Everyone from Eminem to Paris Hilton has gotten into investing in NFTs over the past year, but just as the space seemed close to mainstream acceptance, it hit controversy. Although NFTs were initially praised for letting artists profit from their work without middlemen, the lack of regulation has meant fraudsters can profit from their art instead. There’s also evidence linking NFTs and money laundering. However, if you’re prepared to see beyond these challenges, NFT stocks could still be worth investing in.
To help you weigh up both sides, let’s assess the challenges the NFT world faces right now and identify some of the best buy NFT stocks.
As non-fungible tokens, investing in NFTs represent ownership of (usually digital) assets. Anyone can create an account on an NFT marketplace like OpenSea, upload a file (e.g., a JPEG), and “mint” an NFT almost instantly — which they can potentially sell for a significant profit. No need to verify your identity.
In theory, you could take a screenshot of this article and turn it into an NFT right now. To stop others from profiting off their designs, many manufacturers have filed trademarks. Nike recently put its trademark to good use, filing a lawsuit against StockX for selling images of Nike shoes as NFTs. It’s unclear what the outcome of the lawsuit will be — some believe it could be considered “fair use.”
Yes, NFTs are facing some problems right now — but which market didn’t experience difficulties at some point in its ascent to success? There are sure to be some roses among the thorns. Due to the freshness of the NFT market, the biggest names (such as marketplaces like Opensea) aren’t yet publicly listed. Therefore, the stocks below are for more established companies that have shown signs of entering the space.
The American manufacturing company Funko was founded in 1998 and made its name by selling all kinds of collectibles related to pop culture, such as figurines and licensed apparel. If you know anything about NFTs, you’ll know that collectibles are a growing area, so it makes sense that Funko would be keen to get involved. Funko recently acquired TokenWave, the owner of popular NFT app TokenHead, and has since launched an NFT range based on its pop culture collections. Could it be one to watch?
The name PLBY Group might not ring any bells to most people, but how about Playboy? After being known for its magazines and photoshoots for so long, it made sense for the brand to venture into the NFT space, and that’s exactly what PLBY Group has now done. The company has struck up a partnership with the popular NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway to launch a collection of NFT artwork. It has already sold the Playboy Rabbitars NFTs collection for $9 million, suggesting a strong future.