Binance Exec Warns Most NFTs Have No Long Term Value

Binance’s Head of NFTs Helen Hai believes the bulk majority of NFTs, as they are today, don’t offer any real value to users. However, she said that the best is yet to come for this technology and its applications, noting that NFTs “definitely” have a bright future ahead. However, investors should be careful when investing in NFTs due to the current market saturation.

NFTs Still in Early Stages

Amid the broader crypto market downturn, NFT sales volume has also taken a hit. During the first quarter of the year, sales of NFTs plunged by around 50% while resale profit dropped by 3%, according to a quarterly report by NFT market researcher NonFungible.

Despite the slowdown in the volume of buyers and sellers, Binance’s head of NFTs is confident about the future of non-fungible tokens. However, she believes NFTs need to evolve from their current phase and offer real value like bridging the gap between the user and the creator. She told Yahoo Finance:

“If you ask me, did I really buy a lot of [these]? No, I didn’t. Because I still think the real value creation of the NFT is not really here yet. We need to understand more about the user’s perspective, and also the creator’s perspective. How can we actually connect everything together?”

Hai added that blockchain and NFTs “definitely have long-term value.” Near term, however, she said there would some volatility, particularly due to the widespread macroeconomic pessimism. “Temporarily, I think there will be turbulence,” Hai said. “But it’s not unlike the early stages of the internet where at this infant stage this kind of volatility always happens.”

Notably, some NFT projects have already tried to create value and distance themselves from being mere JPEGs. One more prominent example is Yuga Lab’s Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a collection of 10,000 Ape NFTs, each with completely unique traits.

Unlike other NFT collections, BAYC acts as a membership club with sizable benefits. The collection has consistently pushed the concept to other levels, landing branding deals with the so-called Yacht Club as an exclusive social organization and even launching exclusive parties for their members. And just recently, BAYC also launched its own token.

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Buying NFTs is a “Very Judgmental Thing”

Hai noted that there are some valuable NFT collections, though spotting these projects would not be easy. She compared NFTs to art, suggesting that investors need to be somehow critical and “judgmental” if they want to discover promising projects. She said:

“Do all contents have value on the platform, the answer is no. As well, is it that everything has no value? No. But people need to differentiate and appreciate. It’s like going to buy art. This is a very judgmental thing.”

Investing in an NFT project just because a celebrity or someone famous has endorsed it is not a working strategy, Hai said. She stressed that finding projects that offer value starts with education. 

“It doesn’t work like that. I think we need to really understand what’s the true value? Is it just a picture? Is it just about the artist’s name? I think there needs to be more than that.”

Binance launched its NFT marketplace in early 2021, becoming one of the first crypto exchanges to do so. By late 2021, Binance NFT had listed over 2.5 million NFTs across a wide variety of categories, processing tens of millions worth of transactions. 

What do you think the future holds for NFTs? What are some promising NFT collections in your idea? Let us know in the comments below.