TECHNOLOGY

What does the future hold for NFTs? Our quarterly NFT tracker follows the blockchain technology's rise and evolution.

Sam Gutierrez

January 6, 2023 | 3 min read

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Welcome to our quarterly tracker on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), aimed at measuring consumer sentiment toward the emerging blockchain technology. This post will be updated the first month of every quarter. Details on the latest results, past findings and our methods follow below.

Q1 ‘23 Summary

For the first time in the six quarters of our tracking survey, more than half (55%) of consumers who are familiar with NFTs think they will be less popular 5 years from now than they are today, up from 31% in Q1 of last year. Only one in six (16%) Americans express interest in owning an NFT, on par with the last two quarters (17% in Q3 ‘22 and Q4 ‘22), but down 8 points year over year (24% in Q1 ‘22).  

The lack of a clear value proposition and concerns about the long-term value of NFTs continue to deter consumers: 54% of those who have not purchased an NFT within the last 12 months say they don’t see the value in NFTs, and 50% say they are not confident about their long term value. Consumers are also less willing to pay for NFTs: over two in three (69%) say they are only willing to pay less than $5 for one, up from 60% in Q2 ‘22. Only 27% are willing to pay $5 or more for an NFT in Q1 ‘23, down from 37% in Q2 ‘22.

Q4 ‘22 Summary

NFTs show no signs of rebounding from their Q3 decline as consumer interest in the technology remains unchanged (17% in Q3 ‘22 and Q4 ‘22). Expectations for NFTs also continue to be dim, with nearly half (46%) of those aware of NFTs expecting NFTs to be less popular in 5 years than now, slightly down from 49% in Q3 ’22). 

Concerns over investment value and long-term viability remain leading concerns for those avoiding NFTs (53% and 47%), followed by a lack of knowledge (30%) and worries over being scammed (32%). However, NFT purchases continue to be driven by investment purposes, with 41% of those who have purchased an NFT in the last 12 months citing diversification of their investment portfolios as a reason for purchase, up from 36% in Q3 ‘22, and 24% in Q2 ‘22. Newer entrants to NFTs continue to decline, with only 25% of purchasers citing a desire to learn about crypto/blockchain technology as a motivation, down from 31% in Q3 ‘22, and 39% in Q2 ‘22.

Q3 '22 Summary

After showing signs of plateauing in the first half of 2022, interest in NFTs has started to decline - only 17% of U.S. adults say they are very or somewhat interested in purchasing NFTs, down from one in four the previous two quarters (24% in Q1 ’22, and 23% in Q2 ’22). Public awareness has also stagnated, with one in three (34%) Americans having heard of the technology, on par from the previous quarters (33% in Q1’ 22 and 35% in Q2 ’22) after more than doubling from the previous year (13% in Q1 ’21).  

Americans’ skepticism toward NFTs continues to grow: nearly one in three (30%) believe NFTs are a scam, up from 24% the previous quarter, and more than twice the proportion of those who believe the blockchain technology to be the real deal (12%). Most, however, continue to view NFTs as mostly hype (53% vs 55% the previous quarter). Anticipation of their future has similarly soured, with nearly half (49%) of those aware of NFTs expecting them to be less popular in five years, up from 37% last quarter, and 15% in early 2021. Currently, less than one in four (23%) predict NFTs to be more popular than they are now, down 10 points from the previous quarter and 20 points from 2021.

Want more data? Click here to see all of our Momentive research.

Read more about our polling methodology here. 

Methodology:

This study was conducted with our integrated market research panel.

Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Data were weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States.

Fielding period, sample size, and modeled error estimate: