We're happy to report that the NFT space is growing very rapidly. There's a constant influx of new wallets getting involved, supported by a solid retention rate of these users as well. With this rapid growth comes rapid change. The prices go up and down, new projects come and go, but one thing that isn't currently changing in this market is the real value and utility behind the overwhelming majority of NFTs.

In a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam drew parallels between the rise of cryptocurrencies and the dotcom boom of the 1990s: “I go so far as to say that 90% of NFTs produced, they probably will have little to no value in three to five years,” Ehrsam said. “You could say the same thing about early internet companies in the late ’90s.” But, is he right? We sure think so. But first, let's understand how so many NFTs could possibly have little to no intrinsic value.

We urge you to look at any NFT in your wallet and ask yourself, "what is the actual value behind this and why is it worth the $500 that I paid for it?". Some of the digital art NFTs do have value in the same way that physical art does (the value that we attribute to it); some hold value in the same way baseball cards and collectibles do (scarcity); but right now the majority of NFTs don't actually offer you anything. Once you've bought it, what can you do with it? 90% of the time, the answer is: nothing (except try to flip it for a higher price than you bought it).

It's important to remember that the dot-com bubble grew as speculative demand, rather than intrinsic worth, fueled the inflated prices. The bubble eventually popped when capital began to dry up (especially for companies that had no track record of success), and massive sell-offs caused prices to decline dramatically. People came to a realization that the "value" behind the majority of internet companies was practically zero, and it was purely based upon speculation.

If we look at the current state of the NFT space right now, it isn't too hard to imagine a similar, parallelled scenario. Currently we see more and more people getting involved with NFTs, often driven by the get-rich-quick stories found online. But the larger the market gets, the greater the inevitable crash will be. Prices will continue to dramatically rise to be worth more than their intrinsic value (especially if their value is nothing), and at one point people are going to realize that their NFTs are worthless. When the crash comes, people are going to be stuck with their NFTs with no one to sell to. But in the same way that the strongest internet companies survived, the strongest NFT projects will survive as well: the ones with real value, the projects that actually offer something (access, experiences, assets) in return for your purchase of the NFT.

Enter SilkX. Unlike the majority of NFT marketplaces out there who are allowing this bubble to be exacerbated by anyone and everyone who thinks they can create an NFT with real value, SilkX only allows NFTs with real-world value and utility to be listed on our platform. Brands, influencers, and anyone who believes they own some form of intellectual property with real-world value and utility must apply and be approved by SilkX before their NFT project can be listed on our platform.

So how do we ensure "real-world value and utility"? All NFTs on SilkX are either asset tokens or access tokens. Asset tokens grant the holder of the NFT partial or full ownership of something in real life (or someday in the metaverse) such as: songs, movies, patents, brands, royalties, equity share, real estate, business voting rights in a DAO, and art of course. Access tokens on the other hand function similarly to the way tickets do, giving the owner of the NFT access to: concerts, conferences, communities, conversations, features, clothing, experiences, and more. Asset and access tokens on SilkX are driven by the principle of exclusivity: they give you the ability to own or do something that you normally would not be able to. That's SilkX. That's what makes us better than the other platforms out there: real-world utility and value. We encourage you to check out some of the sample projects and listings that we have created on this site.