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10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold: Overpriced Scams or True Masterpieces?

10 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold: Overpriced Scams or True Masterpieces?

Key points

  • The NFT market, set to rebound in 2024, is projected to generate $2.37 billion this year with an annual growth rate of 9.10%, reaching a potential $3.36 billion in the next four years.
  • From its 2014 inception, the NFT market has achieved a total market capitalization exceeding $4 billion and witnessed all-time sales volumes surpassing $78 billion.
  • The diverse evolution of the NFT market, driven by trends such as metaverse integration and community-focused utility, expands its reach beyond gaming and art into virtual real estate and the music industry.

 

 

As we enter 2024, the non-fungible tokens (NFT) market experiences meaningful recovery, with Statista predicting that the market could make $2.37 billion this year and see an annual growth rate of 9.10%, potentially reaching $3.36 billion in the next four years.

Since the first NFT was ever minted in 2014, the market has seen a total market capitalization surpassing $4 billion and all-time sales volumes exceeding $78 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

With prominent NFT collections such as Axie Infinity and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) oftentimes making headlines, what were the most expensive NFTs ever sold, and where is the market headed next?

In this article, we highlight the most expensive NFT sales ever.

The Diversity of the NFT Market

The real boom of the NFT market emerged at the end of 2017 with the launch of Ethereum-based blockchain games such as CryptoKitties and, later on, Axie Infinity, which have acted as stepping stones for many new investors who could now step into a niche market for digital collectibles while also playing a fun game.

However, over the past seven years, the NFT space has seen a great deal of change with virtual real estate and the music industry also joining in on the hype.

“A significant trend is the integration of NFTs with metaverse platforms, where they’re used for avatars, property ownership, and access to exclusive events. Another notable trend is the focus on community building and utility; NFTs that offer real-world benefits or membership in exclusive groups are increasingly popular,” Tyler Adams, the CEO and co-founder of COZ, told Techopedia.

Adams added that the emergence of the non-fungible item (NFI) technology allowed more people to enter the industry by enabling them to link the physical and digital realms.

“NFI technology is the door for Web3 mass adoption, enabling individuals to prove ownership of a physical item and authorizing specific actions on-chain or off-chain. It broadens the horizons for real-life applications, even to those with little to no familiarity in the blockchain sphere.”

However, the NFT market space continues to be highly dominated by art, celebrity, and athlete involvement as well as the gaming industry, Anndy Lian, the author of NFT: From Zero to Hero, added.

So, what is the most expensive NFT?

10 Most Expensive NFTs of All Time

COZ’s Adams explained that the most valuable NFTs often “share several commonalities.” One such similarity is that they are created by prominent artists or involve famous brands, such as Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold for over $69 million.

“These NFTs often hold unique or historic significance, marking key moments in digital or artistic history. They also tend to receive high media attention, which drives up demand and value. Moreover, many of these groundbreaking NFTs introduce innovative concepts or employ technology in novel ways, setting them apart from more conventional offerings,” Adams said.

1. The Merge – $91 Million

The most expensive NFT sold is The Merge, the NFT collection created by digital artist PAK that was sold for $91,806,516 within just 48 hours following its release on 3 December 2021 on the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.

While being the most expensive NFT art, The Merge had also managed to break several other milestones, including becoming the largest-ever art sale by a living artist, be it a digital or physical copy.

 

2. Everydays: The First 5000 Days – $69 Million

Next on our list of most expensive NFTs sold is a digital artwork by Beeple, also known as Michael Winkelmann. Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days was actioned by Christie’s in March 2021 and was sold for $69,346,250.

The artwork was bought by Vignesh Sundaresan (Metakovan), a cryptocurrency investor and the founder of Metapurse.

3. Clock – $52 Million

Clock is a single NFT that counts how many days the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has spent in prison.

The NFT is a collaboration between Assange and Pak and was sold for $52,740,000 on 9 February 2022. It was created to help fund Assange’s legal defense during court proceedings.

 

4. Human One – $28 Million

Another NFT by Beeple, Human One, is a hybrid digital and physical artwork that was auctioned for $28,985,000 on 9 November 2021.

A seemingly unique artwork, Human One, is said to be “the story of the first human born in the metaverse.” The NFT will continue to evolve throughout Beeple’s life.

