NFT restart: when to expect a market recovery

February was the most successful month for the NFT market. Professional traders perked up and started making more trades. Does this mean the market is recovering or is it a temporary thaw. What do the experts think about it?

Alex Skorik, CMO of Bluelight

The trading volume of NFTs exceeded $2 billion in February 2023, marking the highest sales figure since May 2022. There are several factors driving the growth in buyer activity. The first factor is the BLUR marketplace and the pump of its token, which quickly gained a significant share of trading by changing the rules of the game in the market and made another step towards mass adoption. Of course, the launch of the native token had to be accompanied by its swift pumping, which had a positive impact on the entire sector. However, this approach only provides a short-term effect.

Secondly, the rise in the price of major cryptocurrencies, which was observed in mid-February. During this period, the price of Bitcoin approached $25,000, which instilled hope not only among bull traders in the digital currency market, but also in the NFT sector.

Thirdly, the trend towards AI and neural networks, which are used to create NFTs, stimulates collectors and newcomers in the NFT market to increase their purchases in the hope of selling NFTs at a higher price when the market fully recovers.

However, talking about the long-term perspective, it is not advisable to expect a rapid market recovery. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the sector is in a stage of rapid development: new projects are being created that can fundamentally change our perception of art, business, creativity, and so on. For example, in the Bluelight.inc, we have already developed a virtual Silicon Valley, where every player can try their hand at entrepreneurship and create their own business. In fact, we have created a simulator of a very real world with its own rules and laws. We also use NFTs for city construction, buying and selling in-game items, and selecting avatars. We are currently testing the core mechanics in the alpha version of the game. The beta version release is planned for the second half of 2023.

George Galoyan, CEO and co-founder of DAO.vc

The NFT-market is gradually recovering, but we should not expect any drastic changes shortly. I am sure that we will not witness another NFT-boom this year, as it was in 2020-2021.

Previously, trashy NFTs were purchased for billions of dollars. Today’s artists and designers must prove the value of their token; otherwise it won’t be worth spending money. NFT-buyers have become more cautious and selective. On the other hand, creators themselves started paying more attention to token utility. Latest NFTs have become full-fledged tools for managing a project, not just collectibles to be bought low and sold high.

At DAO.vc, we plan to release our own NFT-collection that incorporates the governance value. The NFT will give you a voicepower tool for voting on certain decisions. For us, it is a truly huge step in the overall project development. Our NFT-holders will receive a share in DAO.vc’s treasury and earn profit based on their engagement. Additionally, users who hold both NFTs and DAOVC-tokens will receive extra privileges.

Snezhana Kolesnik, Project Manager of Love Power Coin

The NFT market is going through some serious transformations and changes that will benefit the whole humanity in the future. The crypto winter has filtered out untenable projects and “garbage” NFTs that had been flooding the market by the thousands during the NFT boom. Now most NFTs have a certain value and utility, which has a positive effect on the development of the sector. Furthermore, marketplaces are actively restructuring their functionality, taking into account interests of both buyers and sellers, which allows for establishing common rules for everyone on the NFT market. For example, we here, at Love Power Marketplace have developed a partnership scheme between collectors and artists to provide the best conditions for buying and selling. For collectors there is an incentive payments system in the form of regular contests – the more collections they acquire, the bigger the chance of winning the contest.

All artists are provided with licensed royalties, which they can set as they see fit from 0 to 20%. Royalties will be paid out on top of an NFT’s price for each subsequent sale (similarly to VAT). Royalties are an additional incentive for an artist to promote their personal brand by making use of the marketplace. Thus, an artist develops financial interest in using the platform more actively, while collectors are provided with sustained growth of purchased NFT assets. We also have a favorable cash back program, giving 30% of every NFT listing to the community’s leaders (in the form of a referral program accessed by a referral link). In the years to come, part of the profit from all NFT sales will be spent on charity and talent support.