Why Crypto Veteran Charlie Lee Is Sounding Alarm Against NFT Craze

Litecoin LTC/USD creator Charlie Lee, is warning about the frenzy surrounding non-fungible tokens.

What Happened: Lee, a former engineer at Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG search unit Google, sounded the alarm on the parallels between the ICO rush of 2017 and the current NFT craze in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

The cryptocurrency veteran described NFTs as “Non-Finite Tokes” and pointed out that there is “zero cost to create [an] unlimited number of tokens.”

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In a separate tweet, he cited the example of Justin Roiland of “Rick and Morty” fame and his NFT artwork and questioned what’s stopping others such as “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening or animator Mike Judge from creating millions of new NFTs.

Lee also threw a challenge and asked to be proven wrong.

Lee clarified that while digital artwork takes time and effort to create, NFT is not the artwork.

Why It Matters: NFTs are akin to digital certificates of authenticity and can be used for digital assets such as games or artworks.

NFTs have attracted several artists, with the latest being Grimes, the partner of Tesla Inc TSLA chief Elon Musk, who sold digital artworks for nearly $6 million, reported the Verge. 

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Others that have jumped on the bandwagon reportedly include Beeple who sold $3.5 million worth of art last year and actress Lindsay Lohan. 

Meme Nyan Cat and electronic musician 3LAU are some other notables that have profited from the trend.

Price Action: LTC traded 3.4% higher at $182.23 at press time, while the apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin BTC/USD traded 2.09% lower at $48,624.08.

See also: What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?

Photo by Paul Sableman on Flickr