Featured Image Credit: Bored Ape Yacht Club. JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images (PsychoKitty NFT created by psychedelic artist Ugonzo)
Topics: News, Technology, Cryptocurrency, Money
Charisa Bossinakis
Topics: News, Technology, Cryptocurrency, Money
It’s no secret that NFTs are on their way out.
But now, a new report from industry researchers has revealed that the cryptocurrency is pretty much worthless.
According to Rolling Stone, the new report titled ‘Dead NFTs: The Evolving Landscape of the NFT Market’ by NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap observed 73,257 NFT collections and found 69,795 have a market cap of zero Ether (ETH).
In other words, 95 per cent of NFTs were worth peanuts.
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The study also noted how 23 million investors own these worthless NFTs, meaning they had definitely lost money on their investment.
Even for the top collections, the most common price is usually around $5-10.
"This daunting reality should serve as a sobering check on the euphoria that has often surrounded the NFT space," the report said.
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"Amid stories of digital art pieces selling for millions and overnight success stories, it is easy to overlook the fact that the market is fraught with pitfalls and potential losses."
In August 2022, NFT peaked, with $4.2 billion being traded in the market.
So, these babies came down hard and swiftly.
In July this year, an NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, which was sold for $2.9 million to Sina Estavi, had an opening bid of $1.
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Estavi tried to flog the NFT multiple times and received no offers that were remotely near the amount he paid for it.
The opening bid on his latest attempt to rid himself of the NFT was just 0.0006 ETH ($1.13). Ouch.
And while the highest bid ultimately was over three grand, that’s still a fair way short of what Estavi splashed out on.
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According to Chainalysis, the average price of non-fungible token sales plummeted by 92 per cent since the beginning of May 2022 (the price fell from $3,894 to $293).
Stephen Diehl, co-founder of the Center for Emerging Technology Policy and co-author of the new book Popping the Crypto Bubble, said the significant value drop was due to the digital currency being rife with scams.
He told MSNBC in November 2022: “Crypto exchanges don’t trade regulated financial products like stocks or bonds; they trade unregulated financial assets, which are crypto tokens.
“And these tokens are not subject to the same level of regulation as most other products in the market.
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“A lot of the problems that arose out of the recent catastrophe are due to the lack of regulation of these products.”