<\/p>\n
The chief executive of OpenSea, the world\u2019s leading non-fungible token marketplace, has sought to distance NFTs from cryptocurrencies as the sector is hit by the knock-on impact of a series of scandals.<\/p>\n
Devin Finzer, 32, told the Financial Times that the crypto industry had seen \u201csome setbacks recently\u201d, referencing the fall of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed into bankruptcy in November helping to trigger a fall in the value of digital assets.<\/p>\n
OpenSea<\/a> soared in value as online collectibles and digital art called NFTs built upon the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies became a hype-fuelled market over the past two years. <\/p>\n But the head of New York-based company insisted that NFTs<\/a> retain a bright future, believing that consumers will continue to spend real-world money to acquire digital images and display them in their homes and in online virtual spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not necessarily the case that NFTs will always be bought and sold denominated in cryptocurrency as they are today,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a variety of reasons why that makes sense in the current ecosystem, but as we get broader and more accessible, there is no reason that NFTs could not at least be denominated in US dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenSea has seen monthly trading volumes in cryptocurrency ether fall 95 per cent from a $4.9bn peak in January last year to $253mn in November, according to data from a user named \u201crchen\u201d on Dune Analytics. The daily number of NFTs sold in ether on the platform has dropped 68 per cent from a peak of 2.3mn in January to 740,000 last month.<\/p>\n \u201cNFTs do not exist in a vacuum, there is the overall macro climate which has changed dramatically, and that affects consumer spending and the broader crypto climate, which is experiencing a winter right now,\u201d Finzer said.<\/p>\n