NFTs Are Exploding in Popularity. So What Are They?

CHARLOTTE, NC – Its the latest digital craze. Sports moments, music albums, art, even an audio sex tape, are all being authenticated and auctioned with the use of NFTs or non fungible tokens.

The digital collectable marketplace is taking off.

“It enables individuals and companies to work together on a foundation of trust,” said Dan Spuller.

Spuller is the head of industry affairs for the Blockchain Association.

“An NFT can really best be described as a digital certificate of authenticity. For some, that is what makes it a desirable asset,” explained Spuller.

Those assets can be almost anything in the digital space secured and publicly verifiable through blockchain cryptography.

For example, the first tweet ever by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, which was tokenized as a digital asset and sold for upwards of $5 million dollars.

“This is part of a greater digital transformation that’s happening in different segments of society,” said Spuller.

Those other segments include sports and entertainment.

Football player Rob Gronkowski created trading card art. He’s selling them on marketplaces like Open Sea.

Digital trading cards on NBA Top Shot have exploded. They’re similar to classic trading cards. Find your favorite player, and own one of their super star moments.

“It’s an exciting time and I think we’re going to see more and more of this proliferate,” said Spuller.

The band Kings of Leon are the first music group to release an album through an NFT.

“It’s really democratizing this music industry. Allowing them to collaborate with the masses instead of having to rely previously on others to profit off their talents. Agents etc, the centralized system,” said Spuller.

Artists are getting creative. Singer Azealia Banks released a 24 minute NFT recording of her sex tape, which sold for $18,000.

The possibilities of authenticating unique assets are seemingly endless.

“It’s all in a digital world, and that’s where we’re moving,” said Spuller.