“NFTs are for money laundering” is the new “Cryptocurrency is for illicit dark web transactions” – You’ve become everything you hate.

It’s true that the use for NFTs is, as of now, largely confined to novelties. JPEGs of which an identical copy is available for free being bought for hundreds of thousands of dollars really does seem silly. But this attitude is just as dismissive as many had in the earlier days of cryptocurrency.

The NFT is still new technology and social phenomenon. It’s not surprising or historically unprecedented that it is still a toy in the playground of the wealthy. Nor is it surprising or historically unprecedented that the wealthy are using new technology as a toy.

More practical uses for NFTs are being developed and will be developed.

Additionally, NFTs are currently inextricably linked to cryptocurrency as a whole and are, as far as I know, purchased almost exclusively with cryptocurrency. They are also making some of the biggest news in cryptocurrency lately. This “NFT = money laundering” discourse is implicitly “cryptocurrency = money laundering”, and I don’t think that’s a line of thought we want to push at this time.