11 NFT Trends to Watch in 2023 (and Beyond)

With almost 1.5 million NFT art sales in 2021, the market for NFTs had tremendous macroeconomic volume growth from the year before. But, in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, the market faced a number of difficulties.

Yet, 2022 also brought about a number of significant developments and improvements for the future of Web3.

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As 2023 advances, investors who understand the digital economy or who want to add NFTs to their portfolio should be aware of a number of NFT developments.

Five of them are examined in this blog: Artificial Intelligence (AI), fractional NFTs, music NFTs, fractional NFT games, and NFT ticketing.

Let’s take a look at the latest NFT trends in our compilation below.

11 NFT Trends to Look Out for in 2023 (and Beyond)

Taking Out Loans Using NFTs
Big Brands Jumping on the NFT wagon
NFT Take on Hollywood
A Home Away from Home
Fashionable NFTs are now in style
Intellectual Property Rears its Head
Social Media Gets a Piece of the NFT Action
Crypto Exchanges Begin to Sell NFTs
VC Money Flows into NFTs
Alternative Chain Taking Over from Ethereum
Increasing Government Regulation

11 NFT Trends To Keep an Eye on

Following the explosion of NFTs, several new use cases of the technology have been popping up here and there. 2021 saw the introduction of NFTs to decentralized finance, art, gaming, smart contracts, fundraising, and many others.

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If you are still a novice to NFTs, read more on How to Sell and Make an NFT here.

So, what good tidings do NFT brings into 2023?

Below are some of the top trends you should look out for in 2023.

1. Taking Out Loans Using NFTs

Investors are securing loans for new potential companies and crises using their NFTs and NFT collections as security. An emerging use case involves NFT loans.

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In 2021, DeFi (decentralized finance) platforms that make it possible to use NFTs as loan collateral were extensively used.

As an illustration, the DeFi platform Arcade provides loans with NFT backing. Lender and borrower must agree before Arcade’s smart contract can lock the collection in an escrow account in its hands. Until the loan is completely paid back or defaults, the NFT(s) are locked up and irrevocable.

NFT is another marketplace where users can put up NFT assets as collateral for loans or offer loans to other users. In exchange for an ETH loan, any ERC-721 token can be used as collateral. The NFT is returned to the borrower once the loan is repaid. If the loan is not paid back, the asset is returned to the lender.

You don’t have money for loans? Check out the NFT Drops: Everything you need to know.

2. Big Brands Jumping on The NFT Wagon

Brands from a wide range of industries are starting to show interest in NFT and are developing innovative strategies to participate. Limited-edition NFT collectibles are being released by food c my orporations like Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Campbell’s as well as luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Gucci as a way to assist charities, develop new revenue streams, boost social media engagement, and build customer loyalty.

As part of their digital line of crisps with a cryptographic theme, Pringles® created a “virtual taste” called CryptoCrisp that is limited to 50 copies. In the limited-edition NFT, an MP4 file, an animated golden Pringles can with the flavor “CryptoCrisp” rotates.

The CryptoCrisp NFTs were priced at the same as a standard Pringles can which is about 0.0013 ETH, or around $2. The NFTs are currently available on Rarible and OpenSea at prices starting at 4 ETH.

Using NFTs to build brand value has become the newest approach in many big brands’ marketing playbooks, and it’s a trend that’s not going away in 2022. As marketers begin to explore innovative branding potential in the metaverse, expect more brand-specific NFTs to be issued by corporations across all industries.

Also, see our blog on the best NFT crypto.

3. NFTs take on Hollywood

NFTs provide up a whole new world of possibilities for crowdfunding, merchandising, and monetizing TV and film projects. Some major industry figures have already started releasing NFT TV series including:

GenZeroes: Set to premiere in March 2022, GenZeroes is a live-action NFT TV series from the House of Kibaa. Only NFTs can be purchased to view the show’s NFT release and episodes. Viewers also get access to a variety of rewards depending on the amount of NFT they buy from fractional ownership of the show to special memorabilia and even graphic comic books.
Stoner Cats: Stoner Cats, an adult animated web comedy about cats who get high, raised $8.4 million in an NFT sale that gave buyers exclusive access to episodes of the show. The NFTs, which serve as a lifelong ticket to stream the concert, are said to have sold out in less than 30 minutes. It’s hardly unexpected, given that Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum developer), Jane Fonda, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock, are among the cast members of the program, which is produced by Mila Kunis.

The NFT TV broadcasts are only a small part of a much wider picture. There are also TV shows that aren’t NFTs but are based on NFT characters, such as Time Studios’ Robotos TV series, which is being created by Time Studios, Time Magazine’s film and TV production company.

NFTs are being used to fund many TV shows and film projects, including Men of the House, whose pilot episode was entirely funded by NFT sales.

NFTs have also made their way into televisions, with Samsung announcing an “NFT Aggregation Platform” in its newest TV models (The Frame TV, MICRO LED, and Neo QLED) scheduled for release in 2022. Viewers can utilize the functionality to browse NFTs for sale on a variety of markets and even purchase them right from their television.

It’s a significant endorsement of NFT, and it’s possibly the clearest indicator yet that the entertainment industry and NFTs are only going to get closer in the future.

4. A Home Away from Home

The real estate market will change, and soon you’ll be able to stroll around in the metaverse and own the area you walk on. It’s currently tough to create an NFT for an entire property, but they’re fantastic ways to share ownership. The NFT works in a similar way to a digital deed that is recorded in a digital ledger. The next stage will be to develop the technology so that metaverse newcomers can buy and sell properties and ‘acres’ of land in the digital realms they enter.

