NFT Investors Still Confident, says CoinWire Report

The crypto winter has been upon us for a while now and the result of this is that investor confidence has been rocked. Between the tokens and NFTs that have lost some of their value to the companies that have been forced to fire staff, it is easy to imagine an air of pessimism hangs over the industry. 

But that might not necessarily be the case. A new report from CoinWire was released following a poll of 10,000 industry participants. The results, surprisingly, show that many remain optimistic about the future of the industry despite the current challenges.

Hope on the Horizon

A look at NFT-related headlines might have you thinking that traders have lost faith in the industry. But as per CoinWire’s survey, 4 out of 5 NFT investors continue to have faith in the industry despite the ongoing struggles. In fact, the NFT market has continued to grow even in spite of it. 

The report shows that the value of the NFT market has jumped 122 times to $12.2 billion since 2020. The number of NFT holders has also increased from 1.5 million to 3.7 million, representing a growth of 250%. This would make sense given the fact that so many NFT marketplaces, platforms, and resources have popped up in the last year especially. This, combined with the heightened visibility of the industry and the acceptance of NFTs by corporate brands, means that more people will be curious about NFTs and will likely buy them.

The report also shed some light on what exactly people are buying NFTs for. As per the report, 75% of people who buy NFTs do so to hold them as collectables, while domain names and gaming are also popular. This shows the growing utility of NFTs as beyond speculative profit-making, they have also found use among gamers and those who buy them for sentimental value. 

But this has not gone off without a hitch as some gaming companies have shown reluctance towards NFTs. 

“Risk of speculation is believed to be the main reason why traditional gaming companies reject blockchain and NFT, according to 78% of investors,” the report said, adding that, “67% of worldwide investors anticipate that traditional game publishers will be highly interested in Web3 gaming in the future.”

We’ve seen this sort of rhetoric floating about with Minecraft famously banning NFTs from its servers in a bid to crack down on speculative NFTs and many gaming NFT projects seeing pushback and mockery from fans.

In terms of franchises that have gotten into NFTs, the last year has seen some impressive drops such as Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and so on. If more of these embrace NFTs, we could see even more of these sorts of numbers. But even as the NFT market is thriving, things are not equal and some projects are more popular than others. Notably, Yuga Labs dominated the industry, taking the top 3 best-selling NFT spots.