A look back at 2021, and a sneak peek at 2022
NFT market sees explosion in trading volume in 2021, and 2022 could be the year of music NFTs
Another year has passed, but in crypto it’s more like dog years! So 2028 here we come! Here is a brief overview.
Did much happen in 2021?
Plenty of interesting articles out there already. And here’s a good numeric overview of 2021.
Let’s take a quick look back at 2021.
2021 Buzzwords:
Metaverse, NFT, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Ape, Web3, DAO.
2021 crypto market cap:
Crypto space surpassed $3 Trillion market cap.
Technology:
The multi-chain thesis is coming into fruition with NFT projects being deployed in chains other than Ethereum. The US become the world’s biggest bitcoin mining hub.
Regulation:
We talked about El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption as a pioneer in making BTC a legal tender. The largest economies are becoming more serious in terms of the discussion about crypto assets. And it’s not just about FUD.
Investment:
The crypto and blockchain space saw an explosion in NFT trading volume. It went from just under $35 million in the whole of 2020 to about $23 billion in 2021, according to a Forbes article.
Digital Collectibles have accelerated growth in retail and attracted first-time crypto buyers. VCs have invested big time into GameFi and other NFT-related projects. The first bitcoin futures ETFs were approved by the SEC.
Human capital:
The Web3 ecosystem is just getting started in terms of how global access to labour is changing & it will keep changing the game for talent sourcing. DAOs and multiple discord channels are enabling this.
Brand management:
In a world where “attention” is a valuable asset, companies try to compete by finding new ways to engage with their audiences. You’ve seen major brands like Nike, Pepsi, Adidas, Budweiser using NFTs to grow their digital presence. New ways of using digital will keep growing. We’ll also keep you posted on how we can help.
To the Metaverse and beyond (aka looking into 2022)
We’ve covered a few different angles so far in terms of Web3 developments and NFT projects, but we’ve yet to write about music NFTs. And guess who’s bullish on these? Indeed, your editor believes these will stand out from some of its NFT peers. They have started to grow, but are still far from other categories like fine art, PFP/collectibles and GameFi. Consider this our end of year “alpha leak”, though still not a financial advice.
The music industry experienced significant transformation over the last 15 years, namely with the appearance of music streaming applications, such as iTunes, YouTube and Spotify. This has had a knock-on effect in terms of how sales are generated, who collects them and how royalties are paid. Ultimately, there’s still the “middleman effect”, in which someone is taking a (sometimes hefty) $$$$ cut, which poses the question around the fair share of revenue artists should keep for themselves.
This is where decentralised music streaming platforms come into play with a strong value proposition: giving back power to the artists and facilitating direct (royalty) payments between end users and those artists. What’s the general impact? On one hand, more artists are given an opportunity to create for a wider audience (not necessarily having to depend on record labels) and, on the other, optimising the process by cutting out the middleman, which can lead to overall lower cost and/or increasing artists’ remuneration.
A few projects are live, such as Opus Audio & Audius. In short, they are blockchain-powered, decentralized music streaming services with social media features that connect fans directly with artists and are all about exclusive new music.
Let’s look at Audius. It has its own crypto token, $AUDIO, and the platform programmes “airdrops” (i.e., token rewards) for their artists, developers and users, such as top 5 weekly trending tracks, apps created, social engagement and trending playlists. The figures below are supportive of the long-term opportunity in this space.
Audius unique users in December 2021: just under 5.5 million.
Spotify users in Q3–2021: 381 million
Audius also branched out by establishing a partnership with TikTok whereby artists can have their tracks shared directly on that platform.
This is representative of the networking effects the NFT space can trigger. We’ll see more partnerships as the ecosystem grows, including how artists will benefit from GameFi growth.
Until then, keep listening :)
Safety tips for New Year’s Eve
Party as much as you want, but be safe and… wear a mask!
Speaking of safety, please spend some time assuring you actively follow security best practices when managing your wallets. After all, how secure are they?
See you next year! WAGMI.
LOOKS RARE. PROBABLY NOTHING.
- Virtual Passport: It seems like Coinbase is developing meta-ID’s.
- We’re Not All Gonna Make It? I guess this can be a bit like your parents trying to dance. Come on. They’re not going to ruin the Metaverse — just give them a chance to be cool.
- Mars for sale — when Moon? Mars4 Metaverse have kicked-off their project and will eventually release a Play2Earn.
- Blockfix the Netbuster: A decentralised autonomous organisation intends to buy the Blockbuster brand and start streaming. Who said YOLO?
- The Big Audits: The Big4 accountancy firms are now asking employees to declare their crypto holdings. Could be embarrassing if they disclose all of them.
- Show me the money: Last week we mentioned El Salvador’s plan to make BTC a big thing. Not everything goes to plan at the start. Sir, please save their tokens.
USE THIS ICE-BREAKER NEXT TIME YOU SEE YOUR HIPSTER NEIGHBOUR:
This week’s Crypto Jargon: “Mooning”. You would have realised by now that crypto assets are volatile and with that… high returns. When using the term “moon” crypto investors are referring to the prices going up.
Fun fact: on Saturday Night Live “Lloyd Ostertag” (played by Elon Musk, 2021 Person of the Year by Times Magazine) had his breakthrough and shouted “to the moon!!!” — referring to Dogecoin.
One of the TOP 2021 NFT tweets. Even Paris shared it.
MEME OF THE YEAR: Yes, that’s Elon.
Fayre’s TLDR:
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