NFT and Mystery Box Economy: The Rise of a New Generation of Digital Collectibles

The successful listing of Pop Mart has sparked people's attention towards the mystery box economy. As a representative of new consumption, trendy toys share similarities with NFT players in the crypto space, both being representatives of niche subcultures. The success of Pop Mart has certain implications for the entire NFT sector.

The mystery box model has actually been around for a long time. As early as 1996, Pokémon began issuing TCG cards, attracting collectors in droves. By 2019, the Pokémon card series had been released in 77 countries and regions worldwide, with total sales exceeding 27.2 billion cards. A similar example is the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, which reached sales of 27.3 billion yen in 2019.

In addition to physical cards, electronic collectibles in games are also very popular. Games like DOTA2 and Onmyoji use similar card-drawing mechanisms to attract players. In 2018, the application Crypto Kitties on Ethereum suddenly became popular, drawing attention to NFT technology. In the same year, the blockchain game Gods Unchained started its pre-sale, converting cards into NFTs, and received a warm response from players.

However, the physical mystery box model still has some issues. Scarcity is difficult to guarantee, the risk of counterfeiting is high, and physical storage and circulation are inconvenient. In contrast, NFT technology can solve these problems. The scarcity of NFTs is determined by code, they cannot be counterfeited, and they can be permanently stored on the blockchain.

NFT can bring higher liquidity and financial attributes to collectibles. Item trading in traditional games is often restricted, while NFTs can be freely traded. Some projects even combine NFTs with DeFi, allowing collectibles to have functions such as mining and governance.

Nevertheless, the development of NFTs still faces many challenges. Firstly, there is a lack of quality IP, which directly impacts user growth. Secondly, the infrastructure is inadequate, with high Gas fees and slow transaction speeds affecting user experience. In addition, the management of NFT exchanges is chaotic, lacking unified standards.

In the future, the combination of NFT technology and well-known IPs may become a breakthrough. Some projects have already begun to explore this, such as the GoPepe series on the WAX chain. However, to truly achieve large-scale application, further improvement of the infrastructure is needed, including wallet support, transaction platform optimization, and more. At the same time, developing richer gameplay and application scenarios is also crucial.

Overall, NFT technology brings new possibilities for digital collectibles, but it still requires time and efforts from all sides to truly mature.