The Year of the NFTs
Fortunes made and lost over collectible tokens
From The Verge © 2022 Vox Media
In March 2021, an artist called Beeple sold an NFT-based artwork for a record-setting $69 million — and NFTs began to shake up the art world, the tech world, and dozens of other subcultures. The year that followed has been a rollercoaster: artists and collectors have made fortunes off NFTs, brand after brand has launched digital marketing gimmicks, and NFT apes even made it onto The Tonight Show.
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But more recently, the NFT scene has lost much of that early momentum. Sales of NFTs have cratered, and the entire crypto market has lost much of its value. This slowdown has put the space in a new light. Can the tremendous growth and the communities that formed around it in the early days of NFTs be maintained, or was this whole thing just a strange technological fad?
In this package, The Verge explores the NFT scene as it is today, a year after things first took off. We look at people who found unexpected success, others who are still striving for it, and the odd and uncertain cultural and legal implications that weave it all together.
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NBA Top Shot Seemed Like A Slam Dunk — So Why Are Some Collectors Crying Foul?
What happens when the hype wears off? ELIZABETH LOPATTO
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A Trip To The GaryVee Convention, Where Everyone Is Part Of Crypto’s 1 Percent
Hype and hustle at Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT conference MIA SATO
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The Tangled Truth About NFTs And Copyright
If code is law, countless NFTs are built on buggy code JAMES GRIMMELMANN, YAN JI
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The Graffiti Economics Behind Williamsburg’s Wall Of NFTs
Another NFT on the wall RUSSELL BRANDOM
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Is NFT Art Any Good?
An art critic takes stock of the tokenized digital aesthetic MAX PEARL
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NFTs, Explained
I have questions about this emerging… um… art form? Platform? MITCHELL CLARK
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How To Create An NFT — And Why You May Not Want To
Warning: here be dragons (fees and moral dilemmas) MITCHELL CLARK
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Some NFT Influencers Want You To Ignore The Hype
They want to teach the tech, not the richesMANSEE KHURANA
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Why A $30 Million CryptoPunks Auction Fell Apart At The Last Minute
The seller ‘decided to hodl’KATIE ROTHSTEIN
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How To Frame Your NFT
Finding a physical place for your digital art is harder than it soundsDAVID PIERCE
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The Freelance Artist Behind A Million-Dollar NFT Collection
Antoine Mingo created the art behind Pudgy Penguins — but he hasn’t shared in all of its successRYAN S. GLADWIN
