‘Phygital’ likely to be next big trend in NFTs; adds real value for the buyer: Akshaya.io

Commenting on the volatility in the crypto and NFT markets, Ganesh Raju, Founder and CEO, Akshaya.io said, in an interview with Etmarkets.com, that the web3 technology is going to revolutionise the e-commerce landscape.

According to him, NFTs are more often than not related to just digital artworks of monkey images or cat images, which leads to question – what is the true value of such collectibles. This has led to emergence of the ‘phygital’ concept – phygital + digital.

“We aim to ensure niche and authentic physical collectable items to our platform that buyers will love to own with pride and can be kept for generations” he added. “This would add more value, which would appreciate over the years”.

Lately, NFT collections have taken a big hit, thanks to the correction in the crypto markets and criticism from investors like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Investors, who bet on NFTs due to FOMO, fell prey to various pump and dump projects.

Raju believes that ‘Phygital’ theme can realise the true value of NFTs “As soon a buyer buys our NFT, a ERC721 token is minted and stored in Ethereum blockchain, which is immutable, he said.

“Security is of utmost importance for us and that is the main reason, our NFTs are minted in Ethereum blockchain, even though there is a higher gas fee,” he added.

Once the hype and the dust settles down around NFT, phygital theme might be the next big thing in space. Akshaya believes that the concept might be new, but expects more players to enter the arena.

Raju believes that there is much more steam left in NFT space and that is why he is keen on his newly launched concept. He believes that ‘phygital’ NFTs would not be volatile akin to their pure-play digital counterparts.

“We aim to launch only exclusive and high-end elite collectibles in the coming future,” he said. “Our vision is to be the first platform that will bring NFT, DigitalTwin, Metaverse and Deeptech technologies into one single platform.”

Akshaya.io is creating a unified platform to change the mechanism of NFT trade to support and strengthen the community, artists and buyers.

The company is working on their own metaverse, focused on India, to highlight the golden history, heritage and culture of the country for the Indian diaspora, which has been running for centuries.

“Being the world’s first phygital NFT platform, we would continue to bring more collections in the near future,” said Ganesh Raju. “We already have some partners onboarded on our platform and our next sports based project will be out soon.”

(Disclaimer: The interview was taken at an event hosted by NFT marketplace Akshaya.io for the launch of Vikas Khanna’s first NFT collection in Dubai)