NFTs are gaining ground in PH; Heart Evangelista enters the market

by James · December 26, 2022

NEW ART FROM THE HEART Heart Evangelista is excited about the possibilities of combining art and technology through NFTs. — Instagram photo by Heart Evangelista

The non-fungible token (NFT) industry in the Philippines is expected to expand by an average of 46 percent annually to reach $12.8 billion by 2028 from an estimated $2.6 billion in 2022, according to research by TechInsight360.

According to the strategy research and consulting firm, the expansion of the NFT space in the Philippines is driven by a high literacy rate in the country, as well as the various events and webinars held to promote NFT as a new asset class.

In particular, the partnership between pioneering crypto entrepreneur Luis Buenaventura II and celebrity influencer Heart Evangelista on an NFT in 2021 was cited as driving growth.

“This collaboration signaled a shift in the nascent but growing NFT industry in the Philippines,” said TechInsight360.

Notably, this was the first time someone from the local entertainment industry, with 9 million followers, entered the NFT space, it said, adding that the partnership was part of a social experiment to see where the Philippines’ NFT market stood when the global The NFT industry had strong growth.

The collaboration involved two paintings that Evangelista made during the pandemic, which were auctioned on global NFT marketplace OpenSea, fetching P3.5 million and P3 million, respectively.

By definition, NFTs are unique and cannot be replaced with anything else, like a painting cannot be replaced with the exact same painting unlike currency where one peso can be traded for another. It is this uniqueness, the fact that one NFT is unique, that helps drive its value.

With NFT, the digital code containing information about the one unique item – who made the artwork, when, etc. – acts as a proof of ownership and authenticity that can be transferred from seller to buyer. With such a code, a work of art is “tokenised”.

Just like with cryptocurrency, the record or ledger of ownership can change with new information added [such as when a buyer becomes the new owner] but older data cannot be changed because the token is maintained across hordes of computers worldwide.

Thus, a symbol proves that the owner owns the “original” artwork. The rest – determining the value of an NFT – is up to the market. That is, between seller and buyer. Of course, as more buyers compete, an item’s market value rises.

Artists can profit from the NFTs by receiving royalties every time an NFT is resold, while NFT buyers can profit from the appreciation of the NFTs, and also use it as an opportunity to support artists they feel connected to.

As NFT awareness continued to grow in the country, the industry attracted various other homegrown projects promoting Filipino culture.

First, last October the National Book Development Board of the Philippines launched what it touted as the first ever NFT book to drop at the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair – titled “The Last Moon” – also through OpenSea.

Meanwhile, La Union Surf Club dived into the scene through LUSCCares, which aims to raise money by releasing – again through OpenSea – “digital surfboards” based on actual surfboards used in La Union waters.

“As NFT awareness continues to grow in the country, the demand for NFTs will increase among Filipinos and if the NFT players can conduct workshops, exhibitions and events to promote NFTs and spread awareness, the market could register strong growth over the next three to four years in the Philippines,” the company said.

An example of this is a two-part webinar that Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), together with the non-profit Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development (CANVAS.PH) held in March 2022.

The webinar focused on NFTs to help artists, buyers and collectors of digital art gain a better understanding of how tokens work and how they can become part of the NFT market.