Humans have always enjoyed collecting things, whether it's homes, or cars, or luxury handbags. We like to share the things we own with our friends. We often like to show off and flex and share the things we're proud to own. But what happens when you're better friends with someone on the other side of the world that you've never met than you own neighbor next door? That desire to own and collect things is still there, but now it just happens in a digital world. As our lives increasingly move online, it makes sense that the things we own and collect should be digital as well. The desire to be the single owner of the Charlie Bit Me video that has been enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people around the world, is the same desire that causes people to collect fine art or invest in digital cryptocurrencies.

Imagine you got into Bitcoin in 2010 and bought a few hundred dollars worth. Now that is worth more money than you could even dream about. The real question is why not buy an nft for the lulz?

I don't think that's what's happening here for the most part. Many NFTs are not even purchased with crypto, they're bought with credit cards or bank transfers on sites like NiftyGateway.