The Non Fungible Tokens market has had a fantastic year-to-date performance and the latest updates go to show that the perceived ‘hype’ is here to stay. Recently, crypto payment firm MoonPay announced a raise of $87 Million from high-profile celebrities as NFTs gain more dominance in the market.
MoonPay’s Fund Raise
MoonPay, a crypto payment firm that converts digital assets into fiat through credit cards and popular payment portals Google Pay and Apple Pay, recently announced an $87 Million funding round, as per Reuters. The investments were made by a variety of well-known musicians movie stars, including Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, and Bruce Willis, among others.
MoonPay’s CEO Ivan Soto-Wright added that the firm “expects content creators to increasingly use NFTs to market their work and engage with fans”. The company started to gain prominence after simplifying the process of buying NFTs.
The current investment is part of an earlier funding round announced in November, which valued MoonPay at a mammoth $3.4 Billion, according to Reuters.
NFT Marketplace Recovery
The recent announcement certainly goes to show the potency that the NFT market carries despite going through a stagnant growth phase earlier during the year. A quarterly NFT market report by data analytics firm Nansen showed that NFTs have outperformed the broader cryptocurrency market thus far in 2022, offering returns of over 80% to investors. In contracts, Bitcoin’s year-to-date performance was down by 16% at press time.
Although the first few NFTs were minted in 2014, they hit mainstream media in 2021 following a landmark year that saw Bitcoin’s price soar to record levels around $70K. Demand for the digital artwork offered by NFTs has allured many celebrities into the space and some prominent Wall Street firms, such as toymaker Hasbro Inc and lifestyle firm PLBY Group, have altered their business strategies to incorporate the fast-growing sub-wave of digital assets.