NFT Paris Founder Says Brands Are ‘Fully Embracing’ NFTs

Preparations for the third edition of the NFT Paris conference on February 23-24, 2024 are well underway, and founder Alexandre Tsydenkov anticipates a big turnout, with mainstream brands “fully embracing” the technology of NFTs or non-fungible tokens.

Even amid the current bear market, brands continue to have active NFT projects in development, Tsydenkov told Decrypt (an official media partner of the event). “I would say [they’re] fully embracing,” he said. “Obviously they have to make sense financially, so some have slowed down a bit, but there’s definitely still a strong interest [in NFTs].”

“We’ve definitely seen a detachment from the speculative aspect, that is really happening now—because there is not a lot of money left,” he added. “So the people who are left here are here to see how we use the technology, and corporates are still very eager to use the technology.”

At the 2024 edition of NFT Paris, Tsydenkov said, the range of participants “is going to be even broader than last year.” While the 2023 conference focused on luxury, music, fashion, gaming, and arts, he said, “this year it’s going to be the same, plus definitely a bigger focus on blockchain builders, more technical aspects.”

Image: NFT Paris

“It’s a conference about culture also,” he said. “So people are excited about music, film, luxury, and fashion, so there’s still a lot of excitement.” The French government is positioning Paris as a crypto and NFT hub, he added, noting that it’s “pushing a good ecosystem.”

The NFT Paris loyalty token

One addition to the coming edition of the conference is that it’s walking the walk as well as talking the talk, with the launch of a loyalty token through a free mint. Over 120,000 tokens have been minted so far, Tsydenkov told Decrypt.

“It’s been a very good response,” he said, “much beyond our expectations.”

The loyalty token is a soulbound token, meaning that it can’t be transferred or traded, and is “essential to get the fungible token that is NFTPARIS,” Tsydenkov explained.

“The goal was to attract the right people to NFT Paris, and to be able to know more about the people that come to the event,” he said. The tokens were airdropped to “who we considered as being good,” he added, explaining that, “We airdropped more tokens to the best collectors in the space that didn’t sell during the bear market.”

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Token holders can redeem the NFTPARIS token for bonuses and discounts, against merchandise such as NFT artwork, customized Ledger hardware wallets, discounts with partner organizations, and even a night’s stay in a luxury hotel during the NFT Paris event. “The goal is to have—each week—products from gaming, from art, from fashion, to serve different interests.”

Ultimately, Tsydenkov said, the aim is for the NFT Paris token to extend beyond the conference itself, creating “a loyalty program for Web3 as a whole, and rewarding users who are the most engaged.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward