The superyacht industry is all abuzz with news relating to blockchain, cryptocurrency and, more recently, NFTs. Oceanco, the renowned superyacht builder, is the latest superyacht business to come to market with an NFT offering with a collection of NFTs designed by Timur Bozca of Bozca Design due to drop soon. However, at this juncture, it is worth exploring Oceanco’s offering in comparison to some of the different types of NFTs that have made their way into the superyacht industry.

“At Oceanco, it is important to push the industry’s boundaries and challenge ourselves to continuously grow,” comments Dr Mohammed Barwani, Chairman of Oceanco.

“Entering the world of NFTs felt like a natural progression for Oceanco and we wanted to make sure we offered something unique and exciting. Which is why we are putting fun and engagement at the heart of Superyacht NFTs. We are making the exclusive more inclusive,” adds Paris Baloumis, Group Marketing Director at Oceanco.

Perhaps the simplest way to think about NFTs is as digital assets and perhaps the purest expression of this is through NFTs being used as digital art. However, such is an NFTs ability to store data, that the digital asset could really be anything, be it music, video or otherwise. Indeed, NFTs have even started to have an impact in the physical world where ownership of an NFT denotes ownership of a physical asset. In other words, if you own the NFT, you own the superyacht.

One of the more interesting ideas to develop around NFTs, and one of the primary factors other than exclusivity to impact value, is their ability to create communities. Arguably the most well-known example of an NFT community is The Bored Ape Yacht Club, whereby owning a Bored Ape NFT, one of which sold for $2.9million, doubles up as membership to The Bored Ape Yacht Club.

To date, the owners of Bored Ape NFTs include Paris Hilton, Snoop Dog, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber and a whole host of other celebrities, entrepreneurs and tech-savvy early adopters. Through the yacht club, the Bored Ape owners gain access to the community. Bored Ape has arranged various events for owners, including a party on a superyacht, as well as having access to the community online.

It is this model of NFT that Oceanco appears to be aspiring to, as its announcement explains: “Anchored on the Ethereum blockchain, Superyacht NFTs will grant holder special access to ongoing benefits that are experienced both virtually and in the real world, working alongside like-minded partner brands to bring engaging rewards and activations to its holder community.

“Each NFT will display a unique combination of design elements, themes and settings, including some rare features to make them even more desirable. Over time, Superyacht NFT holders will be given the opportunity to boost their tokens through airdrops of collectable add-ons including supertoys and accessories. These will convey additional “money-can’t-buy” benefits to the NFT holders. A percentage of the revenues from Superyacht NFTs will be donated to charities that align with Oceanco’s drive to protect the oceans.”

One assumes that the type of buyer that would be interested in Oceanco’s Superyacht NFTs would either be a superyacht owner themselves or someone with a vested interest in the superyacht market. What is interesting about the NFT model, however, is that, aside from the obvious financial barrier, there are no barriers as to who can own an NFT and join the community. In this way, NFTs are an interesting route for engaging buyers that may not necessarily have been interested in the superyacht market previously. However, the success of this will very much be determined by the perceived value of the Superyacht NFTs and how effectively the ownership community is managed and engaged.

The superyacht industry, and indeed the world, is at an interesting juncture of its development. It has been suggested that NFTs will be one of the essential building blocks of the metaverse and through the metaverse, NFTs have the ability to evolve into extremely profound digital assets. However, the success of such projects in the superyacht community will be determined by how effectively the likes of Oceanco can create and retain value within its NFT model.

Profile links

Oceanco

Timur Bozca

Click here to become part of The Superyacht Group community, and join us in our mission to make this industry accessible to all, and prosperous for the long-term. We are offering access to the superyacht industry’s most comprehensive and longstanding archive of business-critical information, as well as a comprehensive, real-time superyacht fleet database, for just £10 per month, because we are One Industry with One Mission. Sign up here.