. They include adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet and accepting crypto payments for their 18 month digital subscription in partnership With Crypto.com.
The historic 99-year-old magazine published a revelatory interview with Vitalik Buterin and a commemorative genesis NFT magazine in March.
TIME’s Web3 creative subsidiary TimePieces has also embraced the space’s culture and ethos, launching several culturally relevant and artistically diverse NFT collections, such as Slices from TIME, and Build A Better Future.
Keith Grossman, President of TIME Magazine, shared his expectations for NFT projects’ future prospects based on their intentions. He deemed that many “greedy communities” won’t survive the next year because the main focus of these is primarily on monetary returns and not a greater cause.
Grossman says that “Value-based communities” have the greatest potential to flourish because their members “are focused on building something bigger than any individual or immediate economic return, and share a common belief in values creating value over time.”
He also revealed, later in the conversation:
“TIMEPieces will continue to invest in its Web3 presence, continuing to lean on our brand to offer strong programming and access to its community members […] Our views will not change because of market conditions: We are evolving our brand within the space for the next 100+ years – not just for 100 minutes, weeks, or months. Years!”
This is how dedicated @KeithGrossman flew across the ocean for @timepieces and his @1 & only #NFTLiverpool world’s longest & largest NFT exhibition! He spent genuine effort and got to know us all.
huge honour always gr8ful4 this pic.twitter.com/J09L8RmUcp— ARTJEDIgmSuperRare+Visual Arts Ambassador KO (@ARTJEDI1)
May 14, 2022
TimePieces actively recruits for five positions, including a head for collector relations and a metaverse manager – all roles that have strong affinity with applicants within the TIMEPieces network.
Similar: The NFT industry is expected to grow at $800 billion in the next 2 years. Report
Alex Salnikov is the co-founder of Rarible and Chief Strategy Officer. He acknowledged the market’s current dynamics and the high risk of NFTs in an investment portfolio.
According to data, Rarible is 14th largest marketplace in terms of volume traded over a 30-day period. It has $2.81million. Salnikov spoke out on the topic of helping their community in an uncertain time.
“We are a community-focused marketplace. This principle is especially important during bear markets.” Our team places a special emphasis on community-focused NFT collection support.”
Salnikov cited their collaboration with Solana’s Degenerate Ape Academy and Meta Angels in the development and launch of bespoke marketplaces for their ecosystems. This supports their overall ambitions to “dedicate more of the fees earned on marketplaces to project’s Treasury or DAO and have overall greater flexibility than larger, more centralised platforms.”
