This article investigates the emerging segment of the cryptocurrency market related to football fan tokens (FFTs)—digital assets used for engagement with professional football clubs around the world. More specifically, the authors study the investability of FFTs from the perspective of risk and return. They find that FFTs generate a whopping 150% return on the first trading day. This return is significantly larger if the FFT market cap is higher, the FFT offer price is lower, the football team displays better historical performance, and the team is located in a relatively small metropolitan area with a high GDP per capita. They also find that in the long run, FFTs severely underperform all major crypto benchmarks, including NFT, DeFi, Meme, and bitcoin. Moreover, the returns to FFTs tend to be highly volatile (160% annualized). Intriguingly, they show that the real-life performance of football teams does not affect the contemporaneous market performance of their FFTs.
While the traditional art market stagnates, the digital art market is booming partially due to its connection with non-fungible tokens, which allow any unique goods to be mapped in a digital environment. Using unique individual data from the online art NFTs marketplace SuperRare, we combine econometric tools with recent machine learning approaches. This approach allows us to define explanatory variables out of the NFTs descriptions for our Hedonic pricing approach. Using these variables, we are able to show that our Hedonic pricing models exhibit relevant informational value for NFTs prices. Moreover, we show that NFTs cannot be viewed as a simple derivative of cryptocurrencies.
Mr.Vimu Ram Kale Kale, Chandrani Singh, Dr.Sunil Khilari
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT’s) indicate the creation of a blockchain-based digital certificate of authenticity that is comparable to other virtual crypto assets and currencies. The use of blockchain technology and the exchange of digital currency have become increasingly widespread in recent years. Having said that, as has been shown in recent years, the NFT market is also booming. The very idea of NFT is derived from an Ethereum token standard that aims to separate and recognise each token with its distinct signature being tied with digital attributes. India has also seen increased interest in this digital sector, particularly from the future new-age investors and digital innovators, as a result of the spectacular return on its quickly expanding global market. However, due to the early stage of the NFT ecosystem's growth, India lacks a regulatory legislative framework to oversee such immature digital crypto assets. There are several legal complexities surrounding them, which has made it difficult to determine their legal legitimacy and sanctity. New artists could have a tendency to become lost in this chaotic growth in the absence of comprehensive descriptions. This paper aims to examine the idea of NFT in comparison to bitcoin and copyright, as well as its operational and technological elements. It attempts to examine the legal hazards that affect its operation as well as the potential and difficulties the Indian legal system has with regard to crypto-assets.
Abstract Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been used as a way of rewarding content creators. Artists publish their works on the blockchain as NFTs, which they can then sell. The buyer of an NFT then holds ownership of a unique digital asset, which can be resold in much the same way that real-world art collectors might trade paintings. However, while a deal of effort has been spent on selling works of art on the blockchain, very little attention has been paid to using the blockchain as a means of fundraising to help finance the artist’s work in the first place. Additionally, while blockchains like Ethereum are ideal for smaller works of art, additional support is needed when the artwork is larger than is feasible to store on the blockchain. In this paper, we propose a fundraising mechanism that will help artists to gain financial support for their initiatives, and where the backers can receive a share of the profits in exchange for their support. We discuss our prototype implementation using the SpartanGold framework. We then discuss how this system could be expanded to support large NFTs with the 0Chain blockchain, and describe how we could provide support for ongoing storage of these NFTs.
Abstract The viability of exponentially growing non-fungible token (NFT) market is evaluated by identifying potential value-generating mechanisms that can be rationalized. After identifying the value-generating mechanisms underlying the positive values of NFTs, this study establishes a pricing model for NFTs that follows a continuous-time financial framework. As NFTs are claimed to securitize “ownership rights short of use”, and as such they may potentially serve as a substitute for the need to rely replace the reliance on the legal protection provided by intellectual property rights (IPRs). Considering this issue, this study evaluates the likelihood that NFTs will replace existing mechanisms that protect producers’ rightful claim to use their assets or the need to apply the legal code that governs IPRs. The financial condition for this potential shift is derived for a category of assets whose use or consumption does not reduce supply as the notion of scarcity does not apply.
Abstract In this article, we argue that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) challenge established marketing understanding of digital ownership, uniqueness, and value; authenticity, status, and sharing; and branding and distribution. We propose a set of preliminary research questions rooted in these areas, in hopes of offering entry points to future programmatic investigation of the broader field of “crypto-marketing.” This emerging subdiscipline offers opportunities to expand our understanding of consumer behavior, pricing, and product design and may be crucial in predicting the future of our discipline as NFTs further evolve.
