In February this year, a digital art called "Everyday: the First 5000 Days" was sold for a whopping $70 million by an auction house called Christie's. Thanks to Michael Joseph Winkelmann, the digital artist behind this artwork and popularly known as Beeple, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become the next buzzword in the world of crypto. 

Since then, several such NFT-based digital arts have taken the world by storm. These include a single red pixel (sold for $900k) by an artist Unhomed on a global NFT marketplace. The frenzy doesn't seem to be fading away anytime soon but is likely to emerge as a potential investment vehicle.

Like cryptos, the value of NFT-based assets has started wealth formation in the online world. This combination of offline and online wealth will help the world economy grow further. The time is ripe for India to step into the picture as it can add tangible value to our country's $5 trillion vision. The government and Indian regulators should develop a regulatory framework that catalyzes innovation in this field. At the same time, allowing digital creators to sell their work as NFT could boost the dwindling art market and help create wealth for millions of independent artists.

The rise of a new asset class and why India needs to be proactive about NFT (techcircle.in)