TL; DR
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The first NFT was created on Ethereum in 2014 and a market emerged around the technology in 2017.
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But now Bitcoin (which has had an NFT market for less than a year) is surpassing Ethereum in NFT sales!
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This gives BTC holders a new way to spend their money without ever leaving the Bitcoin network.
Full story
Things we didn’t have on our 2023 bingo card:
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Bitcoin beats Ethereum in NFT sales.
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A decorated Air Force vet who says UFOs are real while under oath.
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Céline Dion is excluded from Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers (shame on you, RS).
But back to that first point…
The first NFT was created on Ethereum in 2014 and a market emerged around the technology in 2017.
Giving ETH a healthy seven to ten year head start in developing the technology and taking a dominant lead in the space (depending on where you measure).
But now Bitcoin (which has had an NFT market for less than a year) is surpassing Ethereum in NFT sales! Nuts, right?
What’s stranger is that the numbers between each chain’s sales aren’t even close. In December, NFT sales on the Bitcoin network were $881 million, compared to Ethereum’s $353 million (!)
This is the lesson we learn from this:
Network effects are cool and all, but money still talks. That is, there is a larger network of products/games/tools built around Ethereum NFTs – but the total value of the Bitcoin network is about 3x more than that of ETH.
($863 billion vs. $273 billion).
This gives Bitcoin NFTs an economic advantage, in that they offer BTC holders a new way to spend their money, without ever leaving the Bitcoin network.
It’s similar to how Apple has been able to enter and dominate multiple new product categories over the past decade.
The company’s message is:
Are you an iPhone/MacBook owner and thinking about purchasing a smartwatch? Subscribe to a new streaming service? Buy a tablet?
Buy our version of that product and it will work seamlessly within the ecosystem you’ve already invested money into.”
The message of Bitcoin NFTs is:
“Have you made a lot of money with Bitcoin, but feel like you can’t do much with it other than buy it and hold it? Are you jealous of all the functionality offered by Ethereum NFTs?
Well, don’t be like that. You can now buy/sell NFTs natively on Bitcoin!”
Or something along those lines…
(idk – you get the idea!)