Play-to-earn, land-based NFT games are already being explored by games like The Sandbox, where “LANDS” are owned by users to monetize and build experiences. Check out our best NFT games of 2022 here. The network claims that only 166,464 LANDS will ever be available to provide social experiences to the community, build residences, develop multiplayer experiences, and host games.

It’s not just land that can be farmed in these games; the new metaverse platform Mobox shows how to become involved in MOBOS NFT yield farming.

5. Fashionable NFTs are now in style

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When the real estate market changes, you’ll soon be able to travel the metaverse and own the land you stand on. NFTs are an excellent approach to share ownership of a property, notwithstanding the difficulties they currently face. The NFT operates similarly to how a digital deed would be placed into a digital ledger. The next phase will be to develop the necessary technology so that anyone with access to the internet may purchase and sell houses and “acres” of land.

6. Intellectual Property Rears its Head

NFT markets are now being developed to facilitate the trading of intellectual property in the fields of technology and science to help labs raise funds.

RMDS, a California-based data and artificial intelligence (AI) platform is pioneering the movement. They envision connecting investors with scientists as well as linking science and technology IP with associated science lovers, investors, and collectors to enter into NFT sales.

They also plan to open new fundraising channels by March 2022 through the world’s first NFT marketplace for science and technology IP, which will also help to accelerate technology transfer.

7. Social Media Gets a Piece of the NFT Action

There’ve been a lot of speculations on the blockchain grapevine about the possibility of Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok has been mingling in the NFT world in their ways — a well-received and much-anticipated update by social media fans.

Susan Wojcicki, the YouTube CEO, wrote about YouTube’s main priorities for 2022 in her annual letter to creators:

“We’re also looking to the future, and we’ve been watching everything that’s going on in Web3 as a source of inspiration to keep inventing on YouTube.” In the realm of cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and even decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), the past year has revealed a previously imagined chance to strengthen the bond between creators and their audience.”

Twitter has been confirmed to support NFTs being used as profile pictures. After a temporary connection to your crypto wallet, you can set up an NFT as your profile picture. Your digital asset is set to display in a special hexagon shape that identifies you as the owner of that NFT. This is expected to resolve the concerns with identity and NFT theft that have been causing a lot of buzz on the site.

Instagram is also pushing selfies to new heights with CEO Adam Mosseri indicating that the company is actively considering the potential for NFT use cases.

8. Crypto Exchanges Begin to Sell NFTs

The demand for NFTs has increased dramatically over the last 18 months. Up until recently, this development mostly benefited auction platforms that prioritize NFT sales.

Yet since NFTs must be bought using cryptocurrency, the majority of consumers must first buy tokens on a centralized market (and then transfer them to a virtual wallet).

For instance, it can cost $50 to $100 or more to transfer Ethereum between wallets. But even a minor error in the transfer procedure could result in the money being lost forever.

Because there are millions of dollars on the line and because consumers are already using them as a stepping stone, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges stand a good chance of entering the NFT industry.

The first well-known exchange to openly reveal its ambitions was Binance, which will open an NFT branch in June 2021. Today, FTX and Coinbase, two of Binance’s key competitors, announced plans to launch their own NFT exchanges.

9. VC Money Flows into NFTs

It didn’t come as a surprise to see venture capitalists looking to profit from the NFT rush. The trend began modestly, with industry heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz investing $23 million in OpenSea’s Series A round.

Since then, both the number of VC investments and the cash amounts spent in the NFT area have increased dramatically. Velvet Sea Adventures and 01 Advisors (aka O1A) announced in February 2022 that they will invest $100 million in the NFT platform Pixel Vault, Inc.

The project’s purpose is to use Pixel Vault’s existing intellectual property (especially superhero NFTs) to create a comic book-style series that chronicles key Web3 industry events (and drama).

Around the same time, Tom Brady’s NFT project, Autograph, received a $170 million Series B investment from Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins.

Autograph NFTs, unlike most projects, contain more than just “ownership” of digital art. Instead, purchasers gain access to exclusive content, secret communities, and first-hand encounters with the NFT producers (many of which are famous sports stars).

10. Alternative Chains Taking Over from Ethereum

Alternative Chains Challenging Ethereum For NFT Rights

The expenses associated with buying and selling NFTs – which entailed interacting on the Ethereum blockchain – were negligible when the first generation of projects launched in 2017. Fast forward to the summer of 2021, when the NFT rush erupted, the identical costs had skyrocketed into the hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars.

While the fees were a minor annoyance for crypto billionaires and hardcore flippers (some of whom make hundreds of thousands of dollars), they posed a significant barrier to entry for ordinary investors.

To remedy this issue, NFT developers began establishing their applications on less expensive blockchains (like Solana and Avalanche). The sub-dollar fees associated with transacting on alternate chains, on the other hand, attracted a rising number of NFT collectors who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) transact on Ethereum.

Today, alternative chain systems now process NFT volumes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

11. Increasing Government Regulation

Although government regulation of the cryptocurrency business is nothing new for investors, the interest of the government in regulating NFTs is a relatively recent development.

As NFTs are bought and sold using cryptocurrencies, and the wallets used to do so are (in most cases) anonymous, regulators have been wary about the $20 billion+ NFT industry.

In particular, research from the US Treasury Department highlights how NFTs can be used to finance terrorist activities as well as money laundering.

Yet not all laws are meant to put a halt to wrongdoing. The Financial Action Task Force in France aims to define the specific criteria to be used in deciding whether an NFT is a virtual asset, security, or something else entirely.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US is also attempting to determine which NFTs should and shouldn’t be categorized as securities.

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