How NFTs went from being worth millions to being worthless
NFTs. Did we know what they were? No. Did that stop us from buying them? No. Honestly, I’m not sure how much of our economy and financial markets would even function if people only bought things they understood.
But NFTs stand out because of the wild ride they went on in the last few years. Non-fungible tokens — little works of art that could be bought on the blockchain, little pieces of property you can own in cyberspace — achieved fame and made many fortunes over the last couple years.
But this year, NFT prices fell off a cliff. Nearly all of the NFTs on the market today are reportedly worthless.
This marks quite the fall from grace for the NFT, which saw a meteoric rise starting in 2021. It’s estimated that 23 million people bought NFTs — and it wasn’t just about sales. NFTs were a cultural phenomenon: They popped up in Super Bowl ads, White House speeches and Saturday Night Live skits. The NFT of a pair of Nike sneakers sold for more than $130,000 — far more than the actual sneakers. NFT artists were suddenly making NFT inspired merch for Walmart, Hello Kitty and even Louis Vuitton.
“I definitely had FOMO,” said Claudia Hess, an art appraiser in San Francisco. She jumped into the NFT market a couple years ago after some artists she knew started producing them and NFT art sales started making headlines. But jumping in was not so easy.
“It was hell, let me tell you,” said Hess with a laugh. “It was so complicated. Setting up the wallet, buying cryptocurrency … I’m like, ‘Has there ever been a freaking harder way to buy art?’”
Almost definitely not. But a lot of people were doing it and a lot of freaking money was changing hands.
In fact, Hess still remembers watching what she considers to be the NFT sale heard round the world: The Beeple sale. It was the sale of an NFT from artist Beeple by Christie’s auction house in March of 2021.
In a Christie’s recording, Beeple watches the bids come in and starts to shake his head in disbelief as the bids climb to $50 million, $55 million and finally settle at an eye-popping $69 million. “Oh my god! $69 million?” He shouts. “I think it probably means digital art is here to stay. I’m going to Disneyland!”
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