Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Across the Metaverse

NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, first leapt into our collective consciousness in March 2021 when Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, sold a digital work of art for USD69.346 million. NFTs are "one-of-a-kind" assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but do not take any tangible form. NFTs are (ostensibly) non-fungible - that is, it cannot be replaced with something else - and are verified and stored using blockchain protocols.

The most expensive piece of art ever sold by Christie's was the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo Da Vinci sold for USD450 million in 2017. Whilst not topping that list, Beeple laid claim to being the third most valuable living artist as measured by auction prices.

In parallel, popular NFT games like the Axie Infinity, Sandbox and Decentraland are increasingly being used to describe what the Metaverse could be like when it reaches a state of maturity. These "Play to earn" NFT-based games are said to provide an early type of Metaverse like experience where digital scarcity, strategy and gameplay come together to create a game where people enter a shared digital realm and create unique in-game experiences.

In this SK Original, we provide a primer on the evolving NFT digital market and its possible future iterations within the much hyped Metaverse. We organise this as follows:

1. NFT Origins
2. an overview of the major NFT platforms, stakeholders and projects
3. drawing similarities between NFT and Mobile Gaming Adoption
4. regulatory landscape
5. future applications - NFTs across the Metaverse