As NFTs once more capture mainstream attention, one prolific collector is leading the charge
by ANDREW THURMAN for Cointelegraph
On the evening of Jan 25, longtime non-fungible token (NFT) collectors, developers, and believers witnessed a bizarre, but likely validating piece of blockchain history: legendary collector-whale Pranksy was interviewed on the Fox 5 New York evening news during a segment on NBA Topshot, an NFT-backed collectible highlights project.
NFTs on the nightly news is the culmination of a variety of intersecting trends. For one, it’s a testament to the developmental progress the NFT space has made since CryptoKitties, the last blockchain-based collectibles project to attract a hint of public attention in 2017. The interfaces are sleeker, transactions are easier, the prices often much, much higher — and in Topshot, a use case long thought as niche or secondary is gaining real mainstream traction due to an unusually snug product-market fit.
… Artist Kevin Abosch, who often uses blockchain as a medium, told Cointelegraph that he’s frequently approached by both real-world and NFT funds cooking up schemes, and warned that new entrants to the market should be wary of marketing and hype.
“There are thousands of self-proclaimed ‘crypto-artists’ or ‘NFT-artists’ who see the headlines of big sales on the NFT auction platforms and understandably think there's a gold-rush. It’s important to recognize that there’s an engineered vacuum being created and inside the vacuum it’s easy to make it seem like there are a few hyper-successful artists in the space and that a sophisticated market is emerging,” said Abosch.
“While I'm obviously deeply involved in the space, I have to tune out all the money-talk. At some point it's vulgar. Art is for lovers and the art market is for hustlers,” he added.
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