Community is key in NFT investing says MetaDhana
03:27, 17 January 2022
A bearish fog set over the cryptocurrency market in the first two weeks of 2022, that saw bellwether Bitcoin fall over 10%. With crypto investors preoccupied with assessing the perfect time to buy the dip, a booming non-fungible token (NFT) market may have gone unnoticed by many.
As of 14 January, monthly NFT transaction volume on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, was close to the $3bn mark and is on track to surpass its previous months’ volume, data from Dune Analytics showed. This comes on the back of a record year that saw NFT trades worth over $23bn, with Beeple’s “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” NFT sold at a whopping $69m at Christie’s, a world renowned auction house.
Mikhail Jon Peñalosa, CEO of metaverse development studio Metadhana, in an interview with Capital.com, says the most exciting development in the blockchain sector in 2022 will still be NFTs.
Metadhana CEO Mikhail Jon Peñalosa – Photo: MetadhanaCommunity behind NFT
“Definitely this year, I expect a lot of actions in the NFT space that will bring about a new wave of users and crypto adopters,” Peñalosa adds.
At Metadhana, Peñalosa and his team develop NFT projects and play-to-earn games with a focus on creatives and storytelling. Metadhana is also creating a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) to help game developers and creators of the NFT community by providing them with an ecosystem of resources and tools to mint NFTs.
“The number one thing that drives growth in any project is the community. And what attracts the community behind every project is the story behind it,” says Peñalosa.
Utility of NFTs
Peñalosa says that any newcomer in the NFT marketplace needs to evaluate two factors before making their first NFT purchase: utility of the digital creative and the community behind it.
Game-based NFTs are the best showcase of utility. On play-to-earn blockchain game Axie Infinity, players collect, raise, breed and battle digital pets called “Axies”. Each Axie is an NFT and owners can sell their Axies or use them to gain token rewards in the game.
An Axie Infinity gamer from the Philippines named John Aaron Ramos announced on Facebook in September 2021, that he had bought two houses with the money he earned from playing the game. With over three million daily active user, Axie Infinity has created a strong community for itself.
We asked our CEO why he decided to build MetaDhana and this is his response:
— Meta Dhana (@MetaDhana) January 14, 2022
MetaDhana came together to create a platform for artists to have access to a network they need to start and scale their production needs - Mikhail Jon Peñalosa, CEO MetaDhana
#NFT #metadhana #presale pic.twitter.com/1hkj49gkWq
Exclusive membership
Blue-chip NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks is more than just “JPEGs”, Peñalosa adds. They are gateways into an exclusive community whose members include celebrities like basketball star Steph Curry, music artist Eminem and TV host Jimmy Fallon.
“When it comes to Bored Ape Yacht Club, like many other NFT projects these days, it is less about buying the NFT itself. It is much more what it represents, membership into an exclusive community,” said BAYC holder, Adam Hollander in conversation with CNBC.
“BAYC might be the most critical NFT avatar project besides CryptoPunks. The collection created by Yuga Labs launched on April 30 and started a strong movement on social media platforms. Bored Apes began to be used as avatars on Twitter, and the sense of community within the space felt revamped,” said DappRadar.
Branding and marketing
It is this community that gives these NFT its value, says Peñalosa. He added that because of cryptocurrencies there is a new economy connected to the digital assets driving its growth and sustainability.
“The value of NFT collectibles appraised significantly in 2021. The collections are not simple NFT projects anymore. Some have become exclusive brands that will become more relevant when the metaverse becomes more mature,” said DappRadar.
“When I looked into it the first time I was like, this is all marketing and branding,” says Peñalosa, a digital marketing expert. “When you pair the marketing and hype plus the scarcity, that’s why it (NFTs like BAYC) grows in value.”
Read more: The metaverse is “not a new idea” for online gamers
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