After the article was published the day before yesterday, readers left comments asking about some NFT projects. I am not very familiar with the NFT projects mentioned in the comments, so I cannot provide reference opinions.
I have discussed NFT investments quite a bit in my previous articles.
Overall, I believe there are basically two methods for investing in NFTs:
If the amount of funds is large, and these funds can afford to be stagnant and can bear losses, then for a period of time, even for years, it is advisable to buy the top collectibles with high consensus in the entire ecosystem.
These collectibles are like Bitcoin; they leave an indelible mark in the history of the development of the crypto ecosystem. They do not need to be empowered again and can be seen as artworks, such as CryptoPunks and NFT artworks (typical examples include classic crypto artworks in ArtBlocks).
As time passes and a new generation of crypto users joins, the value of these collectibles will definitely rival or even surpass that of today's world-renowned traditional artworks.
I believe there are many treasures and potential varieties in this, buying them now is like buying Qi Baishi's paintings at the end of the 1970s, or buying official kiln pieces from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong dynasties in the early 1980s.
However, this approach requires a certain threshold of funds and is only suitable for a very small number of NFT enthusiasts with exceptionally strong interests, making it less applicable for most users.
More importantly, NFTs that meet this standard are only a minority in the entire ecosystem.
I think more and broader NFTs in this ecosystem are similar to IP works. These NFTs have a low initial selling price, with little historical and collectible value; their potential and appreciation come from the extension and expansion of their narratives. Whether these NFTs can succeed in the future depends on whether the team can operate and develop added value around the NFTs.
For most users, the amount of funds is limited, and often the NFTs they can buy are of this kind.
These NFTs are essentially like Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck IPs.
Disney developed the IPs of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but the value of this IP is certainly not limited to the cartoon characters; it also includes movies, television shows, licensed toys created around these characters, and even the offline theme parks formed from the eventual extensions.
If you hold such an IP, then all the value formed around these IPs can bring enormous returns to the holders.
In my opinion, many NFTs now, including those mentioned in reader comments, belong to the types that will follow this route.
So are there any successful cases of this variety currently?
The Bored Apes once wanted to take this path and worked hard at it. Their direction was not offline but online. They developed online games and created their own three-layer extension chain, ApeChain.
But unfortunately, it seems that it has not been successful so far. The games that were once developed became popular for a while and then disappeared. I checked the ApeChain that was developed recently, and although it listed many projects, looking around, it was utterly unoriginal, to say the least.
On the other hand, another previously failed NFT project, Pudgy Penguins, has made a comeback, bringing a glimmer of hope to this path.
Pudgy Penguins has a slightly different gameplay. It first operates offline by selling IP toys to increase visibility, then feeds back to the blockchain by issuing tokens to expand influence, and finally attempts to establish a blockchain gaming ecosystem by launching its own layer two extension.
This approach is not particularly creative, but the team's execution is quite admirable. The project has made its way from failure to today, achieving such popularity, which is not simple.
However, whether this path can continue, especially whether it can form a blockchain gaming ecosystem, still needs to be observed. Because if a blockchain gaming ecosystem can be easily established, the state of chain games in the crypto ecosystem would definitely not be as lukewarm as it is today.
So from this perspective, the risk for ordinary investors investing in this category of NFTs is still considerable.
In summary, for NFT investments, if purely based on interest, just liking small pictures or the culture of the community, then it doesn't matter what to buy; it's just for happiness and joy.
However, if viewed from an investment perspective, hoping to gain returns in the future, I believe that investors with sufficient funds can try the first approach; ordinary investors with average funds should still be cautious at this time.
