Reflecting on NFTs
If you’ve been in the web3 space, I’m sure you heard the following words:
i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶ Spend what you can afford to lose
Buy what you love/enjoy
I know these words have been repeated at ad nauseam and often incorrectly stated, with the words invest or investment included. I can’t count the times I’ve heard frustrated buyers say they expected a “return on their investment” while purchasing an NFT. Despite cautionary tales and reminders that NFTs are speculative and hardly any could be considered an investment, nor legally should be classified as such (hello SEC). It all comes down to, what was promised and what was assumed, wrongfully or encouraged.
A year into the boom of generative PFPs, we’ve witnessed founders and creators deliver on their roadmap, not have a roadmap, never over-promised and often over-deliver, but without satisfaction to their “investors,” because of floor prices and perceived value of their NFT. Even though it was supposed to be about the art, or the community, the value and market is driven by the money. And the entry into the market as well as the rewards, in less than a years time, went from a few hundred to few thousands and tens of thousands for what is considered to be a “Blue Chip.”
In contrast we also seen many creators fail to deliver, intentional (or not) scams and rug-pulls that sucked liquidity out of the market. As well as “successful” mints that burned a lot of liquidity. This is money that is forever lost from the market.
There have also been many founders, or artists who weren’t quite ready to be entrepreneurs and had all the right intentions, but no idea what they were doing. But the market is also responsible, those who participated and rewarded many NFT projects with only a promise to deliver. For us to grow and learn, market participants must accept they played a part and voted with their wallets. After all and as far as we know, not a single person was forced to connect their wallet and press mint.
The party is over, we’re all hungover and it’s time to see who is still around to help clean before we go get breakfast. It’s Sunday in the market, tomorrow will be Monday and the weekend could come in a few weeks, or months.. I‘m not going anywhere, what about you?
