Acquiring an artwork or a collector’s item gives the buyer a privilege: no one else will have that specific piece, since it usually unique. However, the internet has opened a new paradigm regarding digital art and other valuable materials in digital formats. That is the context under the NFTs appeared.

It should be noted that the NFT concept comes from its acronym in English Non Fungible Tokens and it is literally an “irreplaceable” asset within that ecosystem, that can be bought and sold like any other good, but the difference is that It is unique and it’s not tangible. These digital tokens can be understood as certificates of ownership of virtual assets.

In other words, NFTs derives from technology that allows the creation of a unique signature, a digital certificate that ensures the authenticity of something. It can be an image, a piece of music, a post on social networks, a text published on a website or on any other digital format.

But who benefits from this technology? We should remember that, in the past, artists who worked with digital media had difficulties to move and sell their art because they weren’t able to sign and serialize their work as they would with an engraving or a printed photo, that is, it was really hard to distinguish the original from a copy.

However, as we have mentioned, through the inclusion of NFTs, the authenticity of the piece can be confirmed, as well as its future sales, which means that the author can also obtain the respective concepts.

In addition, since the end of 2021 there has been a revolution in the art market, since around 41,000 million dollars were spent on NFTs worldwide, an amount that constituted a transformation in the same segment, making it almost as valuable as the traditional market.

In this way, and especially in the face of the arrival of the metaverse, the NFTs market has caught the attention of various artists, that have diversified their artworks, either with the aim of innovation or to stay in trend, as well as to obtain resources to finance their activities. Likewise, it has caught the attention of investors, who seek to invest in third-party works, speculating on the growth of this market.

The above has led to the question: are NFTs an artistic expression? are they art? In our opinion, the answer is no, because they are only the certificates that give authenticity to the artwork itself. Therefore, we conclude that they are not a type of work of art or a creation technique, nor an artistic movement.