Amrit Pal Singh has spent 40 ether, or $125,000 at the time, buying NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, of art to display in the metaverse.
As a designer and illustrator himself, Singh began to sell his own art as NFTs in February, and within two months, “I saw the potential of owning digital land in the metaverse,” the 32-year-old tells CNBC Make It.
Singh bought a virtual plot for two ether, or around $9,300 at current prices, on Cryptovoxels, a metaverse powered by the Ethereum blockchain where players can buy land and build. There, he built a 10×18 square meter gallery called Toy Face Cafe, named after his NFT collection.
Amrit Pal Singh bought a virtual plot for two ether on Cryptovoxels, a metaverse powered by the Ethereum blockchain.
Courtesy of Amrit Pal Singh
On the ground floor of the cafe, Singh displays the art he created, and on the other floors, he displays the art that he has collected.
“In addition to owning the land, I thought it will be great to use it to showcase my art and showcase my growing collection,” he says.
Amrit Pal Singh says that he has spent 40 ether on NFTs to display them in the metaverse.
Courtesy of Amrit Pal Singh
In the last nine months, Singh has made over $1 million selling NFTs of his work. His earnings have allowed him to invest in other artists, including LIRONA, Tory Bryant, Ankit Kapoor, Navneet Bawa, Prasad Bhat, Anwesh Kumar Sahoo and Rachna Ravi, he says. Some of these artists have sold pieces for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
His favorite piece came from “an art-swap with fellow artist Gabriella Barouch,” Singh says. “I traded one of my Toy Faces for her beautiful artwork titled Leaf.”
In addition to buying from individual artists, Singh has also purchased a few NFTs from popular collectible projects, like CrypToadz, Doodles, Cool Cats and Robotos.
On the ground floor of the metaverse cafe, Amrit Pal Singh displays the art he created, and on the other floors, he displays the art that he has collected.
Courtesy of Amrit Pal Singh
Though he is bullish on NFTs, Singh stresses the importance of spending only what you can afford to lose.
“Since NFTs is my full-time thing at the moment, I have a good grasp of what makes a good collectible project, and I have been able to have a few good, profitable trades,” he says. “However, I have also sold artwork [at a] loss or too early. Some projects are quite risky.”
For Singh, it’s been worth it to spend more than six figures on NFTs because of his belief in the community and the technology overall.
“I see the current community as the founding community of this medium,” he says. “This comes with a responsibility of pushing talent and helping each other out. I think artists collecting other artists is the biggest art revolution there has been.”
Singh sees a future where his great-grandkids interact with his art in the metaverse and fight over who inherits his NFT collection, he says. He predicts that people will soon have to include NFTs and other digital assets in their wills.
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