Recently, Weibo's big V "Genius Little Panda" released its digital collection "Running" on TopHolder. Although the price is far higher than the average issue price of digital collections on the market, it was bought in less than a day.

Image source @Visual China

Text｜Chuo pepper TMT, author｜Miaoa

Issue price 8888 Have anyone bought any digital collections?

Recently, Weibo's big V "Genius Little Panda" released its digital collection "Running" on TopHolder. Although the price is far higher than the average issue price of digital collections on the market, it was bought in less than a day.

We contacted this buyer.

His name is Wang Zijian, a post-95s generation, but he is already a veteran player in the field of NFT and digital collections. Wang Zijian has learned all the popular NFTs on

overseas platforms, and he has also been involved in digital collections on various domestic platforms. He has even published his own digital collections and established a digital collection community.

In recent months, Wang Zijian has found that the direction of the community has changed. In the past, people paid more attention to overseas markets, but now the calls for domestic digital collections are getting higher and higher. Almost all digital collections will be sold out once they are released.

In less than a year, major manufacturers such as Alibaba , Tencent , Baidu have started digital collection businesses, and have launched platforms such as Whale Detect, Magic Core , and Baidu Super Chain. Various small and medium-sized institutions have emerged like mushrooms after a rain, and at least hundreds of digital collection platforms have been launched one after another.

Start-ups can get millions or even tens of millions of financing as long as they are involved in digital collections; A-share listed companies such as Tianxiaxiu, Blue Cursor , Visual China , etc., have recently seen their stock prices hit the daily limit many times.

But the arrival of emerging things is often accompanied by various chaos. hype, cutting leeks, running away on the platform frequently occurs, and over-the-counter trading has also become a way for speculators to make money quickly.

01, 8888 yuan digital collections,

"It's easy to be worth millions in the future"

"I spent 199 yuan on the only art platform some time ago to buy a "Crazy Diners Club" digital collection blind box. Because mine is SR-level, it sold for more than 17,000 yuan not long after. Today I went to see it, it has risen to more than 80,000 yuan. "Wang Zijian said.

"Crazy Diners Club" is also known as the Chinese version of "Born Ape Yacht Club".

, Boring Ape is currently the most recognized digital collection in the world. Previously, the famous singer Justin Bieber caused heated discussions for spending $1.29 million to buy Boring Ape. According to the latest data from NFTGO.io, the total transaction volume of Boring Ape has exceeded $1.5 billion. The popular market like

makes Wang Zijian feel that the "Run" he just bought for 8,888 yuan will be worth millions in the future. Moreover, the social value brought to him by "Run" is far more than 8,888 yuan.

"Genius Little Panda is the first collection released after I have been following internet celebrities since high school. It has certain emotional factors, and Genius Little Panda's Weibo has good traffic." On the other hand, "Running" is also the first collection released after Weibo reached a cooperation with "TopHolder No. 1 Collector" under Tianxiaxiu.

Wang Zijian found that many of the promotional materials on Weibo mentioned the genius panda, "I think there may be some resources. Later, Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei's Weibo account "Back and Go" also posted related Weibo posts of "Running", which further confirmed my idea. "

Why can digital collections be so premium?

An NFT collector who is starting to buy "boring apes" told TMT that the collection meets two needs of human nature. "The first is that people have nothing, and they can be proud of it; the second is value-added hype. For example, Boring Apes, many celebrities buy for excellence; many ordinary people buy for value-added speculation. Therefore, the collection circle cannot be simply understood as a group of gamblers, nor can it be understood as a bubble that will collapse at any time. It is precisely because it fits human nature that the strong will always be strong. ”

This is also the psychology of most collectors. While bringing social value to themselves, it can also be regarded as an investment. In the future, once the secondary market is liberalized, it can obtain high returns through premiums.

There is also a kind of "hidden" that collectors pay more attention to digital collections, which is what Mr. Wen said.

Mr. Wen has been engaged in the traditional art industry. For him, digital collections are actually another way of expression of artworks. Its collection logic is also very similar to traditional artworks. "The digital collections I collect are all in line with my aesthetic taste. For example, I like this artist very much. I think this painting is well painted, and I don't care so much about the appreciation space."

However, whether it is physical collections or digital collections, appreciation is a topic that cannot be avoided. In the digital collection community established by Wang Zijian, he clearly felt that the focus of everyone's discussion in the past two or three months was "what collections have increased faster, which artists have become more popular recently", etc.

Wang Zijian feels that there are very different users who pay attention to digital collections at home and abroad. "NFT is more like a trend abroad, with high public acceptance, and even the whole family will buy and discuss. I feel that everyone's speculative attributes are stronger in China, mainly to make money," said Wang Zijian.

02. Daily transaction volume is rumored to be "over 300 million". Are you making money in the secondary market?

" As far as I know, a certain issuing platform that supports secondary transactions has been established in less than one year, and its daily transaction volume has reached 300 million yuan, and its daily commission is more than 20 million yuan. " A collection enthusiast revealed, "Because their handling fee income is relatively high, every transaction is required, they will collect 7.5% from it."

