Metaverse, gaming NFTs are most common type of collectibles owned: Survey

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that relate to metaverse platforms or games are outpacing NFTs of images that can be used as profile pictures, said a new survey by blockchain tracking website CoinGecko.

Metaverse refers to a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space. The industry is projected to be an $800 billion market in the next 2 years, and games look like the most likely NFT-point-of-entry for most people, particularly crypto enthusiasts.

NFTs saw a meteoric rise in 2021, as total trading volume of NFTs hit over $5 billion at its height in August 2021. Since then, the market has tapered off slightly but NFT is still one of the hottest buzzwords in crypto arena.

According to the survey conducted by CoinGecko, most respondents are interested in the floor price when trading NFTs, with over half motivated by current and future utility to HODL, which stands for “Hold on for Dear Life“, meaning that one is holding onto their cryptocurrencies despite the price dips.

Out of the 871 respondents in the survey, 72% own NFT(s), with more than half of them having five or more collectibles.

NFT ownership congregates around metaverse/gaming type NFTs (35.8%), followed by a relatively even split between profile pics (27.4%) and art (25.3%). 

Interestingly, the APAC region leads the NFT adoption among survey respondents at 38.8%. Europe followed closely as the second largest region (31.7%) of respondents, with North/South America a distant third (18.3%).

“With most of our respondents/NFT owners residing in the Asia Pacific region, the outcome is unsurprising considering the dominance of GameFi NFTs in Asia,” said CoinGecko.

In terms of age group, there’s a relatively even split for age brackets 18-30 years and 30-50 years, with most of the respondents belonging to the latter group (45.2%), followed closely by 43.6% in the former.

When it comes to dealing in NFTs, the survey showed that “buy low, sell high” topped as the driving force behind NFT purchase at 42.2%. 

“On the other hand, the HODL mentality of “to collect” and “for their utility” featured a combined dominance of around 50%. This is consistent with the question “have you sold any NFTs” where only half of them responded “Yes”,” CoinGecko said in a report.

Further, less than half of the respondents (43%) have profited from NFT trading, while 23% are HODLers by choice with no regard for profiteering off NFTs.

Interestingly, NFTs constitute only a small portion of most crypto portfolios, with close to 70% of them only featuring 0-25% of NFTs.

“Based on our survey, it seems that NFT owners value NFTs that are perceived to deliver the most ‘practical’ value, rather than intangible qualities such as its aesthetics. Recent NFT projects are also trending towards having some form of utility (e.g. exclusive access, future airdrops), instead of being just “onchain JPEGs”,” the report said.