Links table
Abstract and 1 introduction
2 Methodology
3 results
3.1 cryptopunks
3.2 NFT Market
4 Discussion
5. Conclusion/statements/references
extension
A.1 Implementation details
A.2 Detailed NFT information and A.3 Google NFT search map
a summary
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTS) are non-custodial assets, usually stored on digital arts, which are stored on the blockchain. Preliminary studies find that female, darker-skinned NFTs are valued less than their male, lighter-skinned counterparts. However, these studies only analyze the cryptopunks group. We test the statistical significance of race and gender biases in the prices of cryptopunks and present the first study of gender bias in the broader NFT market. We find evidence of racial bias but not gender bias. Our work also provides a dataset of gender-labeled NFT collections to advance the broader study of social equality in this emerging market.
1. Introduction
Are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTS) selling for less than lighter NFTs? Or are female NFTs fewer than male NFTs? Egkolfopoulou and Gardner [8] Raises diversity concerns by reporting preliminary findings on price differences based on gender and race. Determining whether diversity issues exist in the NFT space at an early stage is important for raising awareness and creating change.
NFTS are tokens on the blockchain to represent ownership of a unique item. Although the item can range from music, videos, or tweets, it usually represents ownership of the art. The popularity of NFTs has boomed since 2021 as the public has become accustomed to the concept. We analyze NFTS stored on the Ethereum network [9]
Since NFTS are a new concept, the dynamics of the NFT market have not been well studied. There has been previous work on the economics of NFT focusing on commercial networks [14],The ability to predict NFT sales [14]and the risks and returns of NFT investments, [13]. Other topics of interest include how NFT Art could change the dynamics of art markets [3]how NFTS can impact game development by making art tradable [10]And how it can revolutionize digital ownership in different industries [16]. Among the studies, a specific group that has been analyzed to represent the NFT market are cryptopunks [12] [18] [6].
The Cryptopunk collection is one of the most popular NFT collections and consists of 10,000 avatars on the ethereum blockchain created by Larva Labs in 2017. They are usually credited with starting the NFT Boom in 2021 [20]. As shown in Figure 1, cryptopunks are avatars that can be used to represent oneself in the digital world and are therefore of interest when studying the problem of NFT diversity.
We are interested in whether racial bias or gender bias exists in the NFT art market. In a December 2021 Bloomberg article “Even in Meta, Not All Identities Are Created Equal,” Egkolfopoulou and Gardner [8] Graphs of sales prices of cryptopunks over time across various genders and races were examined. They found that female avatars sold for less than male avatars, and a dark-skinned avatar sold for less than lighter-skinned NFTs. However, their evidence of gender and racial biases is limited to visual inspection of Cryptopunk’s historical price charts instead. Thus, we test the statistical significance of race and gender biases in