5. CryptoPunk #5822 – $23 Million

CryptoPunks is a series of 10,000 unique pixel art characters created as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain by Larva Labs. Each CryptoPunk NFT has a set of unique characteristics. Most CryptoPunks are human; however, some of the rarest pieces depict zombies, apes, and aliens.

CryptoPunk #5822 is one of nine alien punks in the collection, making it rare and valuable. The Chain CEO, Deepak Thapliyal, bought the NFT on 13 February 2022 for $23,700,000.

 6. CryptoPunk #7523 – $11 Million

The CryptoPunks collections have seen some of the most major NFT sales on the market, with CryptoPunk #7523 scoring number six on our most expensive NFTs list.

This is the only punk in the collection that wears a surgical mask and is another one of nine aliens. It was sold for $11,800,000 and is currently owned by Sillytuna, according to its listing on Sotheby’s.

7. TPunk #3442 – $10 Million

Inspired by the CryptoPunks collection, TPunk #3442 was bought for $10,500,000 on 31 August 2021 by Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron.

 

8. CryptoPunk #4156 – $10 Million

CryptoPunk #4156 is one of 24 apes in the CryptoPunk collection and was sold for $10,350,000.

9. CryptoPunk # 5577 – $7 Million

Another one of 24 apes from the CryptoPunks collection, CryptoPunk #5577, was bought for $7,700,000 by Compound Finance CEO Robert Leshner.

10. CryptoPunk #3100 – $7 Million

Last on our biggest NFTs list is CryptoPunk #3100, a headband-wearing alien punk sold on 11 March 2021 for $7.58 million.

What Goes Into Valuing NFTs?

Adams explained that valuing an NFT’s price can be a subjective, as well as objective case. While an artist’s reputation may come in handy (as seen with NFTs created by Beeple), other factors may also come into play when identifying the most expensive NFT ever sold.

“Much like commercial goods, scarcity and uniqueness are also crucial; limited edition NFTs or those with unique features often have higher values. The provenance or ownership history can add to an NFT’s allure, especially if previously owned by a celebrity or a notable figure in the tech world,” he said.

Lian added that an NFT’s supply and demand could also affect its future price and utility. Moreover, celebrity endorsements can also be crucial in establishing an NFT’s value.

“Celebrities can use their large and loyal fan bases to promote NFTs to a wider and more diverse audience. This can increase the awareness and interest in the project, as well as the potential buyers and collectors. Celebrities can also lend their reputation and influence to NFTs, making them more appealing and trustworthy to investors,” Lian said.

The Future of NFTs: Metaverse Integration & Enhanced Interoperability

Lian explained that metaverse integration is one trend that could drive the future of NFTs, enabling cross-platform interoperability, accessibility, and immersion. In addition, decentralized finance (DeFi) collaborations can further enhance the value of NFTs by providing new means of financing, investing, and trading them, further driving adoption.

Adams added that enhanced interoperability across blockchain platforms could further increase the utility and appeal of NFTs in the near future. He said:

“As regulatory frameworks around NFTs develop, the market might see increased stability and trust, attracting more institutional investors. Technological advancements, such as Layer 2 solutions, could lower transaction costs and improve sustainability, making NFTs more accessible and appealing. The integration of NFTs with AI, AR, and VR technologies is also anticipated, potentially leading to new forms of interactive digital art.”

The Bottom Line

As the NFT marketplace anticipates robust growth in 2024, the value of the most expensive NFTs ever sold remains subjective, influenced by factors like scarcity, uniqueness, provenance, and celebrity endorsements.

With Pak’s The Merge taking the first place as the most valuable NFT at $91 million, other unique projects have also come forth, including a number of CryptoPunk pieces and Beeple’s works.

In the future, the NFT market is expected to embrace metaverse integration and enhanced interoperability, with the future of NFTs holding high promises.

 

Source: https://www.techopedia.com/most-expensive-nfts-ever-sold

FAQ

What is the current state of the non-fungible tokens (NFT) market, and what are the projected growth figures for 2024?

The NFT market is experiencing a meaningful recovery in 2024, with a projected value of $2.37 billion this year and an annual growth rate of 9.10%. Statista predicts that it could reach $3.36 billion in the next four years.

