When NFTs began selling for millions of dollars, a new industry was created in the crypto universe. The ongoing recessionary trend in worldwide markets have impacted this industry too, and at OpenSea, there was a drop of 99% between May-August this year, says DappRadar.

If patents are an indication of signs of life and thriving, than the US patents office shows ever increasing interest in this art-dominated niche riding on Ethereum and smart contracts. As per reports, the US patents office in 2022 has received over 6,000 trademark applications overall for blockchain and NFTs. Compared to last year’s figure of a little over 2,000, this is a three fold increase. However, the figure is not exclusively for NFTs, and includes all blockchain related innovations.

What are some of the most popular NFTs to buy?

Some popular NFTs to buy:

• Azuki
• CryptoPunks
• Lucky Block
• PolygonPunks
• Prime Ape Planet
• VeeFriends
• World of Women NFTs

Before buying or trading NFTs, buyers should be aware of the IP, royalty and copyright ownerships, and how it affects their purchase. Will they be the sole owner and user with control over copyright as well? This should be compared with what happens when they buy a regular work of art or photography from an art gallery or online marketplace.

The overall growth projections for NFT worldwide are positive, at a CAGR of over 20% in the near future until 2028. The current market size is in billions, and may reach around $20 billion or so in the next 6-7 years.

The most expensive NFT sale record keeps changing. As per NFT Now, the top position is held these days by Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which sold for $69.3 million.

Japan re-affirms its focus on NFTs and Metaverse

Web3 is part of the economic revival strategy of Japan. This year is April the ruling party published a whitepaper on NFTs, which outlined its recommendations and the aim of creating a country-wide policy for Web3.

In another step, it has set up an office called Web3 Policy Promotion Office to bring together all Web3 activities of the administration. This office will be gathering together data from the business sector and the public, apart from other promotion activities. The ministry involved with this is the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).

The Japanese PM Kishida has recently made a statement on expanding Web3 services that are related to Metaverse and NFTs. The government of Japan presents NFTs to local departments for deploying digital technology. For instance, recently this year, mayors from seven regions received NFTs at the Summer Digi Denkoshien 2022 event held last month.