Digital art marketplace ‘SuperRare’ has surpassed $1.6 million in cumulative trade volume as buyers become more comfortable with the concept of art sold as non-fungible tokens.
The marketplace started the year with $344,000 in platform sales volume, but has seen that figure almost quadruple in seven months.
Artists are able to digitally sign their work on the platform by creating a tokenized certificate before entering it into an online auction. Collectors can then purchase and resell works in secondary markets.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a specific type of digital asset where each token has a unique identifier. They can be used to represent ownership rights for everything from digital fan collectibles, to art works. The current standard for these types of token is the ERC-721 which is based on Ethereum.
Attractive royalties
For artists, these NFTs also offer a new way to capitalize on growth over time through structured royalty fee systems. SuperRare operates on a 15% commission basis with 85% going to the creator — but what is even more appealing to artists is the 10% royalty fee on secondary sales.
Research analyst at Messari Crypto, Mason Nystrom, has plotted the growth charts, for SuperRare, and notes that collectors from 178 countries have earned over $350,000 in secondary sales, demonstrating a vibrant post-auction market.
The marketplace itself recently claimed that over 8,000 works had been sold on the platform, earning artists over $1.3 million and collectors over $430,000.
Growing in popularity
According to nonfungible.com, SuperRare is the second highest NFT platform in terms of seven day volume, surpassing the Ethereum Name Service over the past week.
For all-time volumes, the digital cat collecting game, CryptoKitties, takes first place with $37 million traded. Last week, SuperRare integrated virtual land purchasing platform Decentraland into its marketplace.
In addition to art, NFTs are also popular for gaming items or characters and collectibles such as digitized cards.