Visa, Covid-19, and NFTs as an opportunity to recover from the crisis

Following an NFT’s purchase of a Crypto Punk worth $150,000 (49.50 ETH to be precise), Visa also released a whitepaper stating that NFTs could soon represent a new form of economy, even in light of the problems brought by Covid-19 around the world.

That would be especially valuable in the sports and entertainment arena to increase engagement with fans and have a new way to monetize.

Visa, in fact, describes NFTs as a “promising medium for fan engagement.”

NFTs, Covid-19, and engagement

Right in the first pages of the report, Visa explains that the restrictions due to Covid-19 have led to a massive pause of sporting and cultural events. Therefore, these sectors are suffering, having to find alternatives to monetize in the digital world. For these reasons, NFTs could be the future.

Specifically speaking about the sports business, Visa explains:

“Sports businesses are being challenged to find ways to harness the latest technology and deliver an experience that meets the behaviors of their fans. Even more so, with the limitations of COVID-19, athletes are turning to technology to engage their fans. An estimated $18B of global sports revenue has been lost during the pandemic, further driving the need to diversify revenue and focus on technology to reposition businesses for growth opportunities and to capture the attention of fans.”

How to use NFTs according to Visa

The report outlines the steps the payments giant says you should follow to integrate NFTs into your business. In summary, they are:

1. Finding the use case, i.e., choosing whether these NFTs will be related to gaming, art, collectibles, etc.;
2. Finding the appropriate blockchain also depending on fees and velocity. Ethereum and Flow are recommended in the report;
3. Mining your own NFTs;
4. Decide how to store these NFTs over the long term (directly on the blockchain, on a centralized or decentralized repository);
5. Have a way to access your non-fungible tokens quickly and easily;
6. Distribute them through a viable marketplace;
7. Identify ways to increase engagement among fans.

In addition, before embarking on the NFT world, the pros and cons, fees, the environmental impact of using blockchain (especially those based on mining, Visa says), copyright rules, and regulation should also be considered.

The NFT market is on the rise

Although many already give them up for dead, according to data from Nonfungible.com, the NFT market is booming, with $542 million in sales in the last week alone. 

However, the difference from a few months ago is that the market is veering toward collectibles rather than the cryptocurrency art market. If in March 2021 the extensive records were made by artists as in the case of the 69 million of Beeple’s NFT, now the so-called Collectibles, i.e., digital figurines with more or less rarity, are leading the sector. In fact, in the top sales of the week, we find Crypto Punk, Bored Ape, and Art Blocks.

In the world of sports, instead, numbers are more limited, with the weekly record being only 9 ETH for MLB Champions.