Mike Novogratz Defends NFTs: They Represent A Big Shift In Culture
According to Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital the froth currently surrounding NFTs doesn’t affect its legitimacy as an industry.
Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital, who appeared on CNBC’s Market Alert, said that the rise in popularity non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seen in the past several months represents a big shift in culture.
Novogratz was asked whether Visa’s latest CryptoPunk purchase meant something for the industry or was purely symbolic. He explained that the quick price moves seen in many popular NFTs are a result of people getting too excited at the very beginning of a new market trend.
Novogratz also opined that the hype won’t do much to delegitimize the industry.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files.
Novogratz: NFTs Are A Legitimate Industry
The huge rise in popularity NFTs have seen in the past several months seems to rival only the ICO craze the industry saw in 2017. Having global financial giants such as Visa enter the space with NFT purchases has further fueled the fire surrounding the new asset class, pushing many to ask when the NFT bubble will pop.
Novogratz, however, believes that this is “normal excitement” seen at the beginning of any new market trend and that NFTs are here to stay. He used the example of The Fidenza #313, an NFT created by artist Tyler Hobbs that recently sold for 1,000 ETH, to show the massive price jumps NFTs experience. The art, now worth over $3.3 million, could have been bought for less than $4,000 just a couple of months ago.
“I think 15% of the total art sales this year were NFTs. That seems a lot given that the market didn’t even exist four months ago. But the frothy prices don’t mean this isn’t a real industry.”
Novogratz said that a clear sign of the industry staying power came from rapper Jay Z, who recently changed his Twitter avatar to a Crypto Punk NFT he purchased.
“One of the kinds of culture says ‘I’m going to use an NFT as my avatar.’ It should have told everybody to buy Crypto Punks.
This is a shift in culture and I think it’s a big, big deal.”
"When Jay-Z put his crypto punk as his Twitter avatar–one of the kings of culture says I'm going to use a #NFT as my avatar. It should have told everybody to buy #cryptopunks," says @novogratz. "This is a shift culture and I think it is a big, big deal." pic.twitter.com/oK8w0frQ0n
