Beeple Observes Speculators’ Exit from the NFT Market

Despite a decline in activity in the NFT sector since 2021, enthusiasm for it remains high. This was stated by artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple. 

He noted the sale of a token from the CryptoPunk collection for $16 million, which took place in March this year. 

“To me, it’s crazy how normalized this has become, and surprising that it wasn’t news at all. I mean, it’s still a huge sale in the art world,” said Beeple.

In 2021, he sold the NFT artwork “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” for a record $69.3 million. The artist noted that at the time he considered the market overheated. 

Since then, trading volumes of non-fungible tokens have significantly decreased. 

“We lost a lot of people. But they were never into art, I noticed that right away,” said Beeple.

He added that the NFT market “needed to come back to Earth,” and speculators “moved on.” The ecosystem now consists of “passionate” enthusiasts who understand the technology and see it as a means of expressing artistic ideas.

According to Winkelmann, people hated NFTs much longer than they loved them.

“There was a very short period when people said this was the future. And then it went back to, ‘Oh, you damn piece of crap, don’t you dare burden me with this evil,'” he noted. 

In the future, every painting will have a non-fungible token, the artist believes. 

“Unlike a regular piece of paper, this is the best way to prove ownership of works, their provenance, and [conduct] exhibitions,” Winkelmann noted.

In September, CEO of Pudgy Penguins Luca Netz stated that NFTs remain the best way to build a community, despite the popularity of meme coins.