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Non-fungible token artworks: More crypto than art?

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  • Anselmi, Giulio
  • Petrella, Giovanni

Abstract

Non-Fungible Tokens (NTFs) artworks attract relevant trading volume in the secondary market. Their prices, primarily denominated in Ethereum cryptocurrency, recently experienced a substantial increase. In this paper, we first investigate whether the market for crypto art is informationally efficient and, secondly, if crypto art can be considered as an alternative to real-world art rather than a haven for crypto-money speculative traders. We find evidence of market inefficiency with long-lasting autoregressive patterns in price discovery. As for the nature of crypto art as an asset class, our findings support the idea that crypto art is unrelated to real-world art. Crypto art prices are mostly determined by gains in the cryptocurrency of denomination, whereas real-world art is mostly unrelated to the financial markets. We conclude that crypto art is far from being another medium to express artistic content and is currently just a storing unit for crypto-money, in absence of relevant alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Anselmi, Giulio & Petrella, Giovanni, 2023. "Non-fungible token artworks: More crypto than art?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006493
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103473
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Onur Özdemir & Anoop S. Kumar, 2024. "Dynamic Efficiency and Herd Behavior During Pre- and Post-COVID-19 in the NFT Market: Evidence from Multifractal Analysis," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(3), pages 1255-1279, March.
    2. Dunbar, Kwamie & Owusu-Amoako, Johnson, 2023. "Predictability of crypto returns: The impact of trading behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    3. Voicu D. Dragomir & Valentin Florentin Dumitru, 2023. "Recognition and Measurement of Crypto-Assets from the Perspective of Retail Holders," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Proelss, Juliane & Sévigny, Stéphane & Schweizer, Denis, 2023. "GameFi: The perfect symbiosis of blockchain, tokens, DeFi, and NFTs?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Jan Schwiderowski & Asger Balle Pedersen & Jonas Kasper Jensen & Roman Beck, 2023. "Value creation and capture in decentralized finance markets: Non-fungible tokens as a class of digital assets," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-16, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crypto art; Cryptocurrencies; Blockchain; Ethereum; Bitcoin; Non-fungible tokens; NFT; Art; Real-world art; Collectibles; Market efficiency; Asset pricing; Safe haven;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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