What’s an NFT? Lots of people talk about it, but few really understand it.

NFT stands for “Non-fungible token.” What that more or less means is that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is a digital currency, and it is fungible — you trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, like let’s say a rookie Babe Ruth card, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. This definition can help you understand the uniqueness of these NFTs.

This “uniqueness” is what makes NFTs so special and gives it a reason for its spiking demand. It’s a little bit like the art market. And to protect any online art, an item can be tokenized, which verifies that it’s from the artist himself or herself. So when you click on an NFT, you see a form of a digital watermark. This online form of “art” can stretch anywhere from real collages of art to a bunch of pixels that can sell anywhere from 1 cent to $10,000,000. 

That’s where digital currency comes in. Specifically, crypto. Maybe you’ve heard of Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Cardano, and the list goes on. There is so much variety in this space, and a lot of opportunities to make money, or just expand your knowledge within the NFT and crypto space. This NFT community really bonds together on a social media platform called Discord, where everyone can chat. 

For example, I am an owner of a “Lazy Lion,” which is an NFT of a cartoon lion on the Ethereum marketplace. To show how strong these communities are, I composed a tweet and posted it on the discord channel. It gained over 400 likes and 300 followers within a few days. This is also a contributing factor to why the demand is so high in some of these projects. It is because people feel like they belong with these kinds of people — with these kinds of interests.

I feel right now is a prime time to hop in as there has been a correction in the NFT marketplace with ETH rising quickly. The volume of NFTs has risen 15% monthly, and not only has the volume been trending upwards consistently at a good pace, but the average price of a verified collection has as well. These trends are not just big spurts but strong and consistent patterns. 

Although these rhythms and patterns of upward trends are consistent, the volatility is still very high because the demand can be manipulated quite easily for an NFT as there is not a large quantity of it driving the price up. But at the same time, there is a high risk, as so much of this revolves around cryptocurrencies themselves.

In today’s society, it is apparent that people are looking to make money at high risk. As we all know, with high risk comes great reward. In my opinion, I believe that NFTs will be the new way of showing off your social status; instead of having a Gucci hat, for example, you invest in an NFT that’s visible to a much wider audience.

This is a new world of economic and social status within the new world of technology. Whether you’re invested within this new world for financial growth, for art, or to flaunt, there are endless ways to embrace NFTs. And more ways by the day.