> My theory is that NFTs and Bored Apes are a fad of dumb rich kids playing with Mom or Dad's money, which they are given so they stay out of their hair.
I’m guessing it’s bimodal:
On one end: Cryptocurrency whales trading expensive NFTs back and forth as speculative instruments plus some wash trading to pump the prices. The more hype they generate by spending huge money, the more buyers they can entice to join the frenzy.
On the other end: People who can’t really afford to speculate, but who think NFTs are their only chance to get ahead and secure financial independence. This group consumes the doom-and-gloom financial opinions of Reddit, TikTok, and celebrity politicians who tell them that the system is rigged and they’ll never get ahead. Then NFTs come along and suddenly there are stories of people getting fantastically rich by selling terrible JPEGs of monkeys and squiggly lines. It’s such a dumb idea that the boomers won’t understand it and won’t get to it first like they did with the stock market and real estate. It’s a financial asset made to generate wealth for young people! So they pour a lot of money into it, thinking that they’re either going to get rich or be back to square one with a depleted bank account, which is their baseline mental financial state.
When these people buy NFTs, they’re buying dreams. Maybe it fizzles out, or maybe they’re going to get lucky and have enough money to buy a house with cash in a few months. In their mind, it’s a chance they can’t afford to pass up.
The latter group makes me very anxious. Every once in a while I drop into /r/cryptocurrency to check the pulse and see if things are turning around, but it only gets worse every time I look. It’s baffling to see the posters talk about being down 40% on their portfolios but being convinced that it’s all going to turn around and make them retirement-wealthy in just a couple more years.