Open access
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Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained considerable media attention and sparked growing public interest. NFTs are unique units of data recorded on a permanent ledger or blockchain. NFTs are used to record ownership of both physical and digital goods. Prominent sport organizations have embraced NFTs for innovative growth opportunities such as generating revenue via novel digital products (e.g., digital collectibles). For example, the National Basketball Association (NBA) launched NBA Top Shot, an online marketplace to buy and sell digital sports highlights. Sport organizations are exploring future innovation opportunities where there is a need to reliably track and verify authenticity or ownership of digital or digitizable assets. This includes existing sport products (e.g., tickets) and novel fan engagement initiatives. To benefit from NFTs, sport managers need to reconceptualize how sport is marketed and managed in a digital domain. The purpose of this research primer is to acquaint readers with key concepts related to NFTs. Specifically, we provide an overview of NFTs, offer a review of the brief history of NFTs, conceptualize NFTs via parallels with collectibles, and address the speculative nature of the NFT market. We conclude by outlining innovative growth opportunities of NFTs for sport managers and future research directions for sport management scholars.
Open access
5 source records
Digital Games and Media
Sports Analytics and Performance
Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
NFTs have boomed in the recent past and have implications in several fields of science. In this article, I delve into the implications and potential advantage and challenges in the use of NFTs in the field of conservation science.
This paper focuses on the technology impact via Blockchain to change consumer behavior in the digital art industry. The paper objectives are three folds: first, analyze the impact of Ethereum in selling digital artwork and on the bank world. Second, investigate the effects of Non-Fungible Token on the art industry. Third, highlight how people can sell their artworks, tweets, or even memes for thousands of dollars. Fourth, explain the effect of Ethereum in creating value for artwork and why a meme that includes nothing unique to be sold for an unbelievable price? The paper provides insights on the future of the digital arts industry and the rational behavior of the developers, artists, and even customers, as the three parties shape the business of the NFL’s success. It reflects on the investment behavior in digital arts and the importance of a secure long-term investment for a niche segment that seeks to satisfy their need of acquiring unique products. The paper serves as a guide for digital art and focuses on how AI applications create profitable markets.
In the first half of 2020, the average sales volume of gallery operators declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic and art galleries faced a crisis relating to their sustainable operation. However, crypto art finance, which combines online sales with blockchain, is attracting a considerable amount of attention. Can the use of blockchain solve the problems encountered in today’s art trading market? Is it considered acceptable by participants in the art trading market? What factors affect the behavioral intentions of blockchain technology users? In this study, we discussed the relationship between perceived risks and the three external variables of trust, government support, and auction house initiative, as well as their impacts on user attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding blockchain. The results of this study verified key factors that will help to increase the use of blockchain and solve existing market issues. It will also promote the sustainable operation and development of art enterprises and the market.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a way to collect digital art as well as an investment vehicle. Despite having been popularized only recently, NFT markets have witnessed several high-profile (and high-value) asset sales and a tremendous growth in trading volumes over the last year. Unfortunately, these marketplaces have not yet received much security scrutiny. Instead, most academic research has focused on attacks against decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and automated techniques to detect smart contract vulnerabilities. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study the market dynamics and security issues of the multi-billion dollar NFT ecosystem. In this paper, we first present a systematic overview of how the NFT ecosystem works, and we identify three major actors: marketplaces, external entities, and users. We perform an in-depth analysis of the top 8 marketplaces (ranked by transaction volume) to discover potential issues associated with such marketplaces. Many of these issues can lead to substantial financial losses. We also collected a large amount of asset and event data pertaining to the NFTs being traded in the examined marketplaces. We automatically analyze this data to understand how the entities external to the blockchain are able to interfere with NFT markets, leading to serious consequences, and quantify the malicious trading behaviors carried out by users under the cloak of anonymity.
Technical methods of intellectual property protection are reviewed and combined in the essay in the discourse of historical development — from man-made signatures of Renaissance artists to non-fungible tokens (NFT). The proliferation of NFTs is analyzed from the point of view of the commercial law: NFTs are discussed as objects that simultaneously have the characteristics of independence and a derivative nature in relation to intellectual property being the underlying digital asset. The self-sufficiency of NFTs as legal objects is provided by their commodity properties, which arise not only from the value of the underlying asset, but from the phenomenon of crystallization of the unique fixed version of the asset in a non-interchangeable and irreproducible token. The derivative nature of NFTs, figuratively correlated with the derivative contracts in financial markets, is manifested in the symbolization of intellectual property as an underlying asset and the loss (in full or in part) of its usual significance for a potential acquirer when placed in an NFT-image. Despite the variety and a specific evolution of legal approaches to the understanding of intellectual property, we can state a long-standing conceptual rejection by legal scholars from the simplest proprietary theories of transferring real rights constructions to intellectual property. However, some absolute property features of the NFTs, ensuring both internal and external legal aspects of the property, raise the question of a new legal life of “proprietarism” in the conditions of digitalization and information capitalism.
