Raoul Pal, Co-Founder and CEO of Real Vision, said that NFTs should remain priced in cryptocurrency. He argued that “crypto” and “NFTs” will persist as the dominant terms for on-chain art.
“Since Punk6529 is on fire today about the wrong-footedness of appeasing of TradArt by pricing NFTs in dollars, which I agree with on many many levels (and have written about), I also wanted to point out that he also said back in 2021 that people using the term “digital assets” or blockchain will all end up using the term “crypto” as it has a memetic persistence. He was correct,” said Pal. “He also has suggested that we will try to arc away from using the terms “NFT’s” and use stuff like “Digital Art” of “Art on the blockchain” but in the end the very fact that they are art verified and authenticated via Non Fungible Tokens is what gives them value and what makes them unique, and we will go back to NFTs as the memetically persistent term. NFTs are priced in crypto. They are crypto native assets.”
According to Pal, pricing NFTs in dollars to appeal to traditional art audiences is “wrong-footed.” He said memetic language tends to prevail over softer labels. Citing Punk6529’s view, he noted that “crypto” outlasts “digital assets,” adding that “NFTs” will likely return as the default term due to token-based verification and authentication, which make the works distinct, transferable, and legible in crypto markets.
Ethereum’s documentation describes NFTs as individually unique tokens with provable scarcity, distinguishing them from fungible tokens where one unit is interchangeable with another. In practice, most on-chain NFT markets settle in native crypto assets of the chain they reside on. This is why listings and bids commonly use crypto-denominated pricing tied to wallets, signatures, and on-chain settlement rather than card rails or bank transfers.
The ERC-721 standard is Ethereum’s widely used interface for non-fungible tokens. It defines how unique token IDs are owned, transferred, and approved for marketplace activity. Because ownership and transfers are recorded on-chain, ERC-721 is a core building block for the “verified and authenticated” claim often made about NFTs: the token’s history and current owner can be checked against the chain’s state independently of any single platform.
Pal is the co-founder and CEO of Real Vision, a financial media and education platform focused on macroeconomics, investing, and digital asset markets. Real Vision describes its mission as providing members with knowledge, tools, and a network to navigate financial markets by publishing long-form interviews and research-driven content. Pal frequently comments on crypto adoption and market structure, often linking cultural narratives to how assets are priced and traded.
