On November 5, Cointelegraph Chinese hosted a new episode of its online interview series HUB LIVE, focusing on the theme "Experts Decode NFT Concepts and Market Opportunities."
Cointelegraph Chinese HUB is a series that engages leaders from the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. It delves into development opportunities and challenges across niche sectors, exploring how projects can break through current industry constraints to shape the future.
This episode featured two panel discussions. The first was moderated by Tracy, CBDO of Cointelegraph Chinese, with guests including Cao Yin, Managing Director of Digital Renaissance Foundation; Felicia Che, CEO of ArtGee; and Sun Bohan, Founder & CEO of BCA. They explored the value foundations of crypto art and its investment potential.
The second panel was moderated by Ting Peng, COO of Cointelegraph Chinese, and joined by Alex Salnikov, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Rarible; Alex Russman, Head of Business Development at Enjin; and Sébastien Borget, Chief Operating Officer of The Sandbox. Their conversation covered NFT use cases, enterprise adoption, and future development trends.
While NFTs may seem like a recent trend, the concept isn't new—early Ethereum-based games like CryptoKitties and Etheremon were already utilizing non-fungible tokens.
NFTs Are Fundamentally About Proof of Ownership, With Broad Applications
An NFT typically refers to a unique, indivisible token issued under standards like ERC-721. Their non-interchangeable and verifiable nature makes them a foundational asset class in the blockchain ecosystem.
Sébastien Borget, COO of The Sandbox, emphasized that NFTs are, at their core, a proof of ownership recorded on the blockchain. He highlighted The Sandbox's role in driving real-world adoption: "I know artists who stopped creating because they couldn't earn a living. NFTs can solve that. What sets us apart from traditional markets is community—engaging users and allowing them to earn tokens is incredibly valuable."
Projects like The Sandbox and Enjin are focusing heavily on gaming, transforming virtual items into tradable assets with real value. Alex Russman of Enjin noted the significant opportunity here: "Blockchain allows us to assign verifiable scarcity, authenticity, and ownership to digital items. We're excited to see more use cases where tokenized ownership—backed by meaningful metadata—becomes the norm."
NFTs Are a Novel Concept with Immense Potential
Though familiar in crypto circles, NFTs introduce a new paradigm of digital ownership to the broader internet—one where digital assets can be truly owned.
Alex Salnikov, Co-Founder of Rarible, explained: "NFTs bring ownership directly to users, a concept previously absent online. Right now, the NFT market is supply-heavy, and many creators lack the marketing know-how to sell their work. But because NFTs live on the blockchain, they're easy to promote and gain community recognition. Plus, creators earn fees with every resale—that's revolutionary."
By moving asset ownership onto the blockchain, NFTs could unlock billions in value through secondary trading. Felicia Che, CEO of ArtGee, pointed out how this benefits creators: "Blockchain verifies an artwork's value without intermediaries like auction houses, maximizing artists' earnings. While crypto art is still niche, consider digital tickets: if just 3–5% of the billion tickets used globally became NFTs, it would massively accelerate blockchain adoption."
NFTs Are Still Early, But Mainstream Adoption Is Inevitable
The NFT space remains in its infancy. The industry is still searching for scalable, high-value applications and faces challenges like low liquidity, high entry barriers, and a limited user base.
NFTs are turning digital art into crypto art, reshaping both the crypto and traditional art worlds. Cao Yin of Digital Renaissance Foundation commented: "Crypto art is part of the larger digital revolution. It gives artists a new medium to explore creativity. While growth is strong, crypto art needs a larger base of collectors and investors to mature."
Once the NFT market finds its breakthrough use case, growth will accelerate. Sun Bohan, Founder & CEO of BCA, believes the market extends far beyond art and gaming. "The core of crypto art is the artist. We need a framework to assess NFT value, which comes not just from aesthetics but from the creator's influence. The biggest applications today are in art and gaming, but NFTs have strong potential to go mainstream in the future."