Are your NFTs worthless now? You’re not alone

A lot of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are “quite scammy”, an expert has said, warning people not to view them as investments.

It comes after a recent report found 95% of NFT collections have lost all their value. dappGambl estimated up to 23 million people’s investments were now worthless.

NFTs are digital tokens stored on a blockchain – a type of digital ledger that records ownership. “ike any commodity, they can be traded.

Artists were early adopters of the technology, with some collections, such as the now famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collection developing a cult following.

University of Auckland commercial law professor Alex Sims told Breakfast this morning: “I said years ago that most of them will fall in value, and only buy them if you actually like the art or you want to support the artist.”

Read more: Cons, tech fails and market swings cast shadow over NFT future

She was confident they’d fall in value “because that’s what always happens”.

“There’s bubbles. You see it with crypto, it goes up, it goes down. But also there’s different types of NFTs,” Sims said.

Some were unique and created by artists while others were produced in the thousands, she said.

“That’s a big difference between the two,” she said. “If you want to make money, do not do it.

“You’re better off learning about the industry, learning about things and working in it. A lot of it was quite scammy.”

Sims said she didn’t view NFTs as investments: “If you like the artist, if you really like the art, then fine.

“It’s just hype. It’s the same when anything new comes up, there’s a lot of enthusiasm and people come in – but there were a lot of people, I think, preying on other people,” she added. “That was quite dishonest.”