NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have experienced ups and downs in the market, gradually showcasing their unique charm and infinite potential as an emerging category of digital assets. As a highly scalable digital asset, NFTs are gradually demonstrating huge market prospects in consumer applications, not only providing proof of ownership of digital assets and offering strong ownership protection for consumers but also playing an important role in promoting the diversification and personalization of digital assets.
Just before the DevCon summit, the first global NFT developer summit 'NFTCON 2024' initiated by PANews and NFTScan is officially held on November 11 in Bangkok, Thailand. This event brings together globally renowned NFT projects and seasoned crypto practitioners such as Animoca Brands, Mask Network, Mint Blockchain, BNB Chain, Pudgy Penguins, PANONY, UniSat, and Movement Labs, to deeply explore the broad applications of NFTs in MEME, social, cultural, commercial, and social charity fields, and delve into the current state and future opportunities of NFT development.
The prospects of NFTs remain optimistic, and there is an urgent need to explore new growth paths.
"Over the past few years, NFTs have attracted the attention of artists, tech experts, and investors. They have opened up new ways for creators to profit and provided collectors with unique digital assets, allowing the public to glimpse the immense potential of blockchain technology. Despite the current challenges and uncertainties facing the NFT market, multiple core indicators show that the market is gradually stabilizing. At the same time, the NFT ecosystem is quietly changing due to market demand, fierce competition among platforms, and evolving narrative trends, indicating that the existing NFT system urgently needs new empowerment and innovation. The combination of some innovative paths brings more development opportunities, such as in DeFi, RWA, consumer applications, and public chains." Sunny NG, partner at PANONY & PANews, pointed out during the keynote speech on 'Unlocking the NFT Universe'.
PANews released the latest NFT industry report at the event, which deeply analyzes the current development status of the NFT market and explores potential paths for the sustainable development of NFTs, helping everyone to better understand the complexity of the NFT market and gain insights into its possible future innovative paths.
Rose, head of the Mint Blockchain ecosystem, further pointed out that although there are some pessimistic voices regarding the prospects of NFTs in the market, this market has not disappeared and is evolving. Ecosystems like Solana and L2 (such as OP Mainnet, Base, and Mint Blockchain) are gradually becoming the main forces of NFT activity, indicating that developers and NFT creators are shifting their attention to other ecosystems.
She also revealed that after Mint Blockchain's independent online launch, it gradually joined the OP Superchain ecosystem, and the number of active users has exceeded 5 million, with 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 on 'The Future of Decentralized Social', Mask Network founder Suji Yan reviewed the history of cryptocurrency and cyberspace, pointing out that the emergence of Bitcoin represents a global financial freedom movement that does not rely on a single national government, and both Bitcoin and NFTs are products of this decentralized revolution. 'In the new digital world, NFTs are not just a financial tool, but tools for achieving independence, freedom, and revolution, helping us redefine the value and power of cyberspace. In the future, we may see new forms of nations, new social agreements, and even new cultural movements based on NFTs.'
With the continuous development of underlying technologies, the combination of NFTs with cross-chain and L2 innovations is further enhancing their application in diverse scenarios, giving rise to 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, candidly stated, 'We need to truly think about how to apply NFTs to our daily lives and find practical application scenarios, especially now that we see many consumer DApps striving to guide Web 2 users to Web 3, whether it's 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.'
Pharos Network co-founder Wishlonger also believes that although PFP NFTs were the mainstream in the market in the past, the innovation was limited. Returning to the essence of NFTs, they are a tool that can be used to create new value. He believes that NFTs can serve as an entry point to Web3, helping new users enter this field.
Fries, COO of RareShop, added that the true potential of NFTs is not limited to PFP avatars, but lies in how to combine NFTs with real-world assets. For example, NFTs can be applied to tickets, artworks, fashion, real estate, and even investment fields, all of which may become the next growth points for NFT applications.
