By Engr. Ohazulike Stanley. A community/ social media manager and a crypto content writer

NFT is the short form for non-fungible tokens. It is a unique asset, by tokenizing an asset; you guarantee that you own the asset and that it is unique. The ownership of the NFT is managed in a decentralized manner by the blockchain. Anybody can create an NFT

Fungible vs Non-Fungible

Fungible assets

Fungible assets are non-unique & divisible. When we say something is fungible, it means is equivalent and can be exchanged or replaced with another. For instance, a $50 bill in Chicago is the same as a $50 bill in Texas. A fungible token can also be a cryptocurrency such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc. for example 1 Eth is worth 1 eth anywhere in the world.

Nonfungible asset or token

Nonfungible assets are non-divisible and unique. When something is nonfungible, it means that it cannot be replaced. For instance, a flight ticket is nonfungible because there cannot be another of the same type because of its specific data. A motorcycle, a boat, or a house are other examples of physical nonfungible items because they are unique and no matter how closely look alike they can never be the same.

The same applies to nonfungible tokens; a simple example of a nonfungible token is a Monalisa painting by Leonardo DaVinci or Picasso painting. An original Monalisa or Picasso painting can only be one.

The difference between a fungible and nonfungible token lies in its content. While a fungible token such as Ethereum stores value, a nonfungible token stores data such as artwork. In the digital world, NFT can be anything: a song, an artwork, a photo, a gif, a meme, a video, a game item, etc.

Some significant NFT sales

Am sure you must have noticed that the NFT space is booming, of course, that is why you are interested in knowing what NFT is. With about $25 billion NFT sales volume in 2021, compared to just $94 million sales volume a year before, also with 28.6 million wallets that traded NFT in 2021 up from 545000 in 2020, you will agree with me that the NFT space is expanding, it is a threatening and attractive investment and one that should get you excited and interested. Let’s take a look at some of the significant NFT sales.

I. King of leons

On March 5, King of Leon released one of their album (when you see yourself) as NFT. This album sale generated over 2million dollars and each NFT album sold for $50. I think it’s pretty cool for one of the very first NFT albums.

II. Jack the Twitter CEO, successfully auctioned his first tweet which read “just setting up my twttr” as NFT in march 2021 to Sina Estavi for $2.9 million

The proceed from this tweet was donated to charity in Africa.

III. Edward Joseph Snowdon

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowdon NFT was sold for $5.4 million.

This NFT was not bought by a person or an organization, but interestingly, it was bought by a DAO (Decentralized autonomous organization

Cryptopunk

Cryptopunk was one of the earliest NFTs created. It was launched in june 2017 by larva lab studio, using ERC721 standard on the ethereum blockchain.

There are a total of 10000 cryptopunks created (6039 male & 3840 female) and other three special types : zombie (88), ape (24) and allien (9). All of them are unique & are made digitally scarce through the use of blockchain technology. It was initially distributed for free but now traded for millions of dollars. There are lots of other significant NFT sales; however in my next article we will take a look at most of the recent significant NFT sales.