Undoubtedly, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the hottest sensation in the digital asset community today. NFTs convert digital art and other collectibles into distinctive, visible assets that are simple to transact on the blockchain. Launched in 2017, NFTs seem to have had a rapid rise as compared to other digital currencies, gaining immense traction among Gen Z and millennials. Presently, the most popular blockchain for NFT is the Ethereum blockchain.
In October 2021, 571,000 NFT wallets were made, a 19-times increase over October 2020, as per a Reuters assessment. Additionally, NFT deals will reach $80 billion by 2022. The Block Research firm reports that NFT exchanging volume significantly increased from $2.67 billion December 2021 to $6.86 billion in January 2022.
Various startups in India are currently banking on the burgeoning influence of NFTs in the country. NFT is a market that has presented businesses, investors, consumers, and ordinary people with incredible opportunities. The NFT turned into another reality in India in 2022 when increasingly more Indian dignitaries, including actors, sportspersons, performers, and others, blew people's minds towards this digital token to initiate their own NFT compilations.
Cricketers such as Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Rishabh Pant, and Samriti Mandhana, and bollywood celebs like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sunny Leone, and Vishal Malhotra, have created their own NFTs. According to various reports, India is potentially the largest market for NFTs.
Here is a list of NFT marketplaces in India that allow artists to create and trade tokens - :
WazirX
Founded by Nischal Shetty in 2018, is a Mumbai- based crypto exchange with over 10 million users. The startup was acquired by the world's largest crypto trading stage, Binance, in April 2021.
WazirX is a trusted and secure crypto trade platform to trade Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tron, Zilliqa, and more than 100 digital currencies. In March 2021, WazirX launched its NFT space.
Nischal Shetty, Co-Founder and CEO WazirX
In an earlier conversation with YourStory, Nischal Shetty said, “the adoption of crypto, especially in India, is going to increase at a rapid pace. In the last two to two-and-half years, there has been a 5x growth and this growth is expected to be accelerated even more.”
While talking about the targets, he added, “the focus is more on trading volumes than revenue. In December 2020, the platform was doing $500 million in monthly trading volume, which has now risen to $5-6 billion per month, a 10x growth.”
Diginoor
Founded by Yash Rathod and Shaamil Karim in 2021, Diginoor was launched with the aim of making NFT adoption mainstream in India.
Chennai-based is a diverse and secure digital platform to buy, own, and sell digital art from Indian cinema. Diginoor has sold out its first NFT collection from Rajnikanth's Sivaji.
Diginoor founders Shaamil Karim (left) and Yash Rathod
The platform recently raised $1 million in its seed funding round, and saw participation from Kunal Shah, Contrary Capital, Polygon Fund and others.
In an earlier conversation with YourStory, Shaamil Karim, Co-founder and CEO, Diginoor, said: “Earlier, we used to buy playing cards of cricketers, and we used to trade and play games with friends using the cards. Now, NFTs are becoming the next wave of fandom, and with cinema, people are willing to spend."
Rario
Founded by Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot in 2021, is a Gurgaon-based digital collectible platform for cricket fans to collect and exchange cricket memorabilia on the NFTs.
Rario is based on blockchain technology. These NFTs allow fans an opportunity to claim ownership of the most loved bits of cricket history in a substantial, verifiable way. Cricket fans can interact with one another to feature their collection or exchange their Rario cards.
Australian batsman Aaron Finch is the latest addition in the growing list of cricket stars who have turned to NFTs to preserve iconic moments from the field, in the digital world.
BollyCoin
Founded in 2021 by actor Atul Agnihotri and Kyle Lopes, BollyCoin was made to bring a huge part of all the exciting iconic Bollywood media onto the blockchain. It also offers fans a chance to invest in Bollywood memorabilia like sequences, dialogues, banners, collectables, and character art.
BollyCoin made its debut with the Dabangg Series on December 30. According to a press release, at the launch, co-founder Kyle Lopes said, "The Dabangg films are so legendary, and so it seemed like they would be a perfect choice for our first NFT collection. We’re very excited for the community to finally see what we have in store."
BeyondLife.club
Founded by Arun Pandey and powered by GuardianLink, BeyondLife.club is an NFT marketspace that facilitates creators and brands to curate exclusive NFTs.
BeyondLife.club came into the spotlight with the launch of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan's NFTs. The megastar himself curates #AmitabhNFT. The startup converges popular NFTs from Amitabh and legendary creator Stan Lee's Chakra Invincible collections.
Edited by Anju Narayanan