Why NFTs Have Been Silent for a While and How to be Well-Positioned For Its Comeback

Ayodeji Alo (Lore)
Coinmonks
6 min readDec 19, 2023

--

It's no news that the NFT space has been a graveyard for some months now, with very few projects popping up and a lot of influencers throwing in the towel.

Analysis shows that the NFT market which was valued at $2 billion during the NFT craze in 2022 is now at an estimate of $80 million today.

It begs the question, will NFTs charge up again or it’s one of those trends that eventually fades away? Well, to answer these questions we need to explore past data to see its impact on current events.

strap in tight

What Happened To NFTs?

The significant decline in NFTs has been a result of certain recurring factors when we look at historical data, some of which are:

  1. Oversaturation of the market
  2. Dependency on the crypto market
  3. Little or no innovative solutions
  4. Declined adoption by major brands

Let’s talk a bit about each of them, shall we? Great

Oversaturation of The Market

We saw an unprecedented rise in the number of projects that came into the NFT market but, sadly, many of these projects were of low quality.

The influx of these projects caused a flood of valueless NFTs in the market which caused many investors to put their guard up and be extra cautious before investing in any project.

Dependency On The Crypto Market

The prices of NFTs are decided by the activities in the crypto market to a large extent, especially Ethereum. When ETH rises, traders opt to sell their NFTs for the profits and HODL (hold on to dear life) for market volatility.

Some leverage the situation to dump their NFTs at the floor price and use the profit to get into blue-chip projects.

The seasons in the crypto market also affect the growth of NFTs. During the bear market when a lot of cryptocurrencies are in the red, NFT prices tend to follow suit.

Little Or No Innovative Solutions

Let’s take a rewind, shall we? Good. In our foundational knowledge of NFTs, we understand it to be an innovative tech aimed at solving many web3 problems.

Now, what happens when something designed for innovation stops being innovative?

There have been a lot of NFT brands coming up with little or no real solutions in the web3 space. Many of them repeat the utilities of their competitors while others eventually turn out to be rug-pulls.

Where is the innovation?

seems they all went out the window

Declined Adoption Of Major Brands

Since NFTs is a new tech, its growth is primarily based on massive adoption. The more people become aware of the technology and take advantage of it, the more it grows.

One of the ways it gets massive awareness is when mainstream brands adopt the tech. These major brands already have tons of followers so they become a kind of evangelist of the tech to their large following.

We saw that upward spike when brands like Nike, Gucci, Loius Vuitton, Starbucks and Mcdonalds entered the NFT space.

1 million active NFT wallets in 2021. In 2022 after major brands entered, this number grew to over 2.5 million, an increase of over 150%
NFT's market cap was around $14 billion in 2021. After the entry of several major brands, it grew to over $33 billion, an increase of more than 135%.

However, there has been a significant decline in brands entering the space since then.

In recent times we have seen an upward trend in many crypto signals and you know what that means for NFTs. Gosh! The excitement is painted all around X.

and yeah, the NFT influencers are also excited.

It’s just a matter of time before the space is streaming in with creative and innovative products, so let’s talk about how not to be left out.

How To Be Well-Positioned in This New NFT Phase

The strategies I'll be sharing with you are strategies I am also employing to make the most out of this new phase because I have seen them generate results for people in recent times.

So, kick back and let’s ride.

  1. Sweep your favourite NFTs
  2. Get Liquidity
  3. Start tracking early
  4. Build relationships

C’mon, let’s explore them.

Sweep Your Favourite NFTs

It’s amazing how a lot of people have been leveraging this period to get in on their dream project.

Since the floor price of many projects fell and some folks lost interest in NFTs and decided to sell, a lot of smarties took advantage of that opening to get in on top projects

Get Liquidity

You will need adequate liquidity to get on the rolling train of emerging credible and profitable projects. I really cannot describe the influx of quality brands that will spring up.

You can get liquidity from jobs, contests (there have been a lot of thread contests lately), giveaways, airdrops… Just ensure to save up for the storm of amazing projects coming.

Start Tracking Early

Just as the new phase of NFTs will usher in many new and innovative projects, there will also be sour-tasting projects coated with flavour.

What I mean is there will also be rug pulls and scams and it might be not easy to differentiate them, but if you start tracking projects early, you will be able to tell which is solidly building and which isn’t.

Build Relationships

“The new form of networking is not about climbing a ladder to success; it’s about collaboration, cocreation, partnerships, and long-term values-based relationships.” — David Nour

Like it or not, this next phase of NFTs will produce millionaires and Billionaires, and it might be too late to build a relationship when you meet them at the top but it’s quite easy to build one while they are still growing.

A lot of web3 enthusiasts have started building communities where they can share opportunities and grow together in this new phase, try getting in.

It was Gray Vee who said:

“Early relationships are like investments. The sooner you start building them, the greater the return.”

Whoa! it’s been quite the run

Now, there’s only one thing left to do.

You might be wondering, when is the right time to implement all of this. Well, now is the right time, RIGHT. NOW.

And just so you know, some NFTs are already pumping on different blockchains

You’ve still got time before this pump goes viral, so let’s start building NOW.

Cheers from my screen to yours!

--

--

Ayodeji Alo (Lore)
Coinmonks

Web3 Content Writer and Marketer || Leveraging Proven Strategies and Data-driven Insights to Scale Web3 Brands