Asia has emerged as the next big NFT leader, with a spike in the adoption of Web 3.0 technologies and innovation. Explore the disruptive industry with Hive Life’s spotlight on APAC’s leading NFT marketplaces demystifying the space and bridging the gap between netizens, collectors, and new-era art curators.
In the wake of the Web 3.0 revolution, Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) novelty and innovation spiked rapidly. 2021 brought the NFT craze to its peak, showing remarkable growth and adoption rates, with countless brands curating their unique digital assets, celebrities taking part in the trend, and creators launching their own collectables.
Many industry giants have partnered with leading NFT marketplaces to generate their distinct digital collections including Visa, Adidas Originals, and McDonald’s, initiating even more uptake in the space.
While the West drove NFTs to their explosive fame, adoption in Asia was rather underwhelming, with many reluctant to even enter the digital realm- until now.
Asia’s rising digital industry has paved the way for mass integration of new blockchain tech, foreseeing exponential growth in the adoption of NFTs, outpacing the West.
Many tech entrepreneurs and NFT startups have since emerged in APAC to demystify the space while innovating new solutions to facilitate access, engagement, and adoption. For those in search of viable platforms to invest in and trade digital tokens, Hive Life has compiled a list of APAC’s most disruptive NFT marketplaces transforming the ecosystem by enabling transparent, efficient, and immutable transactions.
FormosArt
FormosArt was launched in Singapore in 2021 as an artist-centric NFT marketplace, to provide a platform for creators to ensure an easy and credible transfer of digital tokens through its decentralised network. The platform’s founding team comprises industry leaders, blockchain engineers and other experts, who recognised the many struggles endured by creatives in the art world, and hence developed a solution to alleviate those barriers, facilitating the process from creating, to selling, and collecting NFT arts.
The platform allows emerging talents to protect their creations, and transfer ownership seamlessly. The NFT marketplace is compatible with the Ethereum-powered wallet, MetaMask, offering smooth transactions between the two channels.
Calm Amidst the Chaos by Teera
Axie Infinity
Founded in 2018, Vietnam’s Axie Infinity took the gaming world by storm as it became one of the most disruptive NFT marketplaces in the region. Designed to empower modern-age collectors and gamers by giving them partial ownership of their virtual land, the immersive simulation allows players to create, earn and sell AXS tokens, in the form of digital characters, and other NFT art collectables.
With a market cap exceeding billions, the GameFi platform’s definitive advantage comes from its “play-to-earn” incentive. Users can redeem tokens earned in the game as cryptocurrency, by simply conquering Arena battles and breeding Axie monsters, mirroring the premise of Pokemon, with added elements of non-fungible token ownership which can be translated into tangible rewards.
Axie Infinity is making a big leap towards becoming one of the top and most expansive NFT marketplaces in the region.
TRLab
More than just a bunch of “moving images”, NFTs have unlocked endless possibilities of what art can and should be, along with the ways one could collect and own those digital assets. This transformative approach has further altered our perception of digital and fine arts. With an eye for the creative, Audrey Ou and Xin Li-Cohen established Hong Kong’s trailblazing NFT platform, TRLab, with their shared vision to bridge the knowledge gap in the digital fine arts landscape.
Fostering a community of art curators and collectors, TRLab’s marketplace has emerged as a popular spot for traditional artists who may not have prior experience in blockchain tech. Many of these rising NFT artists are attracted to the platform’s feature that enables long-term connections between collectors and creators, through their transparent and informative procurement procedure.
“We want [consumers] to know what they buy, what artist they are collecting,” stated Li-Cohen, the co-founder of TRLab.
Twin Sparrows by Blake Kathryn
NFT Stars
Revolutionising access to and ownership of digital tokens, NFT Stars, a Melbourne-based NFT marketplace, focuses on a wider audience group, ranging from art enthusiasts and creators, to collectors and investors. The platform aims to make digital marketplaces and blockchain technology more accessible and appealing to consumers, integrating user-friendly interfaces and features. Focused on quality, the platform sets itself apart with its screening process for listed artists.
NFT Stars recently launched its original collection of NFT avatars, synergised with the blockchain gaming platform, SIDUS Heros.
Wild by @yuriykhudov And F U T U R E by @kotanmart
Coral
One of Southeast Asia’s leading tech platforms, Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTG), has introduced Coral as their next flagship innovation based in Thailand. Launched in 2021, Coral is a NFT trading platform built on the foundation of addressing the daily battles faced by collectors, artists, and brands. In addition, it aspires to drive global recognition of NFT’s unique form of digital expression in the broader market through this extensive network of curators. The marketplace is exclusively designed to promote talented individuals to a wider audience and give them an opportunity to earn dividends for their work.
Committed to delivering a seamless trading experience for its customers, the platform has eliminated the major risk factor of crypto conversion, allowing users to buy NFT artworks with fiat money such as, Thai Baht and even US Dollars.
Van Gogh skull / colorfull by jatujeep
FormosaVerse
Taiwan’s newly launched NFT platform, FormosaVerse, was developed with the intent to aid the global adoption of blockchain technology, while simplifying entry points for newcomers. Witnessing the mass market domination of NFTs around the globe, FormosaVerse’s founder, Chi Mingyang, decided to take upon this challenge to build a self-sustaining blockchain ecosystem.
FormosaVerse closes the gap between our virtual and physical worlds, having introduced its own NFT trading platform, a metacity, social networking space, along with other digital elements, for consumers to discover, collect, and invest in rare modalities.
While current sales are made through the MetaMask wallet, the founder has hinted towards the potential launch of its own cryptocurrency in the near future.
Coincheck NFT
Coincheck launched Japan’s first-ever end-to-end NFT marketplace, Coincheck NFT, in 2021. Strategically designed to back NFT projects by the Animoca Brands group and other portfolio companies, since adding bigger players to its decentralised network, namely The Sandbox, Decentraland, Artblocks, Generativemasks and more. The marketplace plays a vital role in promoting new-age technologies to consumers in Japan, reinvigorating user experiences with NFT art and other digital collectables.
Coincheck is the leading Japanese crypto exchange, and enables trading of top digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and many other altcoins. With a reach of over 1.6 million users as of 2022, the crypto wallet giant has diversified its portfolio of other blockchain technologies to uphold its market title, and lead by example for other emerging startups in the region.
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