NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have experienced ups and downs in the market, gradually showcasing their unique charm and unlimited potential as an emerging category of digital assets. As a highly scalable digital asset, NFTs are gradually revealing tremendous market prospects in consumer applications, not only providing proof of ownership of digital assets and strong ownership protection for consumers but also playing an important role in promoting the diversification and personalization of digital assets.
On the eve of the DevCon summit, the first global NFT developer summit 'NFTCON 2024', jointly launched by PANews and NFTScan, officially took place on November 11 in Bangkok, Thailand. This event gathered globally renowned NFT projects and senior crypto practitioners, including Animoca Brands, Mask Network, Mint Blockchain, BNB Chain, Pudgy Penguins, PANONY, UniSat, and Movement Labs, to deeply explore the current state of NFT development and future opportunities concerning the extensive applications of NFTs in MEME, social, cultural, commercial, and social charity fields.
The outlook for NFTs remains optimistic, and there is an urgent need to expand new growth pathways.
"In the past few years, NFTs have attracted the attention of artists, technologists, and investors, opening up new profit avenues for creators and providing collectors with unique digital assets, allowing the public to glimpse the immense potential of blockchain technology. Although the current NFT market faces numerous challenges and uncertainties, multiple core indicators show that the market is gradually stabilizing. Meanwhile, the NFT ecosystem landscape is quietly changing due to market demand, intense platform competition, and evolving narrative trends, indicating that the existing NFT system urgently needs new empowerment and innovation. The combination of certain innovative pathways brings more development opportunities, such as DeFi, RWA, consumer applications, and public chains," noted Sunny NG, partner of PANONY & PANews, during the keynote speech titled 'Unlocking the NFT Universe'.
PANews released the latest NFT industry report at the event, which deeply analyzes the current state of NFT market development and explores potential pathways for sustainable development, helping everyone to understand the complexity of the NFT market more comprehensively, as well as gain insights into its potential future innovative pathways.
Rose, head of the Mint Blockchain ecosystem, further pointed out that although there are some pessimistic voices about the future of NFTs in the market, this market has not disappeared and is evolving. The Solana and L2 ecosystems (such as OP Mainnet, Base, and Mint Blockchain) are gradually becoming the main forces behind NFT activities, indicating that developers and NFT creators are turning their attention to other ecosystems.
She also revealed that after the Mint Blockchain launched its own online platform, it gradually joined the OP Superchain ecosystem, with current active users exceeding 5 million and on-chain transaction volume surpassing 10 million. The Mint Blockchain ecosystem mainly focuses on three aspects: NFT + applications (games, DeFi, and social, etc.), NFT passes, and simplifying NFT creation.
In the keynote speech titled 'The Future of Decentralized Social', Suji Yan, founder of Mask Network, reviewed the history of cryptocurrencies and cyberspace, pointing out that the emergence of Bitcoin represents a global financial freedom movement that does not rely on any single national government, and both Bitcoin and NFTs are products of this decentralized revolution. "In the new digital world, NFTs are not just financial tools, but tools for achieving independence, freedom, and revolution, helping us redefine value and power in cyberspace. In the future, we may see new forms of nations based on NFTs, new social agreements, and even new cultural movements."
As the underlying technologies continue to develop, the integration of NFTs with cross-chain and L2 technological innovations is further enhancing their applications in diversified scenarios, giving rise to entirely new business models and economic ecosystems. In the roundtable discussion on 'How the underlying technology of NFTs can expand to diverse use cases', Sarah, head of business development at BNB Chain, bluntly stated, "We need to genuinely think about how to apply NFTs in our daily lives and find practical application scenarios, especially as we see many consumer DApps striving to guide Web 2 users to Web 3, whether related to IP, content, gaming projects, or even digital identity. Overall, I believe the future of NFTs will find broader applications in real use cases."
Wishlonger, co-founder of Pharos Network, also believes that although PFP NFTs were mainstream in the past, the innovation was limited. Returning to the essence of NFTs, they are tools that can create new value. He believes that NFTs can serve as an entry point into Web3, helping new users to enter this field.
Fries, COO of RareShop, added that the true potential of NFTs is not limited to PFP avatars, but rather in how to integrate NFTs with real-world assets. For example, NFTs can be applied to tickets, artworks, fashion, real estate, and even investment sectors, all of which may become the next growth points for NFT applications.
