Twenty months after the NFT art bubble burst, with trading volumes plunging by as much as 97 per cent, local art consultant Holly Mazar-Fox believes digital fare is making a comeback.

Ms Mazar-Fox said the recent market downturn, triggered by the greater crypto crash, was a necessary correction.

“Now, we are witnessing a shift towards a market that champions artistic ingenuity while also embracing AI integration,” she said. “The steadfast commitment of major auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s to their NFT sales platforms sets a reassuring standard for the industry.”

In 2021, digital artist Beeple’s sold his NFT Everydays: The First 5,000 Days at a Christie’s auction for $69 million.

Ms Mazar-Fox said there is a discernible evolution in collecting habits across generations.

“Expect to see a continued surge in online transactions and NFT artwork reflecting the preferences of Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z,” she said. “This demographic shift signals a departure from the collecting norms of preceding generations, particularly baby boomers.”

Later this month, her company, Mazar-Fox Art Consulting Ltd, in collaboration with Penrose Partners, will be holding a NFT art show, Redefining the Boundaries between Art and Technology, debuting on April 31 and May 1 during the International Tech Summit.

“This groundbreaking showcase marks the first of its kind not only for Bermuda but also for the entire Caribbean region, exclusively dedicated to exhibiting NFT artworks,” Ms Mazar-Fox said.

Augmented reality expert Charles Harrop-Griffiths will be one of the local artists featured in the show.

He explained that non-fungible tokens help to solve the problem of how to verify the provenance and authenticity of items such as a digital artwork.

“They are a verification technology, not the art itself,” he said.

He believed that NFTs would eventually replace physical contracts.

“The beauty for visual artists today is that you can essentially attach a piece of code to the art that gives information such as its name and the date it was minted and also any clauses attached to it,” he said. “One of those clauses is royalties for resale. It is similar to any contract written by a lawyer. It means that for the first time ever, artists can be in charge of their own resale profits.”

He first became interested in NFTs during the early days of the pandemic, but never before bothered entering the marketplace.

It was just too expensive.

“Back then, it would cost you $50 to $60 to mint one NFT,” he said. “To be successful you really needed to put out collections. People were putting out 10,000 NFTs at a time.”

Since then, different networks selling NFTs have popped up, all based on the Ethereum network.

“That allows for much cheaper minting costs,” he said. “I minted one last night, and it cost me three cents.”

Bermudian artist Ajani Tucker will also have his work in the show.

This is his first time making his art available as an NFT.

“I am not entering the exhibition solely to make money,” he said. “I want to show a new way that art can be presented. It is a new interactive way, and a futuristic way.”

However, he said selling digital art was still tricky.

“People want a physical piece of art,” he said.

He said despite falling prices for minting NFT artwork, the market is still saturated with many digital artists trying to sell their work.

Mr Tucker described his work as abstract 3D animation.

“There will be augmented reality components to it,” he said.