Is that JPEG worth 70 million dollars? Value creation and perceptions of nonfungible tokens in a bubble economy

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have sparked questions about value. In our attempt to shed light on the value of NFTs, especially during their dramatic rise in the early 2020s, we develop a theoretical analysis of the extrinsic factors shaping NFT value based on a perfect storm of individual, social, marketing, and environmental factors. After detailing the effects of each of these factors in shaping NFT valuation, we develop a new understanding of value in a frenzy of celebrity influence, social media, decentralized authority, unregulated markets, marketing hype, and media magnification. We also articulate the intrinsic factors that still affect value as well. We argue that in the NFT bubble economy and its aftermath, extrinsic, social, and situational factors came to dominate valuation. We offer advice on how to make sense of value in the post NFT bubble and outline a research agenda that considers the role of cryptocurrency and metaverse. © 2024 Westburn Publishers Ltd.