Leveraging Social Media Sentiments and Ethical Signals for NFT Valuation

CryptoPunks has pioneered NFT innovations in digital art, spurring discussions on NFT valuation mechanics. While early research explored the societal and ethical impacts on CryptoPunks' price, the significance of post- 2021 social sentiment in NFT valuation remains unexplored. This paper analyzes how social media sentiments, coupled with factors like gender and skin tone, influence NFT valuations. Using data from social media, blockchain, and crypto exchanges, we demonstrate social sentiment's key role in CryptoPunks price prediction and highlight shifts in valuation mechanics post-2021. Our findings also indicate transaction and pricing imbalances based on gender and skin tone, even after controlling for NFT rarity and human-readable attributes. This research enriches studies bridging blockchain, ethics, and societal perspectives.