Expanding Business into NFTs

Imagine going to Louvre Museum and staring up at the Mona Lisa. You decide you want that in your living room so you buy a copy on canvas to hang where you can gaze upon it every day.

Do you own the Mona Lisa? No, but you do have a copy, and no matter how many copies are made of it, the original is still worth over $800,000,000, simply because it is the original.

NFTs are a digital version of owning the original piece of art. Others many decide to copy it, but there is still only one verified original, only it resides in your blockchain wallet instead of the Louve.

It is estimated that since they first came into being in 2014, NFTs have become worth over $200 million due to their digital scarcity. In late September 2021, TikTok dipped its toe into NFTs with “TikTok Top Moments” which are a digital collection of short videos from some of the biggest stars on and off the platform. With each new irl (In Real Life) collaboration, the technology of NFTs becomes more mainstream and more legitimized.

What Businesses Can Benefit From NFTs?

In short, all business has the potential to benefit from such offerings, but the payout for it at this time comes down to large well-known names that are nationwide businesses or high level virtual ones. This isn’t to say that the mom-and-pop paint store down the road wouldn’t have any success in it, but the audience is fairly narrow and they would be better off focusing on becoming known as a thought leader in the industry and waiting for NFTs to become more mainstream outside of the world of crypto.

Creating NFTs is not necessarily an easy, fast and cheap way to pump money into a company, either. It requires a digital artist to create the item (be it artwork, music, domain names, video games, or something else) and someone with an understanding of how to set up a crypto wallet and maintain it as well as handle the actual transactions. If you already have someone on staff capable of creating it and they can explain Ethereum gas prices to you, you may be well equipped to delve into NFTs.

Inside the world of crypto, NFTs are already huge. There are massive numbers of projects, all with communities centered around them, and even lately there have started to be virtual real estate projects with an apartment in Ethereum Towers going for just shy of $10,000 with the price expected to skyrocket once Tower 1 is full. (Ed Note: The author is an apartment-holder in Ethereum Towers.) A digital collage by famed crypto artist Beeple sold for $69 million at Christies auction house.

Where Can You Sell NFTs?

As the market grows, there are frequently more options for marketplaces where you can buy and sell. Here are a few to look into:

OPENSEA: OpenSea was founded in 2017 and is one of the most well-known sites simply because it was the first marketplace for user-owned digital goods. Based in New York, the marketplace sells everything from virtual worlds to collectibles to digital art and music, and far more than can be listed here. You can make purchases or sell items using USD Coin (USDC), Ether (ETH) or a number of other options.

MINTABLE: Mintable is notable for being backed by Mar Cuban and Marc Benioff. You can set up a crypto wallet directly on it rather than link to an existing one and they offer “gasless” minting. It is located in Singapore. Some of the categories of offerings are photography, templates, videos, domain names and more.

FOUNDATION: A newcomer to the field as it launched in February of 2021, Los Angeles-based Foundation is notable for hosting NFT sales of the Nyan Cat meme, work by Edward Snowden and Aphex Twin and more.

Should You Sell NFTs?

So you’ve done the homework and found something unique that your company can offer in the digital realm. Great! But should you put it out there?

If you have something unique that nobody else in your industry can offer and you feel comfortable with the process, by all means do! It can be an untapped area of capital for your business. However, it is still fresh enough that there is no need to go out and hire someone specifically for this at this time.