NFTs, non-fungible tokens, surged in popularity in 2021. BoF Insights reported that sales reached $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, more than eight times the volume of the previous quarter, a figure that has plateaued in the last two quarters.

At the BoF Pro Summit: New Frontiers in Fashion and Tech, Highsnobiety co-founder Jeff Carvalho and Matt Powell of The NPD Group joined Coinbase Product Manager Ejaaz Ahamadeen to discuss the place of NFTs in the fashion industry.

Today, its use cases have evolved beyond digital works of art to include applications such as pre-purchase tokens that create a strong secondary market among consumers, or even as a strategy to unlock experiences that the community builds and creates a stronger brand ecosystem.

base of coins, a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring and storing cryptocurrencies, has been a pioneer in the market since its inception in 2012, operating as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume. Today, Coinbase has 89 million verified users worldwide, 1,000 institutions, and 185,000 ecosystem partners in more than 100 countries.

While primarily known as a bitcoin storage and exchange service, Coinbase not only offers a wide range of other crypto and fiat currency exchanges, but is also making significant inroads into the NFT space. This month, it launched its NFT marketplace for all users. This venture is born out of the company’s belief that the NFT community not only wants better tools to buy and sell NFTs, but better ways to discover them, access the right communities, and exist in spaces where NFT advocates spend time.

Here, BoF shares exclusive information from from Coinbase Ahamadeen participated in the discussion.

Separate the advertising from the business opportunity

EE: “There is no denying the great euphoria and enthusiasm for NFTs over the last year and a half. As with any new piece of technology, there is a lot of hype that can override the real value, from a technology perspective. But that was the same thing we saw with web1, when we saw the dot-com boom and we saw endless websites pop up. What happens then is just a constant cycle of innovation. What is certainly true is that, within each cycle of new technology, we see new innovations within it. we see more [use-cases] and ultimately we see more value for people. We are still very early: if we have this conversation in a few years, I think it will be very different again.

Market existing customer usage

“We have noticed that people started using NFT as a new way to communicate, as a kind of “online digital flexing”. If you think about the evolution of goods, you have your basic goods, which are critical, then your luxury goods, which, for most of the time, were always physical. Why? ‘Cause you can hold them, own them [and they’re] unique and authentic for a brand. East [has] progressed to digital value. That’s happening to a lot of things. Money, for example, is now digital information.

The bet here is on the next few years: the world, your digital world, your personal life, your online identity, presence and personality, is [all] it’s going to become more important to some extent than the physical. The idea is: how do the fashion industries get involved in building community, presence and influence?

Build new community engagement tactics

“NFTs are a new way to present yourself in a world that is becoming increasingly digital. While the metaverse hasn’t been explicitly defined, we all agree that it will be a much more digital world. So if that’s the case, how do you formulate that and build a community?

Adam Bomb Squad, an NFT project from The Hundreds, is a great example of establishing a token-controlled community. Where tokens give exclusive access to drops. At its core, it’s about engaging the community in more ways. Brands are looking for more ways to engage with their consumers. They are asking, “how can I interact with them? How can we represent our [community] effectively?” Offering your customer base a new way to interact will be [critical].”

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Coinbase as part of a partnership with BoF. This interview has been edited and summarized for clarity.