Under the huge market demand, in less than a year, hundreds of digital collection platforms of large and small have appeared in China. They have different types, good and bad quality, some pursue long-term development, and some want to make a big profit before supervision is tightened.

Currently, the digital collection distribution platforms on the market are mainly divided into four types:

The first type is a platform under the big manufacturers, such as Alibaba's Whale Detective and Tencent's Magic Core.

"These platforms have more advantages in terms of management and user experience." After comparing multiple platforms, Wang Zijian came to this conclusion.

is backed by big manufacturers. The security of transactions when purchasing digital collections on these platforms can be guaranteed and the possibility of long-term development is greater. Furthermore, relying on the resources and fame of major manufacturers, brands and IPs will also give priority to these platforms to cooperate, so the types of digital collections are relatively richer.

However, it is not easy to issue on these large platforms. The number of distributions on the platform is only single digits per day. Some brands and IPs are in a long queue to publish digital collections here.

is also because of its rarity that the appreciation space of collections on the platform is also higher.

In June last year, two payment code skins launched by Whale Detective and Dunhuang Art Institute were limited to 16,000 sets, with a price of 9.9 yuan. They were instantly sold out once they were released. Now, on some over-the-counter trading platforms, the price has exceeded 10,000 yuan. Some people even offered a high price of 700,000 yuan on Xianyu.

The second type is a platform that vertically subdivides the track. For example, TopHolder, a subsidiary of Tianxiaxiu, can clearly feel the difference from other platforms when clicking on the homepage.

In terms of content category, most of the collections on TopHolder are derived from artists, and only one copy is issued for each collection. The scarcity of collections also widens the gap between its pricing and other platforms.

In March this year, TopHolder reached a cooperation with Weibo and launched the Weibo mini program, further expanding the scope of services. With the help of Weibo's powerful social attributes, big Vs and artists on Weibo have released digital collections on TopHolder, and the collection volume is even larger. The "Run" of the genius Panda purchased by Wang Zijian is one of them.

However, artistry is still one of the most important considerations for TopHolder. Before Weibo users publish digital collections on the platform, they need to answer the following 7 questions.

also has a typical platform, and it is also the most profitable platform, which is to open the secondary market.

The biggest difference between the domestic digital collection market and overseas is the trading method. Overseas digital collections (NFTs) are usually built on public chains, transactions are made using Ethereum, and can be traded twice at any time.

. Most domestic platforms are built on alliance chains. For example, the Whale Dean and are connected to the Ant Chain, and the R-digital collections and China Literature are connected to the Zhixin Chain. Moreover, almost all domestic platforms are traded in RMB.

Due to the uncertain supervision, whether domestic digital collections can be traded in secondary terms is still in a gray area. According to whether secondary terms are allowed, the platform is divided into two types.

Most platforms do not support transactions for safety reasons, such as whale detectors and magic cores, which need to be purchased for 6 months before they can be transferred.

The digital collection platforms of almost all major manufacturers strictly restrict second-hand transactions, which also leads to the platform that can only earn issuance fees through first-hand issuance, which is generally 30% of the overall issuance price, or even lower. "If such a platform wants to make money, it may require volume. The larger the issuance plate, the lower the marginal cost." Wang Zijian said.

, while others have opened up second-hand trading platforms, which are obviously more radical and profitable. After a digital collection is issued, it may range from tens of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan in just a few days, and transactions are frequent. Simply trading commissions can make the platform profitable.

"In digital currency exchange, the transaction fee is about a thousandth or a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandths of a digital collection. Now the transaction fee for digital collections can basically reach a few percent."

has not a high technical threshold for building a digital collection trading platform. In addition, it is a popular track, many entrepreneurs will try to build their own platforms.

Wang Zijian believes that this period is a bonus period, and you only need to make extremely small efforts to get huge returns. "I have many friends around me who have been invested. The Metaverse is a hot topic. It is equivalent to being involved in digital collections. Those listed companies are very willing to invest in such companies because they play a positive role in stock price and brand awareness."

03, The dangerous secondary market, the regulatory stick may fall behind at any time

At present, the domestic digital collection field is still in a very early stage. Whether it is the technology and operation are immature, the platform and users are also feeling the stones.

There is a picture of "New Exit Caution Platform and QQ Show Injustice Platform" circulating on the Internet. In the picture, the users summarize the thunder points of each platform.

In order to increase the price of digital collections, some distribution platforms even conduct behind-the-scenes operations.

"The platform can be the dealer when it is released. For example, it was originally going to issue 10,000 digital collections, but the background was set to only issue 1,000, and the remaining 9,000 were held in its own hands. If the off-market liquidity is relatively low, the price will be easily raised." Wang Zijian said, "They can also acquire this product at a high price in the secondary market to further increase the price."

In addition, after this concept was hyped up in the short term, there are many gray areas, the most typical of which is over-the-counter trading. Because most platforms do not support transactions, in order to make quick profits, speculators will choose to transfer collections on the platform, and actually transfer cash through Alipay and WeChat.

