NFTs 🔻97%, Are They Dying?

Good morning folks!

🤗Welcome to Switch Daily.

Weekend plans sorted yet? We’re jumping into the weekend with a big bang! CoinSwitch is back with another Block by Block event and this time we’re in Pune. If you are going to be around, come say hi 👋, we can’t wait to meet you.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Market pulse

• NFTs deep-dive

• News that makes noise

• Web3 Community Spotlight

• The Crypto Comic

Market pulse 📈

The market’s got no action 😐

The crypto market saw another mixed session yesterday. XRP led the way up with a four-session winning streak and ended the day with a 0.84% rise. Going by the price moves, it seems that the SEC vs. Ripple case is continuing to affect Ripple (XRP). However, the session was not so favorable for some of the top cryptos by market cap.

With Binance Smart Chain being temporarily paused after an exploit was confirmed on the chain, Binance Coin (BNB) led the way down, sliding by 2.48%. Dogecoin (DOGE) and Solana (SOL) mirrored the trend, losing 2.08% and 2.07%, respectively, according to daily data from FXEmpire.

NFTs Fab👍🏽 ya Fad👎🏽?

We all love NFTs, don't we? They are so cool that everybody wants to own one, no matter how under or overpriced they are. This year looked like the year of NFTs, with nearly $17 billion in transaction volume in January. An all-time high! But things are looking pretty bleak lately.

In just nine months, NFTs fell to nearly $466 million by September. That’s a dramatic decline of 97% from its all-time high — like the opposite of the slumdog millionaire plot. And janata is worried. There's talk that NFTs are a fad and have no real-world use. 😮‍💨

Naturally, we had to dispel that. We had to hear it from the best. So, we invited Nameet Potnis to meet our editor-in-chief Ankit Vengurlekar on his brand new show 'Crypto Kranti' to help us understand NFTs and their IRL value. BTW, who is this Nameet, bruh?💁

Nameet Potnis is

• A crypto OG

• The Founder of Asset Money (An NFT platform)

• And a fintech wizard.

So, let’s jump right into the discussion right away.

Why on earth do we need NFTs?

Suppose the concept of NFTs did not exist. Would art forms like music, paintings, etc., seize to exist? Nope, they would continue to exist. But Nameet says that the beauty of NFTs is that it sits on blockchain technology which brings additional value.

For instance, if you traditionally sold your art to someone, the person who bought it from you would become its sole owner. Whether that person sells it to someone else for a higher price does not impact you.

But when you sell an NFT to someone and that someone sells it to another person, 5%-10% of the proceeds still come back to you (the artist) in the form of Royalty. Now, that’s incredibly empowering for the artist, no? Also, NFTs erase the geographic boundaries that traditional artists were tied to.

NFT sales are falling massively. Does this mean it's fading away?

Of course, last year and year in 2022, we witnessed a badiya bull run. But things are changing now. How?

As Nameet put it beautifully earlier, a bunch of people came in and bought NFTs at hefty prices. But the number of wallets was lower, but the transactional volumes were higher. Only a few people had NFT wallets and were buying the NFT craze. This means low adoption but much hype.

What’s changed now is that transaction volumes have come down, but the number of wallets buying NFTs for more reasonable prices has consistently been growing since last year.

Why are people pouring massive money into pixelated art? Tell us more about NFT’s genuine use cases.

Okay, let’s consider the music industry. An artist creates music, and a giant record label scoots the artist over to own the song rights and distributes it to other platforms like Spotify. Depending on the reach, the label will receive royalties from these platforms. But only 10% - 15% of this will go back to the artist.

With NFTs, folks like Snoop Dogg, Little NAS, etc., are like we will do the distribution and split ownership into two. Half stays with the artist, and the other half is broken into NFTs and sold for rights. Now, if you love Snoop Dogg, you get to own a piece of his music and be entitled to a fraction of his royalties.

Another IRL use case, especially effective in India, is — Vehicular Digital Passports. Traditionally, insurance companies charge a certain amount of premium based on the assumption that you may drive X km that year. Recently, companies have issued your car’s performance as digital assets, which assess how much the car has run over the year. So, with this, insurance companies can now issue usage-based insurance.

Nameet’s list of NFT artists to look out for in India

1. Amrit Pal Singh

2. Prasad Bhat

Fun Fact: Know this Big Bang Theory episode where the boys lose the key to their Bitcoin wallet, which had some Bitcoins mined way back in 2011? Well, the same thing happened to Nameet IRL. He owns more than one BTC but can do nothing about it coz he lost the key to his wallet. Pat yourself Nameet; we feel you bhai. 🥲

Aur, scene kya hai? 🤨

🔻Sharp fall recorded in USDC circulation

Stablecoins appear to be anything but stable as the market outlook doesn’t look rosy for some stablecoins in the market. The total supply of USDC tokens has declined from 55.06 billion to 45.74 billion, a fall of over 9 billion units worth over $9 billion in the last three months. Read more.

🎉SWIFT network tastes success in CBDC payment trials

Global payment system SWIFT announced that it has successfully moved CBDCs and tokenized assets on its existing infrastructure in two different experiments. Read more.

🍔Now, pay for your Big Mac in Bitcoin, USDT

Multinational fast-food chain McDonald’s has started accepting Bitcoin and USDT as payments in the Swiss town of Lugano. Customers can order and pay for their burgers at kiosks using a digital wallet app on mobile. Read more.

💬Telegram enables P2P crypto trading for users through chats

Popular instant P2P messaging service Telegram has added a new feature to @wallet bot that will enable P2P crypto trading for users through chats. The bot will help purchase cryptos with a bank card and allow the exchange and transfer of assets to other wallets through chat messages. Read more.

Okay now shout out time! 

Want to Learn Web3?

Join the The Product House!

Who are they again?

• The Product House is India's coolest and fastest-growing web3 community.

• They’re on a mission to help folks learn, earn and build in web3.

• They offer dope features like live-learning sessions, IRL mixers, hands-on-workshops, gaming nights and, most importantly, a sense of community.

Check them out! 👇🏽

The Crypto Comic

Well, that's a wrap for today!

Have a good weekend. See you Monday! 👋🏽

Loving Switch Daily? Make sure to share it with your friends and spread the love 💙