NFT technology in Portugal is a growing market driven mainly by football and art.
Many are the Portuguese who invest, and it is already possible to buy digital assets of works by Portuguese artists. Many are the opportunities in business that are being created.
NFTs in art, society and the economy
When we talk about the NFT market in Portugal, we generalize to cryptocurrencies, and we know that this market is not regulated. There is no surplus value to be paid except in commercial transactions.
According to Fred Antunes, President of the Portuguese Association of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies in an interview with Lusa “This is a somewhat illusory question. It’s not cryptocurrencies; it’s tax law. Any non-Portuguese citizen who comes to live in Portugal has a big bonus in terms of taxes. The country is attractive for this, and for gastronomy, tourism, climate: cryptocurrencies come in the package. Portugal “has the opportunity” to position itself ahead of other countries,” taking advantage of and consolidating the ‘crypto-friendly’ environment due to initiatives such as the Web Summit and the creation of several ‘tech hubs.’ This generates a dynamic between companies and buyers”.
A paradigm shift! Actors take on new positions in economic chains.
RealFevr
As an example, we refer to RealFevr, a pioneer business in Portugal, founded by Fred Antunes, that takes on the disruption in purchase and sale relationships. It trades in the NFTs football collectibles market by giving people historical moments and collectible goals through unique videos that can be purchased and resold in their own marketplace on their platform
Loja do Gato Preto
The Portuguese company Loja do Gato Preto recently launched a collectible of NFTs of digital art,” a step that demonstrates the importance given by the brand to the originality of the products and the connection between the buyer and the acquired piece”. “New Cats on The Block” is a collection inspired by the brand’s icon – the cat – and the independent and irreverent personality of the feline. The collection is made of six cats, representing several “moods”: chill cat, angry cat, fashion cat, gothic cat, among others, images that result in several combinations and originate 50 limited and collectible copies available on the OpenSea Marketplace.
Wonther
The Portuguese brand Wonther, founded by Olga Kassian, has created the Interlinked – True Connection collection, five NFT limited edition jewellery pieces that are also available in physical format. In fact, the customer buying the NFT, on the Opensea marketplace, whose availability is limited – from 18 March to 16 August – what they buy is the physical piece with an NFT version, fully certified of authenticity.
FNAC Portugal
FNAC Portugal will transform the works of the winners of New Talents FNAC 2022 into digital assets to be marketed Mintabase marketplace, on the NEAR blockchain.
In art, NFTs are revolutionizing the market and influencing the adaptation of agents to their positioning. We have been seeing artist movements, exhibitions and conferences on digital art and NFT technology.
Here we open a parenthesis to mark the opening of the Seattle NFT Museum in the city of Seattle, on the West Coast of the United States, that proclaims itself as the world’s first museum aimed at crypto art: the so-called “Art of the future”, where digital art comes of majority. Here “visitors live the whole experience of a museum, just like in any other type of art,” explained Jennifer Wong, one of the institution’s founders.
NFTs exhibitions spread more and more through physical exhibition spaces.
CryptoArtCulture positions itself in the “physicality” of NFT, and was a pioneer in Portugal with the first NFT art exhibition, by a solo artist, in a gallery space, still in 2021.
The same procedures applied by CryptoArtCulture with the KW series of the Electra Collection, by Galla, the exhibition with works of art encoded with NFT technologies, with new ways of promotion and the possibility of making purchases in marketplaces (sites specialized in the sale of NFT), such as OpenSea, are also used by other artists and collectives.
In the most purist side, The Underdogs, an NFT gallery presented works by Vihls, a Portuguese artist, as a way of eternalizing Street Art, in May of 2021. Vihls is currently a part of an NFT collective of 43 Portuguese artists in PT43NFT digital art show that will happen for 43 days ( from its opening on the 4th of February) at the online gallery On Cyber.
In common although the different forms of exhibition, are works encoded in NFT technology, which function as a certificate of valid originality, not subjected to the analysis of critics or experts to certify the authorship of the work, hosted on blockchain sites, with the possibility of buying works of renowned artists or emerging as Galla, or even, sacred art, in the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa or the fractional ownership of an NFT, one of the 125 thousand NFT of an image of São Francisco Xavier.
The artist Leonel Moura, a pioneer in robotic art in Portugal, presented in May 2021 the series “Machine Beauty”, of his authorship, as the first NFT work of the Portuguese Center of Screen Printing, in Lisbon.
NFT events, conversations, meetings and exhibitions
Lisbon has been the scene of many events, with the exception of the city of Porto, which in November 2021 embraced NFTs, where the first events on the theme arise largely due to the policies of promoting the creation of hubs and the realization of Websummit take place.
One of the great events that took place in October 2021, was organized by NEAR, in Lisbon to announce carbon-free blockchain platform funding.
Also in the educational aspect, the NFT has been the target of attention in terms of informing and training new agents.
Meetings and conversations on literacy and the state of the art of NFTs research and development in Portugal took place on November 23, at the knowledge Pavilion and on November 24, the conversation on the theme crypto art: a new era, a new ecosystem, by CryptoArtCulture, at Árvore Cooperativa Artística, in Porto.
About NFTs: art, business, platforms, marketplaces the European NFT event “Non Fungible Conference” will take place in Lisbon, during two days (4 and 5 April), with lectures, panels, workshops and experiences that bring together artists, projects, platforms, collectors and investors from the global NFT community. We will be able to understand in loco what is talked about when the topic is NFTs.
We will be back in April, bringing with us what is discussed, heard, and seen over there and to report the possibilities that NFT can bring in decentralisation and social participation.
Until then, we can keep in touch and develop knowledge through training programs on blockchain and business.
Aimed at executives, the training in Blockchain & Smartcontracts takes place in Lisbon in a partnership between Católica-Lisbon, School of Economics and management and Técnico+.
Free of charge and in Portuguese, starts this month, the Blockchain course – Introduction, at Cinel in Porto and Lisbon. These actions take place online, so anyone living anywhere else in the country can register.
Permanently, some concepts and explanations can be seen on the binance website.
Article and Research | Maria João Matos Translation | Carol Martins