How has the NFT market evolved since 2017, and what are the key trends shaping its diversity?

The NFT market has diversified since 2017, with notable trends including the integration of NFTs with metaverse platforms, increased focus on community building and utility, and the emergence of non-fungible item (NFI) technology linking the physical and digital realms.

According to Anndy Lian, how is the NFT market currently dominated, and what sectors contribute significantly to its growth?

According to Anndy Lian and Tyler Adams, what trends are expected to drive the future of NFTs, and how might the market evolve in terms of technology and adoption?

Anndy Lian suggests that metaverse integration is a significant trend that could drive the future of NFTs, enabling cross-platform interoperability and immersion. Tyler Adams adds that enhanced interoperability across blockchain platforms, regulatory frameworks, technological advancements like Layer 2 solutions, and integration with AI, AR, and VR technologies are anticipated in the future.

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
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OriginTrail (TRAC) price prediction: first ever decentralised knowledge graph

OriginTrail (TRAC) price prediction: first ever decentralised knowledge graph

OriginTrail is the world’s first decentralised knowledge graph  that uses a decentralised protocol to build transparency in the supply chain.

The OriginTrail network is powered by the Trace (TRAC) cryptocurrency, which enables true decentralisation and is an ERC20, Ethereum-based cryptographic coin.

Developers note that OriginTrail is more of an ecosystem than a company, which is based on a token economy with shared relations between users and network nodes. The ecosystem is based on a neutral Web3 protocol that enables safe data sharing between companies, organisations and blockchains via a decentralised knowledge graph network monitored by artificial intelligence (AI) and oracles.

The TRAC coin saw a bearish trend following its initial coin offering (ICO) at $0.10 on 17 January 2018 and fell to $0.01997 by the same time the following year. The coin then kept decreasing until it reached its all-time low value of $0.00556 on 13 March 2020.

TRAC started to gain momentum by the end of 2020 and reached its all-time high of $2.6809 on 1 November 2021 as the ecosystem participated in the NFT NYC gathering for non-fungible token enthusiasts, gaining much exposure.

After hitting its all-time high in November, the cryptocurrency’s price started to fluctuate, dropping to $0.7955 at time of writing (21 January 2022). But can it regain its momentum, and what factors are shaping OriginTrail price prediction going forward?

What is OriginTrail (TRAC) coin?

The OriginTrail core team, consisting of four professionals within the supply chain, blockchain and management sectos Žiga Drev, Tomaž Levak, Branimir Rakić, and Jurij Škornik, believe that amid globalisation, trade supply chains are facing an increasing complexity, which heightens information asymmetry.

After five years of working alongside supply chain clients, the project’s team identified that much of the data in supply chains was fragmented and was lacking a suitable decentralised solution that would provide the perfect performance, scalability and trust for interconnected data in supply chains while also being cost-effective.

With that in mind, OriginTrail was created.

The first of its kind, the ecosystem’s technology uses a decentralised knowledge graph (DKG) that makes global supply chain data structured, linked, persistent and understandable. What this means is that OriginTrail created a decentralised protocol made for sharing supply chain data based on blockchain, making the global supply more transparent.

In short, OriginTrail allows IT providers to easily set up blockchain-supported data-sharing supply chains, and supports data of various formats, from those  used for supply chain tracking to documents and official certificates.

While using the OriginTrail Decentralised Network (ODN), an implementation of the DKG, people can look for information across a number of systems, exchange it through several data exchange protocols and integrate it into their own local knowledge graph or data store.

The ODN is an open-source protocol that uses decentralised nodes that allow companies and organisations to share information between themselves safely.

OriginTrail’s native cryptocurrency, TRAC, powers the decentralised knowledge graph (DKG) and drives the entire ODN as a utility token. The coin also acts as a collateral that keeps data creators honest and their data immutable.

