The involvement of the internationally renowned company Visa in the NFT space has been fueled by a dramatic rise in the popularity of unique tokens and their ability to serve as «a promising medium of exchange for entertainment purposes.» This is discussed in a recent publication by the payment giant.
We will remind, almost a week ago, there was news that Visa acquired the CryptoPunk # 7610 token, which belongs to the sensational NFT-series of «crypto-banks» this year. Now the company representatives explain their decision in more detail.
The performance of popular NFT tokens is really crazy. For example, the average selling price of a representative of the «Cryptobank» line last Friday reached the equivalent of $ 242 thousand.
What is especially important: in January 2021, the token could be bought on average for 6.7 thousand dollars.
Average selling price of CryptoPunk
The platforms on which the NFT are traded are also achieving serious results. For example, the trading volume on the OpenSea NFT platform in August 2021 has already exceeded the $ 3 billion mark. Although back in July the figure was at the level of 300 million.
Trading volume chart on the OpenSea platform
Who buys NFT tokens
According to the company’s publication, NFTs are an important innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic, when stringent quarantine measures around the world have led to restrictions on attendance at entertainment events, sporting events and more. Unique tokens were invented a few years ago, but only now they have become a truly important tool in creating virtual communities for various interests.
The field of professional sports was also severely affected during the quarantine. According to the calculations of Visa experts, the total loss of companies in various sports leagues exceeded the $ 18 billion mark. NFTs provide an opportunity to « stay connected with the fans» and open up new ways to monetize fan content in the form of unique collectibles.
As a reminder, Visa acquired CryptoPunk # 7610 a few days ago for 49.5 ETH or 164 thousand dollars at the purchase rate. According to Cointelegraph journalists , the company has joined a new stage in the growth of the market for unique tokens, which is still showing records for the entire existence of NFT.
Last week, NFT also appeared on the avatar of the official VisaNews Twitter account. At the same time, today it is no longer there – instead, the picture shows the classic Visa logo.
Cryptobank on VisaNews Twitter avatar
For example, in the last 30 days alone, the trading volume of tokens from the CryptoPunks series has exceeded the $ 467.4 million mark. During the same period, the most expensive transaction in the series was the sale of CryptoPunk # 7252 for 1,600 ETH, or approximately $ 4.5 million.
CryptoPunk #7252
At the same time, in the NFT sphere itself, a local trend of adoration of the number 8 formed. A couple of days ago, the CryptoPunk # 8888 token was sold for 888.8 ETH. Another NFT from the EtherRock series was sold for 888 ETH. At least 64 «cryptopanks» now have a set price of 888 ETH. Why is everyone so crazy about this number?
According to one theory, it’s all about the influx of investors from Asia and China in particular, where the number 8 has a sacred meaning. Its pronunciation is consonant with the words «wealth» and «prosperity», so wealthy Chinese investors do their best to buy out as many NFTs with the presence of eights as possible.
One anonymous Chinese investor said in an interview with Decrypt that the popularity of NFT is now growing by leaps and bounds in the local chats of the WeChat application, the country’s most popular messenger. These include businessman Bo Feng, managing partner of Dragonfly. His avatar in the app is the «crypto-bank» he recently bought.
Screenshot of Chinese investors’ WeChat correspondence with numbers 8
True, not all NFTs go to China. As it turned out later, the buyer of CryptoPunk # 8888 was a wealthy cryptocurrency fan under the nickname Cold Blooded Shiller, who himself confirmed on Twitter that he had nothing to do with China. He decided to buy a unique token at this price, because he just likes the number 8. It «reminds him of a snowman».
Cold Blooded Shiller purchase confirmation tweet
We believe the NFT token industry still has room to grow. In fact, large companies began to join this trend only recently, which means that the same Cryptopanks will clearly still have eminent buyers. In turn, this motivates developers of new projects who will not only draw new characters, but also look for other options for using NFT.
