5 NFT trends that will define the next NFT bull run

2022 could be the year when the NFT market finally shifts its focus from quantity to quality. The maturation of GameFi, cross-chain technology, multi-ownership, NFT collateralization, and other tools will enhance the value of each collectible, turning NFTs from something that is flipped for quick profit into versatile assets worth holding for the long term.

Experts share a list of the 5 major trends to watch

Total NFT sales reached $25 billion in 2021 – an incredible result for such a young market. Yet, this  initial boom was followed by a major NFT sell-off, with the volume dropping by over 50% (if one doesn’t count a single spike in March 2022). 

Yet, it’s far too early to bury NFTs as an asset class. Quite the contrary: a new non-fungible bull run could be around the corner. Here are the five key trends that are worth watching, according to an expert analyst at Liquidifty, an innovative marketplace value aggregator app to buy and sell NFTs. 

1) Growing sales on alternative blockchains. Just a year and a half ago, almost all NFT marketplaces of note were based on Ethereum. Now, there are major decentralized apps for buying NFTs on Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Avalanche, NEAR, Harmony One, and other blockchains.

Interestingly, the second-largest network by sales volume is Ronin, a chain created specifically for the Axie Infinity P2E NFT game. The third-biggest chain is Solana, where the all-time NFT sell volume recently reached $1.6 billion. 

2) The rise of P2E NFT marketplaces. While in 2021 everyone talked about non-fungibles as the future of the art market, NFT activity is clearly shifting towards gaming. Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, League of Kingdoms, Gods Unchained, CryptoBlades – all these and many other GameFi projects now account for a significant percentage of the NFT buy volumes. There are even specialized marketplaces aimed at those who want to buy P2E NFT assets, such as Liquidifty and Dmarket.

3) The INO boom. INO stands for ‘initial NFT offering’, and it’s a novel way for gaming projects to raise funds with NFT: sell non-fungible in-game assets before the game itself goes live. For gamers, this is a chance to buy P2E NFT assets at the best price. INOs co-exist with regular gaming IDOs, where users, instead of buying an NFT, buy fungible in-game tokens.

4) Fractionalized ownership. Some major collections are now pricier than the works of the Old Masters in the traditional art market; NFT bluechips like Crypto Punks sell for hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. For those who can’t afford such collectibles, the solution is a fractionalized NFT: buy a Punk or a Bored Ape by pooling resources in a multisig wallet. The technology is still highly experimental: among the apps for buying NFTs, Fractional.art and LIQNFT offer this option, while Liquidifty is going to launch its multi-ownership feature soon.

5) NFT credits. 

Leveraging all NFT innovations in one place: Liquidifty’s unique strategy

A good example of how all the trends described above can be implemented within one platform is Liquidifty. Far from being just an app to buy and sell NFT assets, this BSC-based project aims to help collectors and investors to extract the maximum possible value out of their assets. This is done through a range of cutting-edge tools and incentive programs.

• Gaming and metaverse: of all NFT tokens listed on Liquidifty, the majority are gaming assets. These include Drunk Robots, Chimeras, SharkRace, etc.

• IDOs: curated NFT projects on the BSC chain will hold initial public sales on Liquidifty. The first two scheduled IDOs are Drunk Robots and Cowboy Game. 

• Lending: Liquidifty users will be able to deposit non-fungible collectibles as collateral for crypto loans – which, in turn, can be used to earn additional DeFi income, to trade, stake, etc.

• Multi-ownership: fractionalized pools that allow users to buy shares in premium NFTs and receive a percentage of the profit once the asset is sold – which can only happen if all or the majority of the owners sign the transaction in the multisig wallet.

• Cross-chain oracles: pulling current NFT prices from various chains (needed for the lending feature and the multi-ownership functionality).

• Airdrops: to participate in the weekly raffles and get a free gaming NFT, buy any Liquidifty Launchpad Pass. The airdrops will feature Axies, assets from Hexarchia, Thetan Arena, and more. 

NFTs and the Gartner hype cycle

What’s next for NFTs in 2022? After a dramatic drop in sales, numerous rug pulls (such as Frosties and Bored Bunny), and an epic $600 million Ronin chain hack, some are saying that the window of opportunity has closed. However, Slava Mikhalkin, Co-Founder of “Liquidifty”, has a radically different opinion:

‘The NFT trend is precisely following the so-called Gartner hype cycle. Its second stage is called ‘the peak of inflated expectations’, and that’s exactly what we saw last spring and summer. You know what the third stage is? The trough of disillusionment. That’s when people start calling NFTs worthless because their own JPEGs didn’t make a 10x or because projects couldn’t deliver on their outrageous promises. 

But after this disappointment comes enlightenment and finally Gartner’s plateau of productivity. That’s when we’ll see the fruits of the experimental tech we are testing now, such as multi-ownership NFTs, cross-chain oracles, mature GameFi economies, NFT-backed lending, and so on. I believe that 2022 will set the industry on the path of maximizing value – as opposed to maximizing the quick profits for NFT creators. And 2023 will mark the start of the true productivity stage.’