The TRAC coin can be used on the ODN in several ways:

  • For participation: data creators must own TRAC in order to be able to participate in the ODN.
  • For publishing data: data creators must pay in TRAC for their data to be published on the ODN, which is locked in a smart contract until the completion of the data.
  • For collateralisation:  data holders will have to pay a fee in TRAC to prevent data tampering.
  • As a Polkadot Native Token: OriginTrail plans to bid for a parachain slot on the Polkadot network that will introduce a “wrapper” form of TRAC.
  • For staking: this will be introduced in the upcoming Version 6.0 of the ODN (2022).
  • For monetisation: ODN users will soon be able to monetise their data either by charging certain individuals to access it, selling it or introducing fractionalised ownership over data to different parties.

A total of 500 million TRAC tokens are available. The coin has a market capitalisation of over $289m (as of 21 January 2022) and is ranked 161st on CoinMarketCap with a market dominance rating of 0.02%.

OriginTrail is used by a number of major companies and organisations including Home Depot, Walmart and Target, as well as the US Department of Homeland Security.

TRAC price: Price analysis

During its four years in circulation, the TRAC coin suffered quite the journey, reaching its all-time low value of $0.00556 on 13 March 2020, a 94% decline from its ICO price of $0.10 on 17 January 2018.

On 16 May 2018, OriginTrail announced that its team would participate in a number of high-profile events in Asia from May 23 until June 21. However, that did not aid the coin’s price as it dropped to $0.1255 on 21 June 2018.

For the next three years, TRAC’s price continued to decrease despite OriginTrail being the first blockchain start-up to be awarded Walmart’s Food Safety Innovation Spark Award , participating at the GS1 Global Forum in 2019 and partnering with the British Standards Institution (BSI).

The token stayed on a bearish trend until its price started to gain momentum at the start of 2021 after the ecosystem released its development update for the coming year announcing that Starfleet, the programme that will bring the ODN to the final stage of its initially envisioned protocol implementation that will operate in a multi-blockchain environment, will be released in early Q1 of the following year.

Since then, the coin’s price steadily grew, reaching its first $1 value on 25 October 2021, but it was not until 2 November 2021 when the token reached its all-time high of $2.6809 amid OriginTrail’s participation at the annual NFT NYC event. This was a 2,580% surge since its ICO.

In addition, on 2 November TRAC became available in supported regions on Coinbase Pro, which also triggered the token’s jump in price.

The cryptocurrency’s value fell to $1.4127 on 18 November 2021 and kept declining despite new partnership arrangements with Acala in late November. Since the all-time high in November, TRAC has  lost 75.27% of its value, as of time of writing (20 January 2022).

Technical analysis provided by CoinCodex shows that short-term sentiment on TRAC is bearish, with 22 indicators showing bearish signals and nine showing bullish signals at time of writing.

In most recent TRAC coin news, OriginTrail announced on 27 December 2021 that it would start the launch of version 6 of the DKG, bringing the token’s price, which had been falling since its all-time high in November, up to $1.3046.

OriginTrail (TRAC) price prediction 2022-2030

Despite recent bearish results, algorithm-based forecasting service WalletInvestor gave a bullish TRAC token price prediction, saying that it is an “awesome long-term investment”.

Based on its analysis of the cryptocurrency’s past performance, the forecasting service predicted that TRAC could cost $1.858 next year and $5.170 in five years.

DigitalCoinPrice’s forecast also anticipated bullish results for TRAC, noting that the TRAC crypto price prediction for December 2022 is $0.4239. The coin’s price could rise to $0.6886 in December 2025, according to the site.

Although no TRAC crypto price prediction for 2030 is currently available, DigitalCoinPrice estimated that the coin will reach $1.22 in December 2029.

Please note that price predictions can be wrong. Forecasts shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose.

Analyst views on TRAC

Jenny Zheng, co-founder of Blockcast.cc and an early blockchain advocate, said that TRAC may continue to grow in 2022 if Covid-19 continues to restrict travel and affect work processes.

“In 2022, they have envisioned a customised purpose-built network on Web 3.0 called ‘decentralised knowledge graph’. The combination of blockchain and knowledge graphs will help to better allocate resources and help traditional companies understand how blockchain can be easily integrated into their current setup,” she told Capital.com.

BigONE Exchange chair Anndy Lian said that TRAC has the potential to grow if OriginTrail focuses its problem=solving on “more teething problems such as storage efficiency”.

