What happened
Shares of Jiayin Group (NASDAQ: JFIN), Takung Art (NYSE: TKAT), and Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co. (NASDAQ: HOFV) are all flying today on news and speculation related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Shares of the Chinese fintech Jiayin had nearly doubled today as of 11 a.m. EDT. Shares of the Hong Kong-based digital art trading platform Takung Art continued its impressive multiday run. The company had risen more than 23% as of noon today and is up more than 600% in the last five days.
Shares of the Ohio-based NFL entertainment and resort franchise Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co. had at one point this morning climbed nearly 20%.
So what
Shares of all three of these companies, some of which are completely unrelated to one another, all appear to be rising on news or speculation regarding NFTs. For those of you that don't know, NFTs are digital files such as art, video, audio, and other files stored on blockchain, which is the digital ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Some NFTs have already sold for millions of dollars.
Interestingly, Takung Art is the only one of these companies directly involved with NFTs. It's a digital art trading platform that has seen its stock price soar from less than $4 per share five days ago to more than $27 per share today. This explosive run began around the same time a digital piece of art recently sold for nearly $70 million last week.
Image source: Getty Images.
As for Jiayin and Hall of Fame, the surge in stock prices seems to be more linked to speculation that the two companies may eventually jump into the NFT space.
Jiayin is an online individual loan marketplace that seeks to reach underserved customers in China. However, recent buzz on Twitter has people saying the company could potentially get into the NFT space, although there is no real news pointing to that right now.
Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment seeks to create football-themed resort and entertainment experiences. Again, there is no formal news about the company getting into NFT, but there's certainly a buzz on Twitter.
Now what
The hype and potential around NFT is certainly at an all-time high and eerily reminiscent of when cryptocurrencies, which are also powered by blockchain, first gained mass popularity several years ago.
But the only one of these companies currently working in the NFT space is Takung. I could certainly see Hall of Fame potentially getting involved. The NBA has already launched its own NFTs through digital trading cards on the platform NBA Top Shot. I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL follows suit, although there is no indication that Hall of Fame would lead the charge on this.
I would advise caution on anything related to NFTs. While they certainly have taken off in recent months, we are still in very days where the market for these assets will likely remain extremely volatile for quite some time.
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