"By combining the advantages of Web3 and Web2, we will be able to drive mass adoption and utilization." Cheryl Law, head of Pudgy Penguins in the Asia-Pacific region, shared the rapid growth and brand expansion of Pudgy Penguins at the event. She disclosed that in the past, Pudgy Penguins enhanced brand value and market penetration through charitable activities, community building, and collaborations with well-known brands. For example, Pudgy Penguins collaborated with Walmart to launch toys, all of which were sold out in just 5 seconds, and also combined toys with blockchain through QR code technology to achieve a digital experience for toys.
NFT Breakthrough: Empowering Brand Culture and Business Duality
When discussing the future of NFTs, Victor Zhang, co-founder of Smart Token Labs, stated in a roundtable discussion that although the NFT market is still full of speculation, more and more projects are starting to focus on the practicality of NFTs, such as NFT membership cards, NFT tickets, and NFT physical products combined with e-commerce. Additionally, FT often limits itself to specific blockchains or ecosystems, restricting its use scenarios and value. Jasmine Tran, head of the Dagora project, also believes that in the future, NFTs will not just be collectibles; there will be more innovative applications centered on practicality, especially those combined with traditional brands.
Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, further exemplified that the application of NFTs in the gaming industry is thriving. For instance, the integration of the Telegram network and multi-platform support allows games to reach a large 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 challenges for the future 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 may bring negative impacts to the community's image, thereby damaging the overall value of projects. He also pointed out that NFTs need to make the public aware that they are by no means limited to simple profile pictures or artworks; their true value lies in the rich functionalities and infinite possibilities they encompass. Therefore, education is key to breaking through and advancing the development of NFTs.
Grant Gerbeg, head of Movement Labs ecosystem, also believes that NFT projects need to reduce market volatility through education and enhancing user understanding to promote more sustainable development.
In the roundtable discussion on the theme 'Exit or Enter: Perspectives on the Future Economics of NFTs', several crypto leaders deeply explored the future development trends of NFTs, particularly offering many insights on innovation paths. 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 space. To some extent, NFTs and MEME coins share many similarities, only their eras are different. From the perspectives of economic capital, social capital, symbolic capital, and cultural capital, MEME coins and NFTs operate in the same field, where the former leans more towards economic capital and the latter belongs more to cultural capital. He further pointed out that unlike other crypto projects, NFTs' economic models pay more attention to cultural value, which is the deepest 'TVL' in any economy.
UniSat core contributor Vivian believes that the current NFT market is in a consolidation phase. Although market prices are significantly volatile, I personally think this is healthy for the entire ecosystem. This phase marks that people are no longer blindly chasing trends and can avoid flooding into the market at unreasonable prices. He is very optimistic about Bitcoin NFTs and explains that Bitcoin is the safest blockchain and has the most untapped potential.
"I am personally very optimistic about NFTs because they can be combined with Bitcoin, and even with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI)." In the view of Yang, an investment manager at Bing Ventures, NFTs have two promising areas: one is the consumer side, and the other is the infrastructure side. From the consumer side, NFTs are a very good tool to attract more users to join the community and increase user stickiness. From the infrastructure side, NFTs can also be combined with real-world assets (RWA) to support fields such as financial tools. From an investment perspective, we are more focused on the application scenarios of NFTs, especially the practical value in finance, lending, real estate, and other fields. If an NFT's application scenario has no practical use, its investment potential will be significantly discounted.
Jsquare partner Dinghan Luo and Antalpha Ventures head Fang Yuan also expressed optimism about NFTs. They believe that NFTs are not just cultural products, but we also need to see the potential of NFTs in practical applications, especially in areas such as financial tools and real-world assets (RWA), which are also key to making the entire NFT industry more complete. NFTs can be measured in terms of network effects, but they are often more symbolic, cultural, and even social. How NFT projects find suitable market positioning and business models is crucial for the sustainable development of projects in the industry.
