NFTs in Singapore: hotter than ever

THE first significant Singapore exhibition on NFTs is set to take place from Nov 7 to 14 at Fine Art Storage Services at Le Freeport, as NFTs gain more recognition as serious investments.

Major figures in crypto art such as Beeple, Refik Anadol, Tyler Hobbs, Benjamin Gentilli and Sarah Meyohas will have works showcased there - even if many of these names remain foreign to the majority of traditional art collectors. Several works are valued upwards of US$100,000, with the most expensive being one by Andy Warhol (a 1985 video work reminted as an NFT) purchased in 2021 for US$525,000.

Since NFTs became headline news with the US$69 million-purchase of Beeple's digital work, most longtime art collectors have been fascinated by the developments, but stayed away from what they perceive as a nascent, volatile market.

But this groundbreaking exhibition titled "Right Click + Save" looks set to change minds about the inherent value of NFT art and persuade some to take that first step of at least getting a digital wallet and browsing the vast NFT emporium.

The exhibition is presented by Coinhako and Appetite: Coinhako is a leading digital assets wallet service provider, while Appetite is a multi-concept space and research centre led by chef Ivan Brehm, which also runs an art programme.

Fine Art Storage Services is a high-security facility for storing physical assets such as fine art, gems and other valuables. But hosting the exhibition - which requires visitor pre-registration - suggests it's looking into a potentially new role of safeguarding digital assets as well.

Kaushik Swaminathan, Appetite's general manager and head of research, says: "Singapore is a crypto capital, and many of the most prominent and consistent investors in the NFT space happen to be based here. And because they are deeply committed to community building in the crypto space, they were all too eager to participate in the first significant exhibition of NFTs in Singapore - one that isn't just gratuitously putting out the biggest names or the works that have sold for the largest amounts, but is instead crafting a narrative about the journey of crypto and NFTs from its early days to the present time."

The collectors who are loaning the works for the exhibition are Three Arrows Capital, a hedge fund founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies; Vincent Van Dough, a very influential pseudonymous NFT collector; Starry Night Capital, an NFT fund started by the three aforementioned individuals; Jehan Chu, founder of Kenetic Capital; Shaun Djie, co-founder of Digix; and Raghav Sood, vice-president of Strategy at Coinhako.

Appetite's art lead Clara Che Wei Peh, who curated the show, says: "Many of the collectors in this exhibition have been paying attention to the crypto ecosystem for a long time, which helps them select works by prominent artists who are pretty much the OGs ("original gangsters") of the space.

"Admittedly, it's hard for a traditional art collector to initially get comfortable with the crypto art space. There is no ArtReview or Artforum (established magazines on contemporary art) to tell them which artists are worth collecting. One has to be plugged into the NFT conversations happening across Twitter and Discord to see certain patterns, recognise certain projects and pick out the names of crypto artists who are making an impact."

NFT explosion

It is certainly hard to pick potential winners from a vast and boundless ocean of NFTs, proliferating exponentially in the past 10 months. The massive oversupply has not deterred countless new players from entering the market daily.

Business big and small, multinational and local, art-related and non-art-related, have jumped on the bandwagon: Singapore-listed Hatten Land plans to create a digital twin city for Malacca as part of its strategic shift towards digital assets such as NFTs. The mixed martial arts studio in Katong, The Gentle Art Academy, launched NFTs of illustrated fighters in combat poses. Even NTUC U Care partnered with Blockchain Association Singapore to auction off charity NFTs.

Meanwhile, some companies have newly rebranded themselves as NFT companies: ArtWallStreet, a company that loans physical artworks to homes and offices for a fee, has now plunged headlong into the NFT space, working with digital artists and launching a series of its own Cryptopunks-inspired NFTs called Woke Workaholics. Just like Cryptopunks - the pioneering NFT series now worth as much as US$1.6 billion - there are 10,000 randomly-generated Woke Workaholics characters to choose from, with starting prices of US$70.

Not to be outdone, another group of Singaporean artists has created 8,888 NFTs for its Sunny Sloth series, with starting prices of 0.08 Eth (or S$495 at press time) per character. There are plans to create limited edition toys and exclusive merchandise. But it remains to be seen if either Woke Workaholics or Sunny Sloths can generate the kind of buying frenzy and eye-watering prices Cryptopunks inspired.

For professional artists who have been making art long before NFTs came into existence, the breakneck developments have made it almost imperative to get into the NFT game or risk being left behind.

Speak Cryptic, one of the first Singapore artists to put up an NFT artwork for sale, is currently planning his most ambitious exhibition yet. His new show titled The Weight Of Water features 34 ink on paper works - half of which will be sold by the Spaceless Gallery in Paris, while the other half will be made available through Singapore's Chan + Hori Contemporary. But the show would not be complete without an NFT component.

So the artist has also produced 6 different NFTs which will be sold in editions of between 10 and 21 on the Hic Et Nun marketplace powered by Tezos.

Deborah Lim, a junior partner with Chan + Hori Contemporary, says: "We're always on the lookout for artists who are working in the present, and these include digital and NFT artists. But what's also important to us is art history and artistic integrity... Once the whole NFT speculation dies down, people will increasingly look for quality works, prioritising artists who've created meaningful dialogues in the metaverse, and assessing their thinking, processes and techniques."

More eco-conscious

In the past, Speak Cryptic, as well as many others, have expressed concern over the massive environmental costs of NFTs hosted on major blockchains. One transaction on Ethereum uses as much power as the conventional household over a day and a half, according to some estimates.

So it's unsurprising that Speak Cryptic's new NFTs will instead be hosted on Tezos' marketplace Hic Et Nunc (which means "Here and Now" in Latin): Tezos is a decentralised blockchain network relying on proof-of-stake mechanisms, which is far more energy-efficient than the proof-of-work system used by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

David Tng, head of growth at TZ Apac, says: "Minting an NFT on Tezos blockchain would emit less than 0.1 g of carbon emissions as compared to the estimated 200 kg of carbon emissions on Ethereum. Additionally, the majority of the marketplaces on Tezos are designed to allow artists to explore new mediums of art such as generative and interactive art. It is not expensive to mint an NFT on Tezos, costing less than a dollar, compared to Ethereum which could cost a few hundred dollars per minting fee."

To be sure, Ethereum has plans to move to the more energy-efficient proof-of-stake mechanism, but the technical challenges are said to be huge and the move will only take place in 2022.

Meanwhile, blockchains that are proven to be more energy-responsible have seen significant gains. From August to September 2021, the Tezos blockchain saw a 77 per cent increase in contract calls with approximately 5.8 million contract calls in September. With its recent network update, gas consumption has also gone down by 3 to 6 times.

In the month of September alone, the primary sales of artwork on Hic Et Nunc accounted for US$15 million, up from US$11.4 million in August. Its secondary marketplaces such as objkt.com also saw strong growth, with a 25 per cent increase of users according to dappradar.com.

With NFTs becoming cheaper and more energy-efficient, players expect NFTs to be a permanent feature of the art market.

Tng says: "Artists are gravitating towards blockchain as it opens opportunities for financial independence. The decentralised nature of blockchain shifts the power over to creators, providing them with full ownership of their content and complete control over licensing.

"This isn't just a passing trend but a movement with enormous cultural, economic and social importance."