NFTs on TV
It’s hard not to listen to mainstream media anymore and not hear references about NFTs. It seems like forever ago now that they talked about Beeple and the big NFT bubble. Then later, SNL graced us with a very catchy and thorough explanation of what it means to be non-fungible. And even more recently, South Park has depicted an NFT dystopian future full of havoc and Chaos, Professor Chaos. They even have a gift shop available where you can purchase a Crypto Curious shirt full of Butter’s favorite NFTs.
This is why it was shocking to stumble upon this report from Finder.com detailing the NFT trends and usage across the US and the world. My grand old America didn’t even crack the top 10! We barely made the top 20.
Play-to-Earn for the WIN
Who was the leader? If you know anything about the game Axie Infinity, you know that the answer is the Philippines. They have a whopping 32% of their population who own at least one NFT. With close to another 10% saying they plan to buy one soon, they are forecasted to be at 41.5% adoption throughout this year. Nigeria, number six, is expected to have the most significant growth this year, with 21.7% saying they plan to buy an NFT soon.
The first Western country to appear is Canada, at number 15. Germany is the first country from the EU, number 17, and the United States, for all the attention that NFTs have had and the explosive growth over the past year, is sitting at a pathetic 18. NGMI like this, frens.
Breaking Down the Numbers
If there’s one silver lining to this dark normie cloud, it’s that 2.8% of people in the US own an NFT, but 3.9% plan to buy one over the next year. That means that the NFT market in the US is set to more than double soon. This is big news when you crunch the numbers. The Philippines have a current population of about 112 million people. There’s an expected 10% increase in NFT ownership, which means another 11 million or so owning NFTs. There are approximately 334 million people living in the US. If 3.9% of them are expected to buy their first NFT this next year, that’s about 13 million people. Add that to the 9 million that already own one, and you’re looking at about 22 million Americans seeing the value in NFTs.
As far as Europe goes? The current population of Germany is about 84 million people and the UK is about 68.5 million people. They’re the only two countries to crack the top 20 (17 and 19 respectively). Germany is expected to see an increase of 3.4%, 2.85 million people, while the UK is expected to see an increase of 3.3%, 2.26 million people, for a combination of 5.11 million new Europeans owning NFTs next year.
Other notables, Vietnam has a population of about 98.7 million people and is expected to see an increase of 11.6% or just under 11.5 million people. Nigeria has a total of 214 million people and is expected to see a 21.7% growth in NFT ownership this year. That’s an astonishing 46.4 million Nigerians who are expected to buy their first NFT this year! Although this won’t be without it’s own set of challenges. The Nigerian government has declared cryptocurrency illegal making it challenging for anyone who’s trying to get into the space.
Gender Studies with NFTs
Certain countries showed extreme gender gaps in NFT ownership as well. The United Arab Emirates showed the most considerable disparity, with 10.9% more men than women owning an NFT. Vietnam was right behind them with 10.3%. On the other hand, Thailand had a 7% disparity of more women holding an NFT than men. Venezuela also shared this trait, with 1.6% more women owning an NFT than men. The United States showed a 3.3% gender gap with men holding more, while Hong Kong proved to be the most gender-neutral with only a 0.8% gap between NFT ownership.
Future Trends
Despite all of these predictions, there are indications that we’re entering a bear market for NFTs. According to Google trends, the amount of interest for NFTs have dropped 34% from its all-time high three weeks ago. Four out of the top five Rising searches have the word Ape in it, so we still have a long way to go on that front, while the Top NFT searches are nft meaning and what is an NFT.
What’s the lesson here?
Besides Nigeria about to dominate the NFT scene in 2022, we are all still 21.7% saying they plan to buy ridiculously early. What may feel like a saturated space is still relatively nascent and evolving. Out of the top five most populated countries globally, only the United States made the list of top 20 countries, and they were number 18.
Recent reports show that China, with a staggering population of close to 1.5 billion people, are planning on legalizing NFTs soon. It’s difficult to say what that means on the market or the industry as a whole until it happens. China has been very ambiguous with NFTs, seemingly embracing them while shunning cryptocurrencies.
India, which has 1.38 billion people, has already embraced NFT adoption with Indian specific marketplaces, but they struggle with some of their own growth issues having only about 45% internet penetration throughout the country.
Additionally, environmental concerns will continue to be a topic of conversation everywhere, further inhibiting NFT adoption worldwide. We’ve come a long way these past few years, but we still have a long way to go, both in the US and globally.
