NFT's had a record year in 2021. 2022 is off to a very strong start, with January sales reaching a record high of $6.13 billion as of Jan. 29, according to The Block Data Dashboard. While the crypto market at large is struggling, the NFT space is faring very well following 2021’s global market value hitting $23 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm DappRadar. The NFTs’ total market value is surpassing the market cap of some publicaly traded companies — such as Domino’s.

But have we reached peak NFT hype yet?

A new CoinShares report notes that Google trends data suggests we reached peak NFT hype at the beginning of Dec. 2021. The report also notes, however, that it does not want to detract “from the incredible opportunities in the NFT world as there are some fascinating communities being built in the space.”

James Butterfill, investment strategist at CoinShares, wrote in the report. “It is quite possible we are beginning to see this trend of price divergence between the good and bad NFT projects — what has value in the art world is very subjective and personal. The price divergences are most likely to be the greatest in NFT work that is implicitly or explicitly mimicking originals or first to market.”

The fact that NFT trading activity has remained strong over the last week despite rough market conditions is an attest to the growing space.

The fundamental reason anyone purchases art is to display it and show it off. There are few good ways to do this for NFTs, and yet there are NFTs selling for millions of dollars every day.

There is a ton of opportunity to support the growth of that ecosystem from creating NFTs themselves, to developing hardware or new platforms for users to display their art. Popular social media platforms like Twitter and have implemented verified NFT profile pictures for Ethereum and I expect this trend to continue across the remaining social platforms — Meta and Instagram especially

Beyond the current popular use cases for NFTs we have today, the space will continue to evolve and find new ways to leverage this technology to improve the experience around things like concert tickets — or even verified claims such as diplomas.