Reputation, respect and status in The New Flex economy.

"With an NFT, by posting it as my avatar on Twitter and Discord, I can quickly 'flex' with a picture," notable collector Gmoney tells CNBC Make It.

First and foremost, NFT investors see long-term value in the assets and the tech. As with any investment, they hope their NFTs will appreciate over time.

But beyond that, owning NFTs offers a form of social currency. There’s value in the social status and acceptance from the crypto community that comes with owning a respected NFT, just like a Rolex or a Lamborghini in real life, Gmoney tells CNBC Make It. It’s a “flex utility.”

“When someone buys a Rolex in the real world, they don’t spend the thousands of dollars because of the watch’s utility value. A simple $5 watch could perform the same utility. It is to ‘flex’ their status,” Gmoney says. “With an NFT, by posting it as my avatar on Twitter and Discord, I can quickly ‘flex’ with a picture.”

“It has the same effect as wearing that Rolex in real life, but digitally,” he says.

Scrolling through Twitter, you can come across thousands of accounts with CryptoPunk or other NFT avatars — from jpegs of clipart rocks to cartoon apes to cute penguins — all using their collections to “flex” online.

Flexing NFTs started within the niche crypto community, but is becoming more mainstream. In the last 30 days alone, there’s been about $2.4 billion in sales volume on OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace in the world. This is a massive jump from last year, when OpenSea saw under $50 million in sales volume in September 2020.

“Community is the single most valuable aspect of NFTs,” says Cooper Turley, a widely known crypto and NFT investor. “Without a community, NFTs have no value. My NFT investment thesis is based solely around the strength of an existing community, or the potential for one to emerge.”

Owning an NFT, like a CryptoPunk, and posting it online can have upsides like “recognition, respect and status” within the crypto community, Turley explains.

“Owners receive access and benefits far beyond a traditional membership,” Turley says. “They are able to build deeper relationships, find meaningful work, and most importantly, find belonging.”

But “flex” and community have become so sought after that it has even led to a demand for renting NFTs. 

Vale has seen at least one user’s social media engagement skyrocket after replacing his social media avatar with a “rented” CryptoPunk for three months. It allowed the user to make a name for himself in the space, Vale says. 

And this could just be the beginning. “I think we will see this evolve more as NFT tech engrains into social media as a whole,” Vale says. “It is the evolution of the ‘blue checkmark’ as we know it.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/29/this-nft-investor-spent-170000-on-a-cryptopunk-to-flex-online.html