Last year, one of the Blockchain firms based in New York, Injective Protocol, bought the 2006 edition of Banksy’s Morons (White) painting for $95,000. To everyone’s surprise, the company burnt the mesmerizing work to ashes, and they live streamed it. The firm immediately created a digital representation of the world-famous artist’s work using blockchain technology and turned it into an NFT.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital-only visual assets powered by blockchain technology. NFTs can be image

files, videos, music, trading cards, or even tweets, and they can be traded and sold between users. The NFT industry grew by 299 percent in 2020 and continues to skyrocket, states a report from the time.

Back to Banksy, while burning the artwork could sound like an outrageous thing to do, Injective Protocol’s stunt has paid off. The Morons NFT was sold for $380,000 - a 300 percent increase from its price as a physical print. However, while the arguments between art lovers flare up, the online global art market is predicted to increase by 494 percent by 2024, thanks partly to people’s increasing interest in crypto art and NFTs. The efforts of naturally tech-savvy countries like Japan have been a boon to the growth of NFTs. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently announced the government’s plans to expand investments in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse. Last month, the Japanese government awarded NFTs to seven mayors for their achievements in using digital technology to solve issues. It’s quite clear that Japan has a futuristic vision regarding NFTs, opening the doorway to a lot of opportunities in the segment.