Original article published in French on September 8, 2022 in Le Quotidien de l’Art
Les NFT sont morts, vive le crypto-art ! - Le Quotidien de l'Art
While the NFT market is in sharp decline, crypto art players continue to believe in it and explore the creative possibilities.
Between falling cryptocurrency prices, low sales volumes on NFT platforms like OpenSea (which are down 90%+ from their all time highs a few months ago), and the countless thefts, scams of all sorts, defaults on loans secured by NFTs, or sales at a loss, being an NFT holder is not a good position to be in right now. It is not surprising though that what goes up must come down, as in any financial market really. We are definitely in a bear market after the speculative bubble of 2021. The market has slowed down, but is also less unstable, allowing artists and collectors alike to readjust their expectations in terms of price, speed of sale and resale.
Let’s add to this gloomy picture the recent heated debates on Twitter around royalties and intellectual property. In reality, we are just surfacing problems that the art market has faced for decades (or even centuries), and that many__mistakenly__thought resolved by NFTs and smart contracts (which are protocols that execute the terms of sale of NFTs on the blockchain). Creators of NFTs have often heard about NFTs and in the same sentence received the promise of automatically-enforced (and paid) royalties through code for each resale. But the launch of two protocols, Sudoswap and x2y2, which allow NFT buyers to bypass this fee, showed that it’s not that simple and that the royalty payment is actually made at the platform level, not the NFT. Similarly, licensing and intellectual property issues are front and center, with artists like XCOPY and projects like Moonbirds recently deciding to change their terms of use from a strict copyright (where the artist or the project retain all reproduction rights) to a free license for commercial use (CC0). Let’s be realistic for one second: NFTs are not a magic acronym that suddenly solved all the problems of the art market!
But the artists, collectors and founders (also called builders) who believe in the technology and community are still here. The artists are enthusiastic about trying out new digital tools. So-called “diamond-hands” collectors still support artists as patrons (as opposed to “paper-hands” in the crypto-financial jargon). Finally, as Jason Bailey, founder of ClubNFT and Right Click Save, recently pointed out in his class for the Vertical Crypto Art residency, the most interesting NFT projects (CryptoPunks in 2017, SuperRare & KnownOrigin in 2019) were launched during bear cryptocurrency markets, a time conducive to innovation and creation in the absence of constant pressure from markets and speculators.
Another interesting phenomenon to note is the maturation of the NFT market through its segmentation. The major annual NFT.NYC conference, whose last edition took place in June 2022 in New York City, was proof of this. For the first time, the different applications and use cases for NFTs were clearly defined, and even physically separated: a level for gaming, another for art and a third for music. The hundreds of side events were even more telling: more art events than bling bling parties: an exhibition at the French Alliance (FIAF), organized with the help of the New French Touch (a group that promotes the French crypto art scene), a show at Pace Gallery in collaboration with Art Blocks, or even the gathering of the dada.art crypto artist community around a surrealist wedding.
We are also witnessing the slow but sure adoption of the NFT format and culture by the traditional art market. An increasing number of established artists are getting into NFTs. Marina Abramović launched her first NFT on the Tezos blockchain on July 25, The Hero, a reimagining of one of her autobiographical videos. Frank Stella is launching his first series of NFTs, Geometries, with The Artists Rights Society on September 9, and the Olafur Eliasson VR + NFT series, Your View Matter, commissioned by MetaKovan, the owner of Beeple's work sold at Christie's in March 2021.
Likewise, art galleries are beginning to represent crypto-native artists. We can mention the artist Sarah Meyohas, who launched the conceptual project Bitchcoin in 2015, and is now represented by the New York based gallery, Marianne Boesky. Similarly, partnerships between crypto actors and art market players are multiplying, such as Pace Gallery and Art Blocks, Art Basel and the creative blockchain Tezos and Sotheby's Institute of Art and Right Click Save.
It is highly likely that the second part of 2022 will bring more strategic partnerships. And the fall season will undoubtedly be busy. A few events and trends to watch:
I’ll leave you with the words of actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, who also launched his own NFT series: "NFTs are a blank canvas to create art." Everything has to be done. So brace yourself, it’s only the beginning.