Mobile games developer Tapinator to launch ‘NFT500’ service

Tapinator, a publicly-traded mobile games publisher based in New York City, has announced plans to launch a new subscription casting service focused on nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, highlighting the growing popularity of digital art. 

Launching in summer 2021, NFT500 will host a collection of blue-chip NFTs from digital and traditional artists that subscribers can "cast" from their devices at home or work. The service will also make use of the recently minted NFT500 token, which allows subscribers to benefit from the price appreciation of the art collection hosted on NFT500.

Ilya Nikolayev, Tapinator’s CEO, said the subscription service is based on the foresight that NFT enthusiasts in the future would prefer to use a subscription service to cast their favorite art instead of spending untold sums on their NFT collection.

He explained:

“When we look out several years, we envision consumers with screens in their homes displaying NFT based digital art. We expect that a substantial majority of these consumers will choose not to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on NFT collections, but rather will utilize our NFT based subscription service to cast pieces from our collection onto their wall.”

Like other market players, Tapinator has recognized the explosive growth potential of NFTs. Its subscription service will allow users to tap into this growing market without having to purchase original artwork. That said, the NFT boom suggests art enthusiasts are willing to pay a premium for high-end pieces. Case in point: Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, earned $69.3 million in an NFT auction for his “Everydays” piece earlier this month. 

NFTs have permeated not just the arts industry, but sports, luxury watches and even the perfume and fragrance market. The NFT market reportedly grew 299% in 2020, according to new research from nonfungible.com.