NFTs: Why They’re Booming in 2021 and Destined for More

It’s official — cryptocurrency has practically gone mainstream in 2021, with popular influencers, news channels, and celebrities across the board promoting the next generation of technology that many doubted for years. And from cryptocurrency’s growing popularity, one area, in particular, has shined and surged above many of the others.

NFTs (otherwise known as Non-Fungible Tokens) have hit the ground running this year, making headlines and kickstarting a brand new era of digital artwork, all through leveraging blockchain technology. People are buzzing about NFTs and the massive opportunities that lie ahead for them. But why are NFTs becoming so popular, and what’s been going on in this space that’s generating such strong excitement?

Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the key reasons as to why NFTs are booming in 2021 — on top of that, we’ll discuss how LOCGame is bringing a brand new take on NFTs to the forefront.

Why are they such a big deal?

For those of you who may be new to this space, the simplest explanation of NFTs is that they’re unique digital assets represented through ERC-721 tokens that serve as verifiable proof of ownership and scarcity, in the form of images, music, video, and other types of media and artwork.

But why is this important, and what’s the use case for NFTs?

To begin, the meaning of “Non-Fungible” is that the item itself can’t be replaced to duplicated with another — it inherently contains unique properties unlike any other on the market. They’re primarily used as collectibles that can be purchased and traded online, coming in all different forms and across various online platforms and marketplaces.

The main difference between NFTs and traditional collectibles (such as classic trading cards, sports memorabilia, etc.) is that they’re digitized and can be used for far more than just trading. Users can unlock access to their immutability and verifiability thanks to blockchain technology as well as to earning attractive rewards through DeFi capabilities. It’s important to note that the content of the majority of NFTs isn’t kept on the blockchain, but rather it holds a link to where the NFT is housed — the blockchain provides that much-needed proof of authenticity.

Moreover, anyone can create and mint an NFT given the decentralized nature of platforms such as Rarible and OpenSea — this means access is opened to worldwide users, providing equal opportunity for users to distribute and monetize their digital creations as they please.

A Quick Blast into the Past

The first concept of NFTs emerged in 2014 with the creation of Counterparty and the concept of “colored coins.” Then came Ethereum in 2015, developing a solid foundation for these creations to be minted, stored, and traded on its powerful blockchain. Soon after in 2017, collectible ideas such as CryptoPunks were developed on Ethereum as ERC-721 tokens, gaining major popularity and helping set the stage for what was to come.

For a comprehensive history on NFTs and how they came to be, make sure to check out our article here.

2020 was the year of DeFi, from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and Compound to other high-yield earning protocols stealing the spotlight — they offered users new and innovative methods to earn rewards. The DeFi space was hot during that very summer, with token prices exploding to the upside and brand new technological applications being introduced to take advantage of the craze.

In late 2020, NFTs started to really pick up steam given the DeFi hype and decentralized marketplaces, such as Rarible, beginning to pop up.

Why the Massive Boom in 2021?

NFTs really started gaining traction in January 2021 — although no one truly understands why this specific timeframe initiated the massive boom (given the relatively stagnant years since the first minted NFT in 2014 as a comparison), there are a few potential reasons that could explain why.

When Bitcoin really began to take off at the beginning of 2021, it drove further awareness and hype across the entire crypto market, reeling in existing crypto users and your average traditional retail investors. New and creative types of avatars and characters also began to emerge, such as Bored Apes and Cool Cats, helping construct online communities that gave people a stronger sense of purpose and reason to buy and use these NFTs.

Not to mention the Elon Musk hype surrounding Dogecoin and Shiba Inu in late January, which caught the eyes of hundreds of millions of people globally. This, in turn, helped ignite the memecoin revolution, with a lot of this buzz and interest translating directly into an additional interest in NFTs.

And as decentralized NFT marketplaces, such as Rarible and OpenSea, began to attract more attention, it provided many lucrative and convenient ways for users to mint, share, view, and collect NFTs amongst other like-minded individuals — the applicability of DeFi also helped enhance their use case, so artists could begin earning passive income for their creations. Once certain NFTs started to begin selling for ludicrous amounts of money (more information below), the news quickly broke out and brought in a tidal wave of new users.

As an example, below is a graph that highlights increased activity on OpenSea. The number of users, transactions, and volume was quite low leading up to 2021, but we’ve recently seen a huge boom this summer in overall activity:

Key Statistics & Fun Facts

To showcase how remarkable and sudden the growth of NFTs and digital collectibles has been, take a look at some of these fun facts and key statistics below so you can see for yourself:

• The total amount of NFT sales in 2020 was $250 million, up a staggering 82% from 2019’s $141 million in sales
• The total sales in Q1 2021 alone for NFTs reached over $2 billion
• The most expensive NFT ever sold was named “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Beeple for around $69 million

As briefly mentioned above, the NFT market and subsequent demand are growing at rapid speeds. Below is a monthly graph of NFT sales since 2019 from nonfungible.com, demonstrating a rather stagnant trend across 2019 and 2020 followed by a massive boom in 2021:

To date, there are almost 51,000 active market wallets trading NFTs, and this number continues to grow as hype increases and reaches the masses.

Here’s a list of the top highest-selling NFTs recorded to date (source here):

LOCGame: Spurring the Next NFT Revolution

LOCGame offers a whole new and unique take on NFTs. For all the blockchain lovers out there, with our innovative game and card decks, not only can you play to earn in a fun environment, but you can also embody the very essence of your favorite crypto influencers.

Our blockchain-based card game allows you to play with and collect cards of popular crypto memes and influencers, meaning you can have exclusive ownership of these assets in the form of NFTs to hold a rare piece of crypto’s future. DeFi rewards are also deeply embedded in the core of our gameplay model, where you can earn from buying cards in our marketplace, staking our token, interacting with the game through our “pay-for-play” model, and much more.

Many other NFTs on the market have interesting designs and concepts, but we’re doing something completely different. The top figureheads and players in the crypto space deserve representation, especially as they’ve gained popularity, and we’re making them inherently valuable through our product offering. When it comes to the detailed artwork and NFT applicability on our platform, we’re virtually unmatched.

What’s Next to Come?

Many say that the NFT craze is a short-lived bubble. It’s difficult to argue whether or not this is true, as NFTs have demonstrated a strong use case to a previously existing (and rather successful) artwork and collectibles industry. In this case, they’re arguably better given their immutability, anonymity, decentralization, and other attractive features.

So will the NFT bubble eventually pop? That answer is unknown — but it’s quite clear that NFTs are here to stay for the time being.

There’s no question that NFTs are extremely powerful pieces of technology that are completely changing the way we think about and use art — they’re helping fully digitize this lucrative industry and completely alter the way people think about and use artwork, for the first time in a very long time.

There’s so much more that we’re building here at LOCGame — you won’t want to miss it! Visit our website, Medium, and Twitter platforms to ensure you never miss an update.