Non-Fungible Token (NFT) in Malaysian Creative Arts: The Status Quo of Tokenisation

The world has been discussing non-fungible tokens (NFT) and this abbreviation is the most searched topic via Google which received widespread attention in 2021. This NFT phenomenon has made the conversion of traditional art into crypto art which also led to the emergence of marketplaces based on the NFT. Rising numbers of users and local NFT marketplaces is somehow an indication of the reception of Malaysia towards the NFT. This paper is to first identify the status-quo of NFT and tokenization in the creative arts in Malaysia since its emergence and, secondly, the potential of this emerging technology carries. The study finds that there are number of local creative talents and brands has started to tokenised their artworks and gained success with their NFT projects. Despite Malaysia having a low percentage of NFT owners, demand in NFT is increasing as the potentials of this advancement has would contribute to the encouragement towards the Metaverse. This research concludes that as more users, brands, and organisations are beginning to create their own NFT collections to not only advertise their brands but also to begin utilising this new technology as they keep pace with other international NFT users, Malaysia’s NFT market is still in its infancy and must be explore.