The last two years have brought massive trends to the cryptocurrency industry; starting with DeFi to NFTs to the metaverse, which exploded in popularity in late 2021 and continued to be a hot topic in 2022. Despite the rapid growth of the industry, many celebrities underestimate its advantages, paying attention only to the hype around NFTs and the metaverse.
However, the NFT sector has already established a strong connection with major celebrities such as music and movie stars and sports legends alike. In fact, the NFT sector may have been one of the most successful trends, as shown in a recent report by investment Citi bank that says the economy of the metaverse could reach $13 trillion by 2030.
Why NFTs are so popular now
Now, with the metaverse under the spotlight, the NFT market got its second wind, thanks to the fact that the metaverse relies strongly on non-fungible tokens. Not to mention that the demand for the internet and digitalization is growing in other areas each year.
That's why the metaverse will be an obvious continuation of today`s internet that connects two polar worlds: physical and virtual. And maybe one day, virtual reality will be more important than a physical one.
Despite the growing market, many public figures face various problems when they want to use NFTs, even if they follow the trends carefully. They have certain difficulties as the majority of their audience does not understand NFTs, what they are, how to work with them, or what value they have.
How do influencers get into NFTs?
The influencers’ involvement with the NFT sector does not come as a surprise, as NFTs are just a way to tokenize and easily establish, share, or change ownership of real-world or digital assets of value. One reason why they have value is the fact that owning these assets grants greater access to their creator.
For artists, authors, and influencers, this is a new way to earn money, while for fans, it represents an opportunity to connect with the creators on a deeper level.
The influencers themselves have a way of earning from the NFTs, not just when they sell them, but also when the NFTs get resold. This makes them very popular among influencers, whose content often revolves around lifestyle, fashion, and art, most of which is perfect for the NFT sector.
Selling art collections and tokens that grant ownership over certain items has been very popular in the NFT market, and it quickly attracted many. We saw massive stars like Paris Hilton, David Beckham, Madonna, and countless others enter the sector to use blockchain and NFTs to connect with their communities.
Benefits for influencers
The mentioned royalties are another reason why the NFTs became popular among the influencers, and there is also the fact that NFTs allow influencers to create and sell merchandise in a way that eliminates fraud. As things are right now, anyone can create fake merch and claim that it is an expensive piece designed personally by your favorite artist.
However, if the real merch is tokenized, and by purchasing it you purchase the crypto token too, it quickly becomes obvious that merch is not possible to copy anymore.
NFTs can also help to eliminate middlemen like advertisers and various agencies. NFTs are closely connected to cryptocurrencies, which could open opportunities for influencers to get paid in cryptocurrency itself, reduce transaction costs, ensure that all transactions will be near-instant, and, of course, crypto ownership means that no one else has control over one's money — not the bank or any other financial institution or middleman.
Conclusion
Looking at all these benefits, it seems quite obvious that the NFT sphere has great potential for the entertainment industry and the people involved in it, for example, public personas and influencers.
There is a clear opportunity for them to become more popular, authoritative and, no doubt, earn more money. However, the general idea is not only about money. A strong connection between celebrities and their fans gives a sense of moral satisfaction to both sides.
NFTs can strengthen this connection through direct communication between them. Of course, the NFT sector is young, which slows down the adoption of both NFTs and the metaverse. Although, this problem will be solved and the adaptation of it will reach the mainstream in time.
When that happens, we expect the entire entertainment industry to switch to NFTs and the metaverse, which are already growing at an extremely impressive rate.
Lead image by De'Andre Bush on Unsplash