Lian added that if OriginTrail can manage to get “top supply chain companies to try their tech offerings, they can reach their all-time high again even if the market is bearish”.

“TRAC’s most recent spike in value was on 27 December, when it reached $1.4748. Due to this, we can expect the token to reach $1.2 at the most throughout February of 2022, assuming it breaks the $1 price barrier,” Invezz crypto analyst Milko Trajcevski told Capital.com.

 

Original Source: https://capital.com/origintrail-trac-price-prediction

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Will We Ever Use Meme Coins for Payment in the Metaverse?

Will We Ever Use Meme Coins for Payment in the Metaverse?

The rise of meme coins has been a surprise not only in terms of the growth of their collective market value, but also their utility. The leading meme coin Dogecoin was originally launched as a joke by its co-founders in 2013 had reached a market cap of over $65 billion in May. Maybe the clue to its later success is in its origination, as a fork of Lucky Coin, itself a fork of Litecoin, which was a fork of Bitcoin! While its original creators never intended it to become so popular, or to rise in value to such stratospheric levels, it’s clearly ‘taken on a life of its own’ to coin a phrase. Now there’s a new twist in the Dogecoin’s tale, with the backing of celebrities like Tesla’s Elon Musk and Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, it’s now being used for payment. So how seriously should we take this latest chapter in the development of meme coins, as a form of payment?

 

While it’s tempting to see the use of Dogecoin for payment as one more inexplicable jump in its unlikely evolution, its brief history shows what’s a consistent driving force behind this – its community. Just two weeks after its launch in 2013 the Reddit forum r/Dogecoin had over 19k members. It’s this community that drove the first real use of the coin, when in 2014 it quickly raised $30,000 to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Winter Olympics, in a real-life version of the comedy sports movie ‘Cool Runnings’.

 

And without a PR agency to spread the news, the story was picked up by media outlets, broadcasting the meme coin to the world. Dogecoin’s fun meme-driven community backing and simplicity to use are key to its popular success. Maybe it found a market by accident rather than design, but that also underlines the power of memes to spread ideas and grow products.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Shark Tank star and billionaire owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, told US-broadcaster CNBC recently that not only is Dogecoin “a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services,” but that also “the community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange”. This was in turn endorsed by Elon Musk, who tweeted: “I’ve been saying this for a while.” So how did Musk, with his Tesla and SpaceX commitments, get so involved with Doge?

 

Apparently, his first contact was in 2018 when Musk asked Doge co-founder, Jackson Palmer, to help him with Twitter scam bots. The next year in 2019, he tweeted that, “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.” His follow-up tweets in 2020 only served to inflate the prices of Doge, including in January 2021 when Musk helped send Dogecoin prices up 800%.

So how is Musk ‘putting his money where his mouth is’ and going from meme to payment promoter? The answer lies in his SpaceX business. In the first quarter of 2022 SpaceX will accept Dogecoin as full payment for a payload on the officially titled ‘DOGE-1 mission to the Moon’. DOGE-1 will fly a 40-kilogram cube satellite as a payload on a Falcon 9 rocket, with a hi-tech payload. SpaceX also confirmed that the DOGE-1 mission would adopt Dogecoin to set the standard for “interplanetary commerce”. Musk sees the meme coin as having a future in payments that’s not simply confined to planet Earth!

A latecomer to the meme coin payment party, entrepreneur, and star of Shark Tank Mark Cuban, is altogether more down to earth with his meme coin payment proposals. Cuban’s basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, is rolling out the coin for payment with the help of BitPay, which is providing it as a payment option for its merchants and consumers. The blockchain payments company confirmed that, “Mavs Fans for Life (MFFLs) can now use Dogecoin to buy tickets and merchandise online, making Mavs merchandise more accessible to MFFLs everywhere, a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency, Dogecoin enables customers to easily send money online with very low transaction fees and fast transaction times.” Commenting on the Doge-related deal Cuban admitted they provided Dogecoin “because we can!”. He added that for fans who wanted to know more, “we strongly encourage you to talk to your teenagers who are on tik tok and ask them about it”.

