Collectibles are the leading segment in the NFT (non-fungible token) industry, with a total USD trading volume of about $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, up 29.7% from the previous quarter. Its market share is significantly higher than the art or metaverse segments of the market in terms of volume traded, according to data from Nonfungible.com. MonkeyBids, a decentralized auction platform based on Solana, announced a cooperation agreement with Lithium Finance, an illiquid asset valuation tool, to provide consumers with more transparent and reliable valuations of both digital and physical collectibles.

What Are Physical NFTs?

In simple terms, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic tokens that represent all kinds of unique digital assets. Since they are stored on a blockchain, NFTs can act as verifiable proof of authenticity and ownership for all kinds of assets.

Physical NFTs are digital tokens tied to real-world assets. Also referred to as phygital NFTs, these assets combine the digital and physical and can be used to prove ownership over real-world assets, such as artworks, fashion goods, property deeds, tickets, and more.

With the rise of virtual assets, illiquid assets, such as digital artworks or NFTs that combine virtual and tangible assets, may have different standards for their value. Given this, MonkeyBids, a Web3 auction platform dedicated to promoting the "collector economy," announced a cooperation agreement with Lithium Finance.

Different from the centralized valuation method of traditional auction houses, Lithium uses collective intelligence and machine learning to value assets. Lithium incentivizes and aggregate's opinion from the community to reveal market's anticipation on illiquid assets such as rare NFT through cryptoeconomics.

With this partnership, both Lithium and MonkeyBids will bring consumers a decentralized auction experience through a new valuation method, helping them to quickly grasp the market conditions and the value of their collections in the ever-changing Web3 world.

NFTs to rule the world

Today, there are plenty of examples of brilliant, beautiful digital art people can invest in. But the reality is, most of what is being tokenized does not fit that description. Many of the digital collectibles being traded on today's exchanges are, to be frank, crap. People are creating things with no real value and attempting to bring value to them through tokenization. Think of the current overabundance of digital art. Unfortunately, the amount of demand is nowhere near the supply.

"Lithium is aggregating the community sentiment before every auction starts. This gives us and our collectors the confidence to understand how much the community desires the auction item," said MonkeyBids CEO & Co-Founder, Kelvin Ho.

MonkeyBids said that the two parties might hold events in the future to allow the public to participate in the valuation and bidding of auction items. The one with the closest guessing result and the final transaction amount will win a huge prize.

About MonkeyBids:

Built on the Solana blockchain, MonkeyBids is a decentralized auction house that provides low barriers of entry for auctions of virtual assets and physical luxury goods. Supported by the traceability and transparency of blockchain technology, MonkeyBids aims to reinvent the way auctions are being conducted. This decentralized application (dApp) intends to provide users with a Web3 auctioning experience whereby its on-chain program is driven by algorithms that mimic traditional auction house processes.

About Lithium Finance:

Lithium Ionic is a Canadian-based lithium-focused mining company with properties covering ~2,000 hectares located in the prolific Aracuai lithium province in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, which boasts excellent infrastructure, including highways, access to hydroelectrical grid power, water, and nearby commercial ports. Its Itinga and Galvani claims are located in the same district as the lithium-producing CBL mine and development-stage Sigma Lithium Corp.'s large Barreiro and Xuxa lithium deposits. Lithium Finance is the first decentralized NFT valuation protocol powered by collective intelligence and machine learning. The protocol aims to redefine how NFTs are being valued through incentivizing the community to provide honest assessment to reveal market sentiments.