We propose Environmentally Smart Contracts, a new kind of smart contract for non-fungible tokens to solve the prudential-moral dilemma facing digital artists. The current proof-of-work-dominated non-fungible token environment requires artists to trade off the prudential benefits and the environmental costs of selling their art on blockchains. By fully correcting for environmental externalities, Environmentally Smart Contracts will allow artists to reap the sales benefits of non-fungible tokens without contributing to environmental degradation. Concrete steps to encourage the development of Environmentally Smart Contracts are discussed.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) make it technically possible for digital assets to be owned and traded, introducing the concept of scarcity in the digital realm for the first time. Resulting from this technical development, this paper asks the question, do they provide an opportunity for fundraising for galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM), by selling ownership of digital copies of their collections? Although NFTs in their current format were first invented in 2017 as a means for game players to trade virtual goods, they reached the mainstream in 2021, when the auction house Christie’s held their first-ever sale exclusively for an NFT of a digital image, that was eventually sold for a record 69 million USD. The potential of NFTs to generate significant revenue for artists and museums by selling effectively a cryptographically signed copy of a digital image (similar to real-world limited editions, which are signed and numbered copies of a given artwork), has sparked the interest of the financially deprived museum and heritage sector with world-renowned institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Hermitage Museum, having already employed NFTs in order to raise funds. Concerns surrounding the environmental impact of blockchain technology and the rise of malicious projects, exploiting previously digitised heritage content made available through OpenGLAM licensing, have attracted criticism over the speculative use of the technology. In this paper, we present the current state of affairs in relation to NFTs and the cultural heritage sector, identifying challenges, whilst highlighting opportunities that they create for revenue generation, in order to help address the ever-increasing financial challenges of galleries and museums.
Natkamon Tovanich, Nicolas Soulié, Nicolas Heulot, Petra Isenberg
We present a visual analytics tool, MiningVis, to explore the long-term historical evolution and dynamics of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that attracts much attention but remains difficult to understand. Particularly important to the success, stability, and security of Bitcoin is a component of the system called "mining." Miners are responsible for validating transactions and are incentivized to participate by the promise of a monetary reward. Mining pools have emerged as collectives of miners that ensure a more stable and predictable income. MiningVis aims to help analysts understand the evolution and dynamics of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem, including mining market statistics, multi-measure mining pool rankings, and pool hopping behavior. Each of these features can be compared to external data concerning pool characteristics and Bitcoin news. In order to assess the value of MiningVis, we conducted online interviews and insight-based user studies with Bitcoin miners. We describe research questions tackled and insights made by our participants and illustrate practical implications for visual analytics systems for Bitcoin mining.
The remediation of analog trading card games into digital platforms troubles notions of ownership and highlights the flows of capital through the ecologies of TCGs that previously relied on material artifacts. $2 is a digital trading card game that utilizes Non-Fungible Tokens to address concerns over ownership. However, in the wake of the sale of a $69 Million dollar NFT at Christie's art auction, crypto-art has been embroiled in discourse with respect to artist exploitation, environmental, and other concerns endemic to blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. This paper examines the implications of NFTs in digital card games via the material histories of trading card games and the way digital TCGs accelerate the extraction of capital from player communities by bypassing traditional secondary markets. $2 proposes to solve these issues of ownership and assure players their cards will retain their value. However, the game relies on the continued existence of the publisher's platform, blockchain infrastructure, and player interest. The game also ignores how cards become valuable. Despite mimicking the artificial scarcity associated with TCGs, it does not take into account the impact metagame trends have on the value of cards. By looking at NFT implementations in games such as $2 we can identify several issues with the technology that might otherwise be overlooked in favor of more common critiques. This also highlights several implications remediation and adaptation herald for digital versions of analog games.
Abstract We investigate the significance of extreme positive returns in the cross-sectional pricing of cryptocurrencies. Through portfolio-level analyses and weekly cross-sectional regressions on all cryptocurrencies in our sample period, we provide evidence for a positive and statistically significant relationship between the maximum daily return within the previous month (MAX) and the expected returns on cryptocurrencies. In particular, the univariate portfolio analysis shows that weekly average raw and risk-adjusted return differences between portfolios of cryptocurrencies with the highest and lowest MAX deciles are 3.03% and 1.99%, respectively. The results are robust with respect to the differences in size, price, momentum, short-term reversal, liquidity, volatility, skewness, and investor sentiment.
Marko Suvajdžić, Dragana Stojanović, Iryna Kanishcheva
In this exploratory text the authors review different ways in which Blockchain technology intersects with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and with art, and how it connects to a more and more frequently mentioned area such as contemporary art industries. These intersections are pointing at the two aspects worth exploring – the first one being a way in which technology (here Blockchain and AI) can be used in various fields and industries, and the other one following art as it opens its world to the new technological possibilities, enriching its forms, topics and manifestations, and questioning the status of the author as well. The art examples and case studies exhibited here will illustrate a couple of problems that can be solved and/or improved with Blockchain and AI technology. These include transparency, art data authenticity, art data monetization, smart contracts with artists, investment opportunities of NFT (non-fungible tokens), roles and activities of curators, psychology of aesthetics, and exploration of creativity.