So, what makes the meme token so attractive for payments, beyond its popularity? BitPay said Dogecoin’s large supply and low price facilitated ‘efficient micro-tipping content’. “It has an advantage Bitcoin or Ethereum doesn’t necessarily have at this time: Dogecoin has low fees. And when you combine a strong community with low fees, that’s a great recipe. I expect it to continue to grow, and that utility will get greater,” said a BitPay spokesperson. The well-known crypto exchange Coinbase that it’s e-commerce platform ‘Coinbase Commerce’ has begun accepting Dogecoin for payments, allowing its merchants to start accepting the meme token.

Talking of e-commerce, it may be a little ambitious to believe the giant online retailer Amazon will take up Dogecoin for payment purposes, but that hasn’t stopped a petition titled ‘Doge4Amazon’ from picking up strong support in 2021. Started three years ago with 20k supporters, in the last 6 months its jumped from 75k, to 100k, and now to close to 250K signatures. The petition reads: “Amazon.com, being a leader in innovation, should accept Dogecoin as a form of payment. Dogecoin is fast, cheap, and stable. It is stable in value, has the lowest transaction fee of other major coins, has a huge supply of coins, and has a very large, active community with ongoing development.”

 

At the other end of the e-commerce scale from Amazon, it’s reported that SamandZoey.com, a company that produces custom textile designs said they are accepting Dogecoin. “Accepting cryptocurrency, including Dogecoin, seemed like a natural next step for us—we have a history of listening to what our customers want. I’m surprised other eCommerce stores aren’t doing the same,” a spokesman said. Dogecoin may dominate the meme coin landscape but that’s also starting to change, as the demand continues to grow. In July it was reported that Baby Doge, in a bid to follow in Dogecoin’s footsteps, is also moving into e-commerce as a payment option. It’s teamed up with Coin Payments, allowing the meme coin to be used with over 5 million e-commerce businesses worldwide.

For aficionados of meme coins, Dogecoin isn’t the only popular crypto coin that was created in 2013, with a fun animal identity and with strong community backing. MONA was launched in 2013 as part of the MonaCoin Project and is based on the meme of a cat-like figure. It was designed by an anonymous developer who goes by Mr.Watanabe, who like Bitcoin’s anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto has never been officially identified. The meme token, which in March had a market value of around $134 million, is mainly used in Japan which may explain why it’s not more widely known. Its key practical use is as a currency in several stores (both online and on the high street), and according to Investopedia the currency can also be used through Monappy, “an online platform where MonaCoin holders can exchange coins for digital assets, such as coupons, electronics, and other items”. While its success for use in payments was helped by Japan’s Financial Services Agency approval in 2017, the cat-like currency is still dwarfed by Dogecoin in terms of popularity.

Clearly, despite their fun-filled origins meme coins are here to stay and rising in global popularity. Led by Dogecoin, especially in the US, and with celebrity backing from Musk and Cuban, it’s not difficult to see the advantages of its payment-friendly features in terms of low fees and infinite supply. If a major retailer like Amazon jumps on the meme coin bandwagon, it will become a major payment option for consumers. Indeed, you can already see innovation within the mobile meme-coin-led consumer space with DogeCola, a token designed to keep the price stable and avoid Whale speculation, while also offering its own soft drink cola later this year.

It’s also not hard to see meme coins use in related sectors such as music and gaming, as a cross-proprietary platform currency to enable the vision of the ‘multiverse’. In a recent report, UK-based blockchain VC Outlier Ventures sees the need to have a crypto decentralized core, with its own payment system as key: “The defining characteristic of a true Metaverse is that it needs its own economy and currencies native to it, where value can be earnt, spent, lent, borrowed or invested interchangeably in both a physical or virtual sense and most importantly without the need for a government.”

 

Whether it will be used seriously for business-to-business payments, apart from one-offs like SpaceX’s use for promotional purposes, remains to be seen. After all, stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are also viable commercial options for digital payments that are fast and low cost and have been expanding rapidly in 2021. But one thing’s for sure about the meme coins, the sky’s the limit when it comes to future payment options for consumers keen to be able to use their favorite cryptocurrency.

 

“Memecoins could be another driver in the new metaverse. Who knows?“

 

– Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange & Author of Blockchain Revolution 2030

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/will-we-ever-use-meme-coins-for-payment-in-the-metaverse

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j