Record-Breaking NFT Drops Making Artist Millions

Artists worldwide are trying to get into this trend because it’s becoming more and more lucrative by the minute. 

You’ve probably seen an NFT, in the form of digital art, on various social media platforms, and it is a pretty simple concept to absorb, right? But when Twitter’s founder put an autographed tweet as an NFT, the pictures got all blurry again. 

What really is an NFT, and why—and how—are people getting rich because of it? Let’s discuss more of that in the coming sections. 

What are NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are unique tokens created on a smart contract platform like Ethereum (ETH). The NFTs are stored with extra information so that they work differently than the normal ETH coin.

These NFTs can’t be traded like normal ETH coins. If you trade an ETH coin for another one, you’ll get the same thing. But if you trade an NFT for another NFT, you’ll get a different one. Think of it as trading an apple with a pear. 

All digital items can be NFTs, no matter how crazy it sounds—like that tweet. Lately, people have been getting into NFTs in the form of digital art. It’s starting a craze amongst the fine arts collectors and digital artists, and it’s proving to be more profitable than the traditional ones. 

But if there’s one thing that people need to know about NFTs, anybody can have a copy of one since it’s like an image or a video that people can pirate or download off the internet. 

However, the owner can be the only one with the original copy recognized by the artist itself. It’s the same concept as knowing that although there are thousands of replicas of the Mona Lisa, the original one is in the Louvre Museum. 

Artists Who Make Money off NFTs

As soon as NFTs showed promising results, plenty of artists jumped on this trend because why not, right? NFTs are simply the newest form of adapting to change, and many fans support it. 

So, without further ado, here are artists who have been getting rich over these digital tokens: 

Kings of Leon

King of Leon recently released their latest album, When You See Yourself, as an NFT. The NFT came with a collection of three tokens and 25 unique pieces. A limited-edition Golden Eye vinyl and a chance to win one of the six Golden Ticket live experiences were also part of the package.

Grimes 

Probably one of the artists who definitely scored big on NFTs is Grimes. Just recently, Grimes sold digital artworks in an auction, including a video of flying cherubs, swords, and glowing light called “Death of the Old”. This video sold for about $389,000. 

NBA

Believe it or not, the NBA is selling highlight reels in the form of NFTs, and it has been profitable for players like LeBron James and Zion Williamson. Both of these stars have reportedly earned about $200,000 each on NFTs. 

3Lau 

A world-renowned DJ and producer, 3Lau, was able to auction 33 of his works in NFT. Special edition vinyl records, unreleased music, and a custom song were enough to attract buyers. A whopping $3,666,666 was even paid for the custom song he sold.

Deadmau5

Canadian electronic music producer, DJ, and musician, Deadmau5 reportedly sold 6,000 of his work in NFTs back in December 2020. The total value of his works summed up to almost $100,000.

Mike Shinoda 

Co-founder of Linkin Park, Mike Shinoda, recently experimented with selling a digital piece of art for $10,000. He explained in a series of tweets what NFT is all about and how it works for those who were still pretty much confused. 

Energy Consumption of NFTs

And since everything’s pretty much digital, you might think it won’t leave any lasting climate impacts. Nope, you’re mistaken. It does have lasting effects, and it’s so subtle, people wouldn’t notice unless they did their own research. 

Each ETH transaction consumes about 48.14 kWh. It might seem like a small number, but that’s already equivalent to the electricity consumption of an average-sized household. 

Because of the rise of NFTs, thousands of ETH transactions happen daily, thereby increasing its participants’ electricity consumption more than a hundred-fold. 

Currently, NFTs aren’t really the main driving force of ETH transactions, but with this much profit coming in, it’ll surely rise in the coming years.