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ARTICLE · 17 JUNE 2021

NFTs: Beyond Digital Art And Collectibles

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The first major boom of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) began in March 2021 when digital artist Mike Winkelmann, professionally known as Beeple...

CanadaIntellectual Property
Gerrit Yau
Gerrit Yau
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The first major boom of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) began in March 2021 when digital artist Mike Winkelmann, professionally known as Beeple, partnered with famed auction house Christie's and sold an NFT of his work titled Everydays – The First 5000 Days for $69M USD. In early May, the NFT market recorded a peak of $170M USD over a seven-day period. While this first boom of NFTs has largely been driven by digital art and collectibles, such as NBA Top Shot and CryptoPunks, the next wave of the NFT market could be catalyzed by other interesting uses. These uses can have disruptive effects on a variety of traditional industries and markets ranging from entertainment to sports to intellectual property. This article focuses on the uses that have the most potential to endure as a fixture in different industries and the possible implications of such use cases. (For a primer on blockchain technology and NFTs, please see our article from March 31, 2021, NFTs: A Primer on the

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