Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become one of the most innovative and growing features of the constantly expanding cryptocurrency space. In 2021, the sales of NFTs exploded to $24.9 billion from just $94.9 million a year ago, indicating investors’ significant interest in this new form of digital assets. In the upcoming year, the outlook for tech stocks seems negative due to the anticipation of higher interest rates, thus investors will probably seek the sector’s relative winners. Are companies with exposure to NFT markets amongst the top choices?

NFTs have unlimited potential

NFTs are unique digital representations of a wide range of real-world things such as art, music, videos, and almost every product a consumer would look for. In addition, blockchain technology is used to handle the transaction and encode the identity of the owner of each NFT, safeguarding the procedure while also providing anonymity that many investors and creatives desire. Eventually, what makes NFTs a major financial innovation is that they allow artists anywhere in the world to share and sell their work without having to pay for advertisement or physical representation costs. In turn, this stimulates productivity and creates a rapidly expanding market.

Twitter to become the first NFT community ‘ecosystem’

As the economic aspect of the NFT market is developing, its communication framework should soon manage to catch up. In simple words, starting a cutting-edge and pioneering project is completely different than being able to promote it to individuals that would likely recognize its value. In that sense, Twitter could play a vital role in the discovery and community-building phase of every existing and new attribute of the constantly evolving NFT space.

Recently, Twitter enabled users to have a verified NFT as their profile picture, which then shows up in a hexagon-shaped image. This move will potentially lead to more community features built around NFTs as groups and forums will be gated by NFT ownership, protecting users from scams and bots. Ultimately, Twitter’s revenue from advertising could grow as advertisers would be willing to pay more to target users who share a common interest in NFTs. Therefore, if Twitter can build tools that will allow it to become a hub for NFT projects, it could potentially enlarge its active user base and improve its financials.

From a technical perspective, Twitter’s stock has been trending downwards after experiencing a downside breakout from its descending triangle in late October. To make matters worse, since then, the price has never managed to cross above its 50-day simple moving average, endorsing a broader bearish picture for the price. Could the potential boost from NFT growth reverse the ongoing downside trajectory?

eBay’s unique approach could prove catalytic

One of the first and most famous internet marketplaces, eBay, has also added NFTs to its list of product offerings. The company is currently taking a different approach from the majority of its rivals as it is still focused on fiat money sales rather than relying on cryptocurrencies, which are commonly used in NFT transactions in most trading platforms. Hence, accepting standard currency could make eBay more accessible to the masses than a cryptocurrency-focused NFT platform. Additionally, eBay could potentially thrive in periods of extreme volatility in the crypto markets.

The company is currently amongst the few profitable within the technology sector with a trailing 12-month price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 12.5, which is significantly better than its sector’s average of -244.8. Moreover, it fares even better when looking at the 12-month forward multiples, which at 14.0 seems far more encouraging against the disappointing sector average of -27.5.