According to the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India holds about Rs six lakh crore in crypto assets. However, in a country like India, with its reported uneven regulatory issues, the stability of crypto remains a question. Meanwhile, around the same time the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFT) stands as a contrast. It is believed the investment in NFTs by companies such as Nike, Starbucks, Reddit and even traditional art auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, add ‘face value’ – based popularity to these NFTs.
The latest example could be the Madhushala NFT from Amitabh Bachchan’s NFT collection which fetched about Rs 7.18 crore. “The price of NFTs does not depend on factors that influence the crypto market and NFTs can be considered as an investment option depending on an individual’s risk appetite,” Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin, told FE Blockchain.
With insights from the National stock exchange (NSE), in a country of about 138 crore people, around 10 crore own crypto and just 66 million people own NFTs.
India is considered to be a country that has welcomed art in every form, eventually encouraging the growth of art and gaming-based NFTs. Currently, reports from NFT Stats, an NFT-based research platform, state that the real-life example could be CryptoPunks, which are considered one of the first and most popular examples of NFTs and has a market value of about $2.81 million. “The rarest CryptoPunks can sell for millions of dollars. Grimes’ ‘WarNymph’ Digital Art Collection: Musician and artist Grimes sold a collection of 10 digital artworks as NFTs in March 2021 for a total of $6 million,” Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder, CEO, Unocoin, explained.
Talking about future perspectives, experts believe that the NFT market will be worth $80 billion by 2025. The incorporation of decentralised finance(DeFi) in NFTs, has been able to create, real-world reward mechanisms based on staking NFTs which might be able to add to its popularity. With this, industries such as gaming sectors, banking and the entertainment industry are expected to be benefitted the most. Some believe factors such as the increased adoption across industries, crypto bull run, evolving standards and protocols, and environmental concerns might shape the future of NFTs. “However, volatility in NFT prices is much higher than crypto prices and investors should be extremely cautious in exploring this space,” Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures, concluded.
