Anyone familiar with NFTs understands how they have transformed the notion of digital art. Already discussed are Picasso NFTs that have been fractionalized and artificial intelligence-generated artwork, but there are a few additional developments in NFT art that have the potential to cause a stir in the established art market.

NFT Art Funds

Over the last year, Justin Sun, the inventor of crypto platform TRON, has purchased $30 million in Picasso, Warhol, and Beeple artworks and converted them into NFTs—a certain method to catch the attention of the art world.

Gallery paintings may all have QR codes next to them for easy authentication. Classical artworks may be subject to NFT demands from wealthy art buyers. The Louvre may open a virtual gallery so visitors can see its works without physically traveling to France.

Metaverse galleries and auction houses

The 250-year-old Sotheby’s, known for selling works of art, is already heading on this route. Sotheby’s has now created its own Sotheby’s Metaverse, where they plan to exhibit the NFT artworks they are selling and host auctions.

Natively Digital 1.2, their most recent event, generated an astounding $18.6 million in revenue.

Destroying art, creating NFTs

Burning an NFT implies completely erasing it from existence. In most cases, burning one NFT increases the value of other NFTs by creating an artificial scarcity.

Injective Protocol, a blockchain company, advanced the art of NFT burning earlier this year. They spent $95,000 on a Banksy piece named “Morons,” then burned it. They videotaped the artwork being destroyed and then offered the footage for sale.

This is a significant advancement in the field of digital twins. After the item’s destruction, just the NFT remains.

These tendencies demonstrate that NFTs and digital art are making their way into the mainstream, not only among up-and-coming artists. In the future, they might even become the dominant power.

Statistics on NFT Art Sales

To some extent, the first NFT, named Quantum, was created in May 2014 by digital artist Kevin McCoy and programmer Anil Dash. Auctioning off this NFT some years later brought in $1.4 million. However, this still needs to catch up to the record-breaking NFT sale of $91.8 million for a collection of digital artworks by artist Pak titled The Merge. Beeple’s ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ NFT sale was the second most expensive ever, at a whopping $69.3 million.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks are two of the most well-known NFT Collections, accounting for a significant portion of NFT sales. Since its beginning, sales of the 10,000-strong colony of primates collectibles have totaled more than $2 billion at an average price of $75,000. According to NFT, the pixelated punks had a comparable total volume and average retail price of $107,000. And the fact that five of the 10 most expensive NFT sales ever were for CryptoPunks demonstrates the relevance or societal value of these NFTs.

Nansen made it abundantly evident how highly valued these two collections were by showing how frequently they mirrored the day’s priciest sale.

Now, collectibles are still the most well-liked category, but utility NFTs are a close second, and the recent volume rise for the Ethereum Name Service has only helped narrow the gap.

Clock, a digital counter showing the number of days Julian Assange has been in London Belmarsh Prison pending extradition to the United States, sold the third most NFTs ever. This was part of a bigger NFT collection called “Censored,” and was sold for the equivalent of $52.7 million.