Learning from Graffiti Wall of NFTs in NY

The graffiti economics in the modern world

Although NFTs were introduced in 2014, it was only last year that the market boom of NFTs happened for the first time since its appearance. In 2021 alone, the market for NFTs was worth $41 billion. Since this is an amount that is almost the total value of the entire global fine art market, we can understand how powerful NFTs have become.

However, the popularity of NFTs has notably decreased, especially in the past few months, despite keeping strong sales in the first half of this year. Whether the ups and downs of popularity, I believe it is significant for us to learn what NFT is, how it became a big hit in 2021, and what has changed since the market boom last year. So today, I will bring up one case study after going through the definition of NFT.

The Definition of NFT:

An NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. Forbes describes that NFT is a digital asset that can come in the form of art, music, videos, and more. Like stocks, NFTs are traded online, frequently with cryptocurrency. Thus, it is worth the investment when you sell an NFT at a higher price than you bought it.

Today, I want to specifically look into the journey of Masnah, the pioneer of NFT-based graffiti. Last year, Masnah set out an NFT artwork in graffiti art on walls of brick apartments in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His creativity and innovation impressed me and made me observe some essential factors for succeeding in modern business.

How Masnah succeeded:

"While there is a vast amount of graffiti-based NFTs, NFT-based graffiti is uncommon." This is one realization he had about NFTs. Soon, he sought commissions by proposing his plan to the CryptoPunks Discord community. After explaining his idea of collaborating with holders to paint their Punk as graffiti art somewhere within the suburbs of NYC, the idea took off with Masnah gaining multiple commissions.

Masnah’s first commission was painting a cowboy CryptoPunk on North 14th Street between Nassau and Wythe avenues. He commented that it gained some attention, but it actually went viral when the owner started sharing it on Twitter.

With his reputation resulting in dozens of commission requests, he started putting them all in one place on the wall of the Roebling apartment building.

Eventually, Masnah expanded his commission system on the blockchain. He started his NFT collection, “Another Flex on the Wall.” People became token-holders by paying prices depending on the mural’s size.

Overall, I love the idea that Masnah saw an opportunity in NFTs for his graffiti. While NFTs typically represent digital images, Masnah’s project is distinct and unique. I believe something like Masnah's creativity is one aspect modern entrepreneurs must have.