NFT bubble blasting makes room for more practical applications

Bloomberg, citing data from Dune Analytics, reported on Wednesday that trading in non-fungible tokens in September has returned to pre-bubble levels, with monthly volume falling 97% from a peak in January. Barring a completely unexpected last-minute selling rush, NFT trading volume will land around $500 million in September, a 15-month low. (NFTs, as a reminder, are unique digital assets recorded on a blockchain.)

It’s not just terrible news for NFT owners. Most NFT sellers in the last 30 days have continued to profit from their digital assets, according to NFTGo data. Many others are holding on for dear, dear life, hoping to ride out the crash.

But the barren demand for NFTs shows little sign of returning to its early 2022 heyday, when unbridled hype and frothy global markets made Bored Ape and CryptoPunks a distinctive phenomenon.

So where does the NFT ecosystem go from here?

That’s a question that blockchain bulls will increasingly have to answer after the dissolution of NFT values. And unfortunately for owners of NFT collectibles, which fueled much of the recent craze, the most common responses focus on commerce rather than art.

Take Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain and a semi-skeptic of this year’s NFT craze. In an interview with WIRED published this week, the 28-year-old wunderkind predicted that the NFT ecosystem will gravitate more toward utilitarianism rather than market-driven enthusiasm. As an example, Buterin cited the popularity of Ethereum Name Service domains, which allow users to convert long blockchain addresses into simple names that can be bought, sold and traded.

“I think the NFTs that are going to be sustainable are the NFTs that are going to be useful,” Buterin said. “In the early stages, it’s tradable art and cat pictures, and a lot of that has really cratered. For an NFT to have lasting value, there has to be some benefit to holding it other than just being able to say you have it .”

A quartet of partners at Bain & Company, who consult with companies on digital asset strategy, similarly see practical applications for NFTs. In a comment published earlier this month in Fortunethe four partners wrote that event tickets, rewards programs and redeemable items may soon become digital assets on a blockchain.

“Put aside for a moment the wild spending on JPEGs of art, sports and entertainment, as well as the recent crash in cryptocurrency prices,” the authors wrote. “More relevant and promising for consumer businesses are the underlying technologies. NFTs provide an ideal set of capabilities to rethink how companies engage their customers, not only in rewards and loyalty programs, but also in other creative ways.”

Big dollar investors, meanwhile, are bullish on the long-term prospects of NFTs blending well with business.

Despite the collapse of NFT trading volume and cryptocurrency prices, venture capital funding for NFTs and NFT-powered gaming (where players are rewarded with digital assets) has not completely disappeared. In the three-month period ending in August, investors pumped a monthly average of roughly $625 million into NFT and gaming ventures, according to The Block Research. In the previous nine months, the average investment was just $1 billion.

“For venture capital firms investing in digital asset startups, NFTs are a gateway to broader mainstream use of crypto,” Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller wrote last week. “Games involving these tokens are often fun, low-stakes ways to introduce people to blockchain. The widespread success of one could eventually legitimize and popularize NFTs to the point where they find a firmer presence in the real world and represent things like airline tickets, house deals or music singles.”

Can demand for the NFT collectibles market pick up again? Secure. Such is the nature of highly cyclical markets driven by taste and trends.

Meanwhile, the best case for widespread adoption of NFTs looks more practical and business-like than ever. After all, making money never goes out of style.

Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data sheet? Drop me a line here.

Jacob is a carpenter

NEW

Cuts its order. apple have told suppliers to reverse course on plans to increase iPhone 14 production this year, a result of slower-than-expected sales of the latest smartphone, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said Apple now expects to produce about 90 million iPhones in the second half of 2022, down about 6 million units from previous forecasts but still in line with production in the same period in 2021. Lack of demand sees appear to be concentrated in the standard model of the iPhone 14, while sales of the more expensive Pro model have been strong. Apple shares fell 3% mid-day Wednesday on the news.

Maybe need a third opinion? Lawyers for Twitter claimed it in court on Tuesday Elon Musk‘s own consultants contested his claims that the social media company drastically undercounts the number of spam accounts on its platform, the Financial Times reported. During a hearing ahead of a lawsuit related to Musk’s move to back out of buying the company, Twitter officials said Musk’s two consultants estimated that bots account for 11% and 5% of the platform’s users, respectively. Twitter executives routinely say bots make up less than 5% of active accounts, an estimate that Musk has argued — without hard evidence — is misleadingly low.

Message rules were used. Global financial institutions accused of failing to monitor employees’ use of unauthorized messaging apps will pay $2 billion in fines to settle the case with US regulators, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The penalties imposed on 12 banks, including Bank of America, Citigroupand JPMorgan Chase, stems from employees using unofficial communication channels to discuss business matters, hindering regulators’ ability to track misconduct. Investigators alleged that bank employees used encrypted apps, including Signal and Meta-owned WhatsApp, to avoid scrutiny.

Back in the game. Intel unveiled plans on Tuesday start selling graphic chips designed for computer game players re-entering a space dominated by Nvidia and AMDit The Wall Street Journal reported. CEO Pat Gelsinger said the semiconductor giant will target gamers looking for cheaper graphics cards, which have risen in price in recent years. Intel’s products won’t match the specs of its established competitors, though the $329-and-up price may attract gamers willing to prioritize cost over performance.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

All in on Adobe. Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field may be much richer soon, but he retains his humble, low-key demeanor. In his first extended interview since Adobe announced plans last week to buy the collaborative digital editing company for $20 billion. Field made a simple case to The Verge and Platformer about how the acquisition would benefit customers. Field said Adobe’s investment and infrastructure should allow Figma to expand its line of creative assets while giving it the bandwidth to explore new technologies. The 30-year-old also claimed that the purchase will “give our users a ton more functionality” in response to a question about potential antitrust issues.

From article:

[Q:] So every time a beloved tool is purchased, users worry that this could be the beginning of the end, or at least a slow decline. What do you think about Figma being able to continue to innovate in a larger company?

[A:] First of all, autonomy. Second, I’m not going anywhere. Figmates are stuck with me.

And I’m really excited about what’s ahead – I think this is our opportunity to enjoy hitting the gas even more. We currently play in the product development world; we are quite excited about what we can do to speed up productivity use.

IN CASE YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT

ARK’s Cathie Wood enters venture capital. There is a problemby Jessica Mathews

What Helium ‘grift’ tells us about cryptoby Jeff John Roberts

AI solves traffic problems to get you where you need to go safelyby Stephanie Cain

Expanding access to cutting-edge AI could be the key to solving the AI ​​talent shortageby Jeremy Kahn

Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko on ‘the biggest bottleneck in crypto’by Taylor Locke

A flying taxi has just completed its first flight test as major airlines invest heavily in the new technologyby Prarthana Prakash

Here’s what 2 hours as a Roblox avatar in Walmart Land really feels likeby Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Wishing you a calm news day. Fast company had an unexpected visitor on Tuesday evening. The business publication said a hacker gained access to its online publishing platform and used it to send two racist, obscene Apple News alerts. In response, Fast Company officials shut down their entire website, which remained offline as of late Wednesday morning. For Fast company shut down its site, the alleged hacker outlined how they gained access to the company’s systems, writing on fastcompany.com that the outlet used a “ridiculously simple” password across multiple admin accounts. It was not immediately clear why the hacker targeted the publication, which endured a similar hack on Sunday.