Search for keywords such as "digital collection" or "NFT" on QQ to find groups, and you can see various communication groups. What everyone communicates in the group is not the digital collection itself, but various bid and closing information. "200 out of Sanxingdui, no ink," "Long-term high price Feng Zikai , Lucky, Totem, Torch", "Long-high price 567". The risk of over-the-counter transactions in

is naturally greater. Some users have summarized a list of suspicious transaction objects of digital collections, and attached a WeChat account and QQ number.

In order to ensure the security of transactions, a transaction guarantee group has also been derived.

In the announcement of a guarantee group, the guarantee rules are written: "This group only guarantees digital collections of any domestic platform that transactions [can be transferred to the gift]." "Guarantee fee: [The price below 1,000 is 3%, and above 1,000 is 5%, and the minimum starting from 5 yuan] The guarantee fee is defaulted to the seller. "If the time for transfer is not up to the time for transfer, both parties must pay a liquidated damages."

Obviously over-the-counter trading is not recognized, and some platforms have also begun to punish relevant users. In February this year, Whale Detective punished 56 users who privately traded digital collections and released the list.

. For platforms that open secondary transactions, high profits are also accompanied by high risks.

Recently, the only art platform that supports secondary transactions has begun to be frequently questioned by users. Users have detailed the seven sins of the only art platform, including the inability to trade, the platform neither ships nor refunds, and the price fluctuations of , etc. This is a side effect of secondary transactions.

The first wave of collectors who entered the market at the issue price made profits through secondary transactions, speculators began to enter the market, and even used plug-in software to rush to buy digital collections, resulting in the platform being disconnected, and the inability to trade and faulty orders were found.

and faded in the first wave of bonus period, some speculators bought digital collections at high prices, but the collection prices began to fall, which aroused dissatisfaction among speculators.

At the same time, some large platforms are also actively strengthening supervision. Starting from February this year, WeChat mini-programs began to remove the digital collection trading platform, and the only art was among the list of removed from the shelves.

WeChat mini program shows: "The only art of the mini program, NFT, has suspended its service due to suspicion of bypassing, evading or confronting platform review and supervision." After the outbreak of public opinion storm, Alipay also terminated its cooperation with the only art.

In the future, once national regulation is tightened, it may be a devastating blow to platforms that want to make quick money.

04, "Exploring a NFT path with Chinese characteristics"

According to data from Toubao Research Institute, the global NFT market size has exceeded US$40 billion in 2021. Based on Ant Chain's sales and global NFT growth rate, it can be predicted that the size of China's NFT market size will reach 29.52 billion in 2026.

In China, there are four main types of digital collections:

The first type is IP. In terms of magic core and whale detector, the most common IP type is museum-related digital collections. These collections are more like "cultural and creative products" and are usually not released at a high price. On the magic core, the issuance price of a Luoyang Longmen digital stone carving collection is 118 yuan.

and some animation, film and television IPs also regard digital collections as a promotion channel. The just-released science fiction disaster blockbuster " Moon Fall " released a digital collection designed by director Roland Emmerich at the same time on the mainland. Each digital collection will be bound to a movie ticket for "The Moon Fall". Holding this digital collection can be redeemed for the movie ticket. The

brand is also a popular publisher of digital collections. Starting this year, a group of sports brands have tried to enter digital collections, and brands such as Anta , Xtep , and Adidas have successively released digital collections.

During the Winter Olympics , Anta created the first digital collection of the Chinese national ice and snow team; Adidas's first domestic digital collection work "Funting Local Specialties" series was sold out immediately after it was launched, and it brought a rich increase in revenue, with payment amounts increasing by 32 times compared with daily life, and payment conversion rate increasing by 22 times compared with daily life.

The third type is art digital collections, such as paintings, music albums, etc. This type of collection has a high collection value and has a certain fan base.

also has a type of digital collection, which is more like a derivative of the metaverse, further accumulating digital assets. In January this year, after the Blue Cursor released the digital virtual person " Su Xiaomei ", Su Xiaomei's digital collection was soon launched in the Only Art.

shows that the commercial value of digital collections not only exists in the collection itself, but also contains more commercial possibilities.

blue cursor is expanding into the field of digital collection services, "mainly providing integrated solutions for the B-end, empowering the rich digital content and consumer experience on the C-end."

In the past marketing communication and operation, the blue cursor has accumulated a lot of brand and IP resources.The relevant person in charge of Blue Cursor said that in the future, Blue Cursor will also actively explore and help brands and IPs to create digital collections, produce and distribute, operate and promote digital collections, integrate "technology" and "art" to build a brand digital asset management platform and interactive community in the Web3.0 era.

Emerging things are often accompanied by industry bubbles, and from disorder to order is a stage that domestic digital collections must go through. At the moment of strict supervision, China's digital collection industry has shown a different look than overseas, and will inevitably take a distinctive path in the future. ‍‍