"By combining the advantages of Web3 and Web2, we can promote large-scale popularization and adoption." Cheryl Law, head of Pudgy Penguins in the Asia-Pacific region, shared the rapid growth of Pudgy Penguins and brand expansion at the event. She disclosed that in the past, Pudgy Penguins enhanced brand value and market penetration through charitable activities, community building, and partnerships with well-known brands. For example, Pudgy Penguins collaborated with Walmart to launch toys, which were all sold out in five seconds, and integrated QR code technology to combine toys with blockchain to achieve a digital experience of toys.
Breaking through the NFT: Dual Empowerment of Brand Culture and Business
When discussing the future of NFTs, Victor Zhang, co-founder of Smart Token Labs, mentioned in a roundtable that although the NFT market is still speculative, more and more projects are beginning to focus on the practicality of NFTs, such as NFT membership cards, NFT tickets, and NFT physical products combined with e-commerce. Additionally, FT is often limited to specific blockchains or ecosystems, restricting its use cases and value. Jasmine Tran, head of the Dagora project, also believes that in the future, NFTs will not only be collectibles, but there will be more innovative applications centered around practicality, especially those combined with traditional brands.
Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, further illustrated that the application of NFTs in the gaming industry is flourishing. For instance, the integration with the Telegram network and multi-platform support allows games to reach a vast number of users, promoting the widespread application of NFTs in the gaming field. The potential of NFTs in the tokenization of real assets is also gradually being explored.
Regarding the future challenges of NFTs, Grant Gerbeg, head of the Movement Labs ecosystem, stated that the expansion of the NFT community is facing dual challenges from external behavior and education. In particular, the behavior of individual members can negatively impact the overall image of the community, thereby harming the overall value of the project. He also pointed out that NFTs need to help the public realize that they are not limited to simple avatars or artworks, but their true value lies in the rich functionalities and endless possibilities they encompass. Therefore, education is key to breaking through and promoting the development of NFTs.
Grant Gerbeg, head of the Movement Labs ecosystem, also believes that NFT projects need to reduce market volatility through education and enhancing user understanding, promoting more sustainable development.
In a roundtable discussion titled 'Exit or Entry: Perspectives on the Future Economics of NFTs', several crypto leaders deeply explored the future development trends of NFTs, particularly offering many insights into innovative pathways. Among them, Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, stated that in the long run, NFTs will become 'cultural capital' in the crypto field. To some extent, NFTs and MEME coins have many similarities; they just belong to different eras. From the perspectives of economic capital, social capital, symbolic capital, and cultural capital, MEME coins and NFTs operate in the same domain, with the former leaning more towards economic capital and the latter belonging more to cultural capital. He further pointed out that unlike other crypto projects, the economic model of NFTs places more emphasis on cultural value; culture is the deepest 'TVL' in any economy.
Vivian, a core contributor at UniSat, believes that the current NFT market is in a consolidation phase. Despite significant market price fluctuations, I personally think this is healthy for the entire ecosystem. This phase marks a time when people no longer blindly chase trends and can avoid flooding the market at unreasonable prices. He is very optimistic about Bitcoin NFTs and explains that Bitcoin is the safest blockchain and possesses the most untapped potential.
"I am personally very optimistic about NFTs because they can be combined with Bitcoin and even emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI)." According to Yang, an investment manager at Bing Ventures, NFTs have two promising areas: the consumer side and the infrastructure side. From the consumer side, NFTs are an excellent tool to attract more users to join the community and increase user engagement. From the infrastructure side, NFTs can also be integrated with real-world assets (RWA) to support fields such as financial tools. From an investment perspective, we focus more on the application scenarios of NFTs, especially the practical value in finance, lending, real estate, etc. If an NFT's application scenario lacks practical use, its investment potential will be significantly reduced.
Dinghan Luo, partner at Jsquare, and Fang Yuan, head of Antalpha Ventures, also expressed optimism about NFTs, believing that NFTs are not just cultural products but also need to recognize their potential in practical applications, especially in financial tools and real-world assets (RWA). This is also key to making the entire NFT industry more complete. NFTs can be valued from the perspective of network effects, but they are often more symbolic, cultural, and even social. How NFT projects find the right market positioning and business model is crucial for sustainable development in the industry.
