Animoca Brands co-founder and govt chair Yat Siu believes {that a} resurgence within the NFT sector might push Ethereum to all-time highs, surpassing its earlier peak in the course of the 2021 bull run.
In a July 21 post on X, Siu highlighted the historic relationship between Ethereum’s value and NFT market exercise. He famous that Ethereum final hit its all-time excessive of round $4,800 in November 2021, the height of the NFT increase.
Since then, each Ethereum and the broader NFT sector have confronted a protracted downturn.
Nevertheless, signs of a revival are emerging, with blue-chip NFT collections like CryptoPunks just lately seeing double-digit ground value positive factors. The overall NFT market capitalization has surpassed $10 billion and is steadily approaching its 2021 excessive of $15.6 billion.
This sector uptrend has additionally coincided with Ethereum crossing the $3,800 mark for the primary time since December 2024.
NFTs as cultural objects
Contemplating this, Siu believes that ETH’s value might rise if the neighborhood faucets into NFTs as cultural objects to be embraced relatively than seen solely as monetary devices.
He argued that NFTs embody id, social standing, and neighborhood belonging, which drive actual financial worth.
Siu acknowledged that NFT buying and selling has turn out to be more and more fragmented throughout totally different blockchains. In accordance with him, Ethereum’s dominance within the sector has dipped, now accounting for lower than half of all NFT buying and selling quantity when excluding Layer 2 networks.
Regardless of the fragmentation, Siu sees Ethereum’s cultural affect as a long-term benefit. He in contrast the cultural position of NFTs to luxurious manufacturers resembling Hermès and Rolex, that are valued for symbolism relatively than utility.
He acknowledged:
“You don’t purchase a Birkin bag to place stuff in it simply as a lot as you don’t purchase a Rolex to inform the time. NFTs symbolize the cultural, social and symbolic energy of a neighborhood.”
He additionally emphasised ETH’s distinctive position as a spending token, not like Bitcoin, which he described as rooted in a “HODL” tradition. In accordance with him:
“ETH is a utility token and holding it’s for the chance to interact in one thing vital i.e to spend resembling in DeFi, some token and sure additionally NFTs. That is additionally the explanation why ETH rising is bullish on-chain as a result of we spend not like BTC customers whose tradition is infinite HODL.”
Contemplating this, he urged Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to embrace NFTs as monetary property and pillars of Ethereum’s cultural financial system.
He burdened:
“NFTs are the spine of the Ethereum cultural financial system way more than simply monetary, it’s about tradition, standing and finally belonging.”
