Episode 29 – Buying your dream NFT (non-fungible token) – even if it’s too pricey

Episode 29: How To Buy NFTs You Can’t Afford

NFTs. It’s not just the cryptosphere that has gone absolutely potty for them. Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan – even WILLIAM SHATNER are in on the craze.

And the recent buying frenzy has sent VALUES of BLUE CHIP NFTs not just to the moon but into OUTER SPACE. Remember those CRYPTOPUNKS we mentioned back in Episode 21? If you want one of those you’ll need to remortgage your house. Literally. 

Well, how about one of those APES we talked about in the same episode? Well, right now for a FLOOR APE you’ll be having to trade in your LAMBO.

So, what’s the man on the street, yes – that’s YOU – got to do to get a piece of this action? Win the lottery? Rob a bank?

Well, as it turns out – you can stay out of jail AND ride the NFT train.

Stick around, and I’ll tell you how.

Welcome to School of Block.

And, before I forget – please do like and subscribe – it helps us help you in the mighty quest for financial freedom.

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INTRO

You might have noticed in the intro I referred to a FLOOR APE. No, not one that’s fallen out of the tree – because EVERYTHING has a FLOOR, whether it’s the FLOOR PUNK, FLOOR ART BLOCKS or FLOOR LOOT that you – probably – can’t afford. 

The FLOOR simply describes the entry price for an example of any given NFT collection. And the collections that have made waves now have floors that are INACCESSIBLY HIGH for the majority of us.

For example, right now – although it’ll almost certainly be out of date by the time you watch this – the FLOOR PRICE for:

ART BLOCKS is 2 ETH

LOOT is 9 ETH

APES is 40 ETH

PUNKS is 100 ETH.

So even the cheapest bargain ART BLOCKS will set you back the price of a decent used car – $7,000, while the entry price to PUNKLAND is almost 4 HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

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ABOUT NFTs

But at this point let’s back up a bit. Why are these NFTs worth so much? 

For an overview of what NFTs are and what they can do, I suggest you watch episode 11 – if you haven’t already – where we break down how and why they work. 

But in a nutshell, NFT stands for NON FUNGIBLE TOKEN, and that basically means in a DIGITAL world it’s a non-reproducible, unique OBJECT. 

It’s not just a jpg, although you can of course right click and save. But that’s to miss the point.

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If you own an NFT, it can bring all kinds of other benefits – from exclusive community membership, to unique real world opportunities and potential evolution over time. Not to mention the fact the price might go up. 

The NFT ownership proposition is so compelling that even VISA bought a PUNK in August 2021 – for the now very savvy price of 49.5ETH. 

And this is a reflection of the explosion of interest in the segment, with NFT sales in the month of August rising to 3 BILLION DOLLARS on Opensea alone, and transaction numbers hitting 300 million in a single day. And this is just on ONE of the many NFT marketplaces.

NFTs have smashed their way into the public consciousness too – with names like Mark Cuban, Jack Dorsey, Shawn Mendes and Elon Musk’s girlfriend Grimes all jumping in. 

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And with good reason, because as more and more of our lives become digital, NFTs won’t just disrupt industries like GAMING, ART, MUSIC and LAW but will also form part of the fabric of our digital existences. 

So why wouldn’t you want to jump on the NFT party boat? We are still incredibly early in the grand scheme of NFT development, and we still haven’t seen their true potential.

But the good ones – which are, let’s be honest, the ones you want – are so bloody expensive. 

There has to be another way. 

And there is. In fact, there’s THREE.

First up, it’s going to depend on what you want out of your NFT experience. Do you just want EXPOSURE to the sector as an INVESTOR?

Or do you want a PARTICULAR token, but can’t afford it? 

Well, if you just want EXPOSURE – then platforms like NFTx can help. Here you can buy a token that tracks the market cap of the NFT sector. So you don’t need to choose just one particular NFT – you can ape in on the success of the whole space. Right now the NFTx token price trades at $180 dollars. But of course – like with all of crypto – you don’t need to buy a whole one.

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Which leads us on to our next revelation. FRACTIONAL INVESTING. This is where an NFT owner can use a platform like FRACTIONAL to mint tokens that have governance over the NFT that they own. 

So let’s say BEEPLE decides to fractionalise one of his NFTs – well, that means you can rock up and buy a part of it. In a relatively illiquid market, this enables BEEPLE to see some value from his asset without having to sell the entire piece, and you get to ride the same train he’s on in terms of the future value of the asset, as well as vote on what happens to it in the future.

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And FRACTIONALISATION doesn’t just apply to SINGLE NFTs, it can also apply to BASKETS, where an owner can group NFTs together and then issue tokens that offer ownership of the whole collection. Should top collectors go down this route, this might be like giving you the opportunity to buy a bit of the LOUVRE. Only with 21st century-industry-disrupting-sky’s-the-limit potential. Pretty compelling. 

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But what if the owner of an NFT you want hasn’t fractionalised it, and you can’t afford it? What then?

This is where platforms like PARTYBID come in. Here collectors can band together and POOL their CAPITAL to bid on NFTs. 

These buyers band together in DAOs – yes we covered those too, back in episode 23 – and purchase fractional ownership, which is dished out pro-rata according to how many ETH they contribute at auction. 

So if you send ETH to a party which wins a bid, then you’ll receive ERC-20 tokens representing the NFT and proportional to your contribution. If the party DOESN’T win the auction, then you can reclaim your contribution, minus gas fees. 

The most spectacular success so far for PARTYBID was the purchase of CRYPTOPUNK 2066 for $3.2m, spread across more than 400 members. 

So let me show you exactly how this works in practice:

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the NFT space is moving quickly. So what does the future hold? Well, be prepared to hear lots more about SYNTHETIC assets. 

How do they work? Well, imagine you have a FANTASY FOOTBALL team – your players are effectively SYNTHETIC versions of the real ones. You haven’t actually signed RONALDO and POGBA, but you get to benefit when they do well. The same is true for SYNTHETIC ASSETS.

For example take the recent sensation that is LOOT. On first glance, the LOOT collection just represents some white text on a black background. Why are they worth so much? Weird.

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Except it’s not – what got the market super pumped about LOOT was what these words could represent, and what could be built ON TOP OF this collection of NFTs. A massive role playing game for example. 

And so SYNTHETIC LOOT was created, where anyone with an ethereum wallet could claim a REPLICA Loot bag, that would enable them to play whatever game ultimately gets built on top of the ecosystem, enabling a much wider range of adventurers to participate. 

We’re going to see many more multi-layer experiences like this get built in the NFT space. It’s really exciting – and that’s why the market has gone nuts for them.

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CONCLUSION

The problem with cheap NFTs is that you’re looking for a needle in a haystack… AND your research and timing has to be absolutely spot on. There’s an almost infinite supply out there, and what are the odds the one you’ve chosen will be tasty at some point down the line? Maybe slim. Not to mention the potential for RUG PULLS.

So yes – you want exposure to the good ones. And those blue chip NFTs – the punks, the apes and the like might be heading out of your budget at warp speed – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t own a PART of one. 

Whether it’s GROUP BIDDING or FRACTIONALISATION, you might be beaming that some small part of punk into your portfolio much sooner than you thought possible. 

You’ve been watching School of Block, presented by Ledger and the Defiant, demystifying decentralisation, one block at a time. Don’t forget to subscribe, drop us a like if that’s what you’re into, and as always – here’s to your financial freedom.