What is Open Edition?
Recently, open editions NFT are making headlines on Twitter as more people become well aware of what it is. If you do not know, open editions NFTs refer to NFT drops with no supply cap (i.e. holders can mint as many tokens as they want, usually within a certain period of time, or there can be no time limit imposed).
A good example is Beeple Redux Open Edition sold on Nifty Gateway previously where each piece were priced at $969 and because they were open editions, depending on how many were bought during the allotted five-minute window, the artist would have to produce its equivalent physical pieces as part of the utility.
Why are Open Edition NFTs trending?
There are two main reasons why we see more collections being launched as open editions namely,
- Infrastructure
As more platforms such as Manifold and Zora start to appear, they support artists with no technical knowledge or capability to launch their NFT collection. In turn, artists who have no coding knowledge can still launch their digital artwork as NFTs through them resulting in more artists entering the NFT space.
- Holders’ price expectations
With typically low mint prices for these open edition collections, NFT collectors are trying to find the golden goose that will allow them to earn a huge profit from their mints. This results in holders trying to get in and mint as many as possible during the minting stage in hopes of getting a high return on investments.
What does it mean for Artists?
- Additional revenue stream
As artists go towards open edition collections, they have the potential to earn more than what they would have. This is a new business model for most artists, be it those new entrants who are entering the digital art space or even those who did custom 1/1 work and choose to launch their digital art pieces to see how demand is.
An example is by @DesLucrece, who launched an open edition, “Defy” — commanding over 8k mints (+$800k) just on the primary sales and followed it up with a burning game called proceed w/ caution. This was done shortly following a successful auction at Sotheby’s where all lots surpassed estimates.
2. Maintain and grow community base
Launching an open edition collection can be a useful marketing tool as this allows the artist to cater to both existing fans who are avid supporters of their work and want to own it as well as expanding to new audiences that have never come across their artwork before or could not purchase due to either financial or limited edition reasons. This is seen from the increase in the number of distinct minters across the past few months on Manifold.
3. Explore new concepts
Not only can an artist explore new art mediums (i.e. from physical to digital), but they are also able to explore NFT innovations such as burn mechanisms to find ways to make their art stand out and/or express themselves or their point of view.
An example is a recent collection, Checks VV launched by Jack Butcher. Following a successful mint of 16,031 pieces in 24 hours, Butcher and his team started to find ways to push the boundaries of NFTs by trying to answer the question: “Are checks more desirable if they are harder to get?” and inspired by Damian Hirst’s NFT project The Currency.
How does the perception of holders change?
Consumers’ perspective about NFTs being an investment tool changes with open editions NFTs. With open editions NFTs, holders know that the supply may end up being higher than what they are often used to. Limited drops NFTs generally command more value due to obvious supply and demand reasons, so it is normal to assume that with these open editions, they will manage their price expectations as they will not see that much return on investments (immediately). As more fans of the artists enter the NFT space wanting to support their favorite artists, they are more likely to be happy with holding their artwork digitally and not expect to profit from it.
What does it mean moving forward?
It is important to note that Open Editions NFTs are not for everyone (both artists and holders alike). It is still a relatively new topic and the space is still trying to push the boundaries of what it means when the collection is as such.
It can help an artist in their career, but only at the appropriate time in their career trajectory. Launching the collection as open editions early helps with visibility and marketing for the artists. However, the success of the artist in the space largely depends on two factors:
(a) The Reputation of the artists as the years go by (i.e. how are their other works doing, and can they consistently deliver artworks that holders are enthusiastic about);
(b) Innovative mechanism that affects basic supply and demand of the NFTs in order to sustain continued interest.
The value of the collection largely depends on the holders, not just the monetary value but also whether there is emotional value ascribed to it. I think that Open Edition NFTs will do very well in art preservation, or even making a famous artwork more accessible to the masses because it has sentimental value to a group of people. Furthermore, it is a good way for new artists to build their online communities and share their digital artworks without being judged as it can be a good test bed to see how receptive certain art style works for the masses.
