NFT Fractional Ownership and Metaverse Museums

11/22/2021

Markets

0 min read



	Image Credit: pinguino k (Flickr)

Fractional NFTs, Metaverse-Museums, and Crypto-Brokers

Did you know what an NFT was prior to 2021?

Non-Fungible Tokens made headline news when Mike Winkelman, better known as Beeple, auctioned a piece for $69.3 million earlier this year. The sale made headline news which brought attention to the NFT medium far beyond the blockchain or cryptocurrency followers – it woke the world up to uses of blockchain beyond crypto. Beeple’s work, 5000 Days, was started in 2007 before the technology was created, in fact parts of the work were originally hand-drawn. It was completely digitized later and made non-fungible and therefore saleable as an NFT.

Opportunities

The increased awareness prompted the creation of marketplaces for buying, selling, and in some cases creating NFTs. A new business sprang up, thanks to blockchain technology. For investors and art collectors looking to purchase an NFT, there is now a feeling of wanting to get in early on what some have called the NFT “goldrush.” For small investors or those that want to own something very special, they may feel locked out as the rush has put hefty price tags on the most prized art.

This feeling locked out is now being answered by new innovation and the flexible capabilities of blockchain. It’s now possible to own a fractional share of a famous or expensive work, through companies that specialize in this newer segment of the still new NFT art business.

There are now a few platforms from which to invest in fractional art, and others being created. Openseas is a company that was quick to build this ability into a marketplace. It has paid off, news stories circulated last week that Overseas, which had been valued at $1.5 billion, is fielding new investment offers that could increase its valuation roughly six times to $10 billion or more. The New York-based company did not even initiate this new funding offer. It follows the $100 million raised at a $1.5 billion valuation in a Series B round four months ago.

Fractional.art is another NFT which, as its name implies, offers fractional ownership of high-end NFT art. It was created in early 2021 and was fully operational by June. This is how fast this market is evolving for smaller investors.

Another company Particle, with deep roots in the worlds of art and technology world, announced its intentions to enter this space in a press release last week. Particle is building a platform to enable more people access to ownership of some of the NFT world’s masterpieces by collectively participating in ownership. Particle divides each piece of art into 10,000 unique NFTs or “Particles,” each with its own title deed stored on the Blockchain.

Once a buyer purchases a Particle, they receive a digital certificate, or collector’s card, representing specific ownership in the artwork. Purchasers then have the right to buy and sell their Particles on secondary markets, trade, or transfer them to anyone they wish.

Metaverse Art Museum

Particle is also working to build a “meta-museum” to allow others to engage with fine artwork via the metaverse. This unique strategy ought to bring even more followers to NFT digital artwork. “While everybody is talking about the Metaverse we are creating the foundation of a Meta Museum — a platform powered by the Blockchain where people around the world can own art masterpieces and interact with them over the Internet and in the physical world,” said Oscar Salazar, Particle co-founder.

Crypto-Asset Brokers

For crypto-asset brokers, NFT marketplaces are being recognized as a means to expand and diversify into a broader array of blockchain assets. In a research
report by Joe
Gomes a Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets, he shares his assessment of Crypto-asset broker Voyager Digital’s (VYGVF, VOYG:CA ) recent participation in the $15 million seed funding round in Particle. According to the report, “For Voyager, the investment in Particle is the Company’s first step in providing access to the NFT market to its customers. Once again, the expanded product offerings help attract and retain users to the Voyager platform, as well as continue to diversify Voyager’s revenue streams.” The research report discusses the investment and reviews the analysts position on Voyager.

Take-Away

New uses and benefits of blockchain technology are moving at a pace rarely seen. NFTs went from an acronym most of us had to “Google” early in 2021, to an understood medium for collectibles providing both sole and fractional ownership.

This digital collectible world is crossing paths with other new technology as at least one company has plans to make collections available on the metaverse more to enjoy. Companies involved in one area of blockchain technology are finding they can diversify into other areas and gain new product offerings, and perhaps smooth the volatility still inherent in anything new.

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