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Have NFTs created The optimal online communities?
NFTs have nourished the world since they came to conception. The communities that have formed around them are formidable and fiercely focused on their efforts to create new opportunities and optimal forms of monetization.
Building community is a strategy for brands to truly connect with their customers and develop their relationships with them.
NFTs have been the best innovation in the web 3.0 era for some time now, primarily because they permit the exchange and ownership of digital commodities and assets.
According to research, more than 30% of companies now have an NFT sector which typically includes a community.
NFTs have seen their fair share of popularity and communities; in fact, over 1,447,774 Google searches regarding NFTs were made in January 2022, according to BYBIT Learn.
Why is there such a strong sense of community surrounding NFTs?
There are several reasons for this, and likely has something to do with the fact that you can convert a meme to an NFT and sell it for over $4 million, or that NFT communities can pop up around any theme or project. In any case, it's a new technology with a bright future, so there's no surprise that so many communities have sprung up around them.
In a 2021 survey on NFTs, 29% of adults expressed interested in NFTs, with 53% of these being Esports fans and general sports followers.
Sport NFTs got popular after the NBA collaborated with Dapper Labs to build NBA Top Shot, and the marketplace has since evolved to become a leading NFT platform.
The beauty of NFTs is that they provide brands with direct access to their customers while also creating a sense of connection between them.
Unlike in other sectors, profit is not always the driving force behind a sports NFT purchase. Sports NFT collectors are looking for anything that would connect them to their favorite athletes or sports.
David Arends, a fan of the New York Rangers, had never acquired an NFT before but when he learned the Rangers were releasing a set of digital tokens, he thought it might be a special addition to his sports collections and according to him "will not sell it for anything in the world".
NFT is not only popular but also has a sizable market. When NFT became popular in 2021, its sales volumes skyrocketed and conversations about it exceeded those about cryptocurrency.
The Sports NFT industry is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.3% to reach $41.6 billion by 2023, more than doubling from $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion in 2022.
Since approximately 30% of rights holders in the sports industry have identified the potential of NFTs to their organization's commercial strategy but have not yet defined specific use cases, now is the ideal time for sports brands to take the plunge. Meanwhile, little more than 15% of sports sector rights holders claimed to be actively working on NFT-focused products. This indicates that the market is still developing, has enormous potential, and has few investors. Brands don't need to develop nft to enter the market; instead, all it takes is a partnership with an existing, nft-focused company.
By collaborating with Dapper Labs to build NFL All Day, NBA Top Shot, and UFC Strike on top of Dapper's Flow blockchain, the NFL, NBA, and UFC have all entered the NFT space.
Many athletes, including Lebron James, Dez Bryant, and Lionel Messi, have also ventured into NFTs.
NBA Top Shot was one of the first NFT initiatives to receive approval from a significant sports league, and according to Cryptoslam, it surpassed a total sales volume of $1 billion.
A survey by Seton Hall University of 1,500 American adults reveals a growing correlation between sports lovers and those who have invested in NFTs or cryptocurrencies. More than twice as many households with a passionate sports fan possess digital assets as those without one, at 57%.
This means that brands that do not key into this initiative risk the chance of losing this pool of potential customers to competitors who choose to adopt NFTs into their customer experience.
NFT Communities are definitely the new hotspot online communities and the fact that NFTs are primarily appealing to younger generations is one factor that connects several of these statistics.
NFTs present an encouraging opportunity for the growth of brands and sports in the future.
