NFT and Metaverse – What can you expect in 2023?
It is obvious that the bears have been in control of the cryptocurrency market for most of 2022. As a result, business has become quite monotonous. NFTs, which first attracted attention in 2021, were expected to gain popularity in the future, but the bear market disproved predictions.
NFT sales were in a downward trend throughout 2022. Prices of large NFT collections fell, and owners went into the red. Even public figures and famous brands released their own NFT collections due to the hype surrounding NFTs. But since most holders were losing money, the falling prices were not in their favor. BAYC and CryptoPunks were two famous collections and their prices also plummeted.
The same goes for the metaverse, as both of these technologies were at a point where they seemed less relevant. Moving forward in 2023, what can we expect from the NFT and Metaverse industry? Let’s find out.
Is it the end of the NFT hype?
The prominence and relevance that NFTs had during their inception and through 2021 has appeared to be waning of late. Although the last two months saw an increase in NFT trading volume due to the release of the Donald trump NFT collection and a few others, they were not sustainable.
The same is true of the metaverse industry, where prominent tech and social media firms, including Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, placed it in the spotlight.
NFT sales at one time were overwhelming at times, with people selling NFTs for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But all that noise seems to have died down now. Is the storm over? Before diving deeper into the details, let’s understand the basics.
NFT in a nutshell
Although NFTs are part of the entire cryptocurrency space, they are quite different from traditional crypto assets. NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are nothing more than certificates of ownership of an image, music or other digital content stored on the blockchain.
However, NFTs really started to gain traction when some notable NFTs were sold for numbers that were shocking. This hype soon started to spread like wildfire and artists and celebrities started jumping on the bandwagon.
On the flip side, several artists also thought this was a great opportunity to raise their careers and reach a wider audience globally.
Metaverse in a nutshell
When the metaverse became popular in 2021, there were a few key features that set it apart and made it so popular. The Metaverse gave users a virtual 3D experience where they could do literally anything, including shopping, singing, dancing and eating while sitting at home.
Metaverse is unique in that your avatar will roam the room while you interact with other avatars. Neal Stephenson coined the phrase in his 1992 book, “Snow Crash”. Additionally, in 2021 and 2022, a number of media referred to a wide range of Web3 social interaction platforms collectively as the “Metaverse”.
The Metaverse hype soon started to gain traction and almost all the top brands started applying for trademarks, creating stores and doing all kinds of things in the virtual world.
Will NFT and Metaverse be resurrected in 2023?
It should be noted that 2022 has been one of the worst years for the cryptocurrency industry. The prolonged bear market, accompanied by the fall of the Terra ecosystem in May and the recent fall of FTX, made things worse.
The extended bear market has had a negative effect on cryptocurrency prices, and it has also been bad for investors and cryptocurrency businesses. The declining popularity of NFTs and Metaverse can also be attributed to the “crypto winter”.
The NFT and metaverse industries are massive, and they’re not likely to go away anytime soon. Even amid the turbulent market conditions, Binance recently announced a new NFT staking program for BAYC-issued NFTs. The new staking program allowed owners of BAYC and MAYC NFTs to stake their NFTs and earn rewards.
Looking ahead to 2023, positive market conditions and the bullish rally of cryptocurrencies will definitely be the best for the industry as a whole. The NFT and Metaverse industry is likely to gain traction and resurgence if the markets turn bullish. This could also help pump up the prices of large NFT collections, which would also attract other potential artists to release new collections and new companies to bring new developments to the metaverse.
