For a feel of the scale of collapse we’re seeing in NFTs (non-fungible tokens, or how you can “own” a digital something that can be easily copied):
An NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, purchased last year by an Iranian crypto investor for $2.9 million, was put up for auction in April, with bids toppingout at $280. A token of a pixelated man with sunglasses and hat that sold for roughly $1 million seven months ago brought just $138,000 on May 8. A digital token of an ape with a red hat, sleeveless T-shirt and multicolored grin —part of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club — purchased for over $520,000 on April 30, was sold for roughly half that price 10 days later. [WaPo]
And
Transactions since last summer have come in “fits and starts,” according to a report from Chainalysis, with two spikes probably driving most activity: The late-August release of digital tokens from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, a different collection of images of apes with colorful disfigurations, and a period between January to early February this year were probably driven by the launch of a new NFT marketplace, LooksRare.
Since then, transactions have declined significantly, the report found, dropping from $3.9 billion the week of Feb. 13 to $964 million the week of March 13, with increases recently coming from the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s project to sell land in the metaverse, which garnered $320 million in sales over two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, from the same article:
“I think of NFTs as pure froth,” said Peter M. Garber, an economist and author of “Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias.” “It is more of a pump-and-dump, Wolf-of-Wall-Street operation than anything else.”
Garber seems to have a good head on his shoulders, to use an old, old saying.
Ya know, I wonder what Professor Turchin would have to say about this phenomenon, what parallels he’d draw to old Roman Empire corruption and decay.
Deepak Thapliyal, the chief executive of the cryptocurrency company Chain, who purchased a rare NFT of a pixelated alien in February for $23.7 million, isn’t afraid. “My decision to purchase a rare Alien Crypto Punk remains the same as it is today,” he said in a statement to The Washington Post. “It is a rare piece of digital art which will have a lifetime of value to the beholder.”
Really? REALLY? REALLY? I have to wonder if he’s just kidding everyone, or if Thapliyal is really that lost.
