The Latest Crypto Craze T
he NFT boom has caused the world to sit up and take notice. Short for non-fungible tokens, NFTs are cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain, each distinguished from one another by their own identification codes and metadata. As such, each NFT carries its own individual value, is uniquely identifiable, can’t be replicated, and can’t be traded or exchanged at equivalency – an unprecedented shift in the dynamics of the crypto model. Put simply, they are virtual one-of-akind artworks. This is where NFTs differ from fungible tokens such as cryptocurrencies, which are identical 16 | APAC Outlook issue 54
Global NFT sales are exploding, and this is just the beginning of an even bigger surge for the crypto market in Asia Writer: Jack Salter
to each NFT, easing identification and the transfer of tokens between holders. Indeed, NFTs can be used to tokenise real-life pieces of art or real estate assets, allowing them to be bought, sold, and traded whilst minimising the possibility of fraud, and can even come to represent the identities or property rights of an individual.
DEMAND FOR DIGITAL to each other and therefore can be used for commercial transactions. One Bitcoin, for example, is always equal in value to another Bitcoin. Just like Bitcoin, however, ownership details are assigned
Asia has emerged at the forefront of the global NFT phenomenon with southeast Asians dominating NFTbased web traffic, especially from the likes of the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.
