The emergence of Web3, a vision of the internet built on blockchain-based, decentralized systems, has many investors licking their chops because of its financial upside. Meanwhile, others are betting on Web3’s downfall. The rise of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, in popularity and demand may be the clearest indication of Web3’s promise.
“NFTs will be ubiquitous,” Brandon Buchanan, founder and managing partner of Meta4 Capital, a crypto-focused investment management firm, told Yahoo Finance this week. “Everything we're doing now, and we're starting with art and collectives, will shift to gaming and everything from ticketing to events.”
NFTs, which are one-of-a-kind digital assets, surpassed $22 billion in the global market this year, according to data from DappRadar, a firm that tracks sales, easily eclipsing the $100 million market in 2020. Highly sought after collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club turned images into lucrative investment assets. Buchanan bought a Bored Ape NFT with gold fur for a record $3.4 million at auction. The sale came several months after the artist known as Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million.
In many ways, Black Americans, like Buchanan, are leading the crypto revolution. Twenty-three percent of African-Americans own cryptocurrency, compared to 11% of white Americans and 17% of Hispanics, according to two recent surveys conducted by Harris Poll and provided to USA Today. Minority communities, who have historically been left out of growing industries like alcohol, marijuana and more, are now eager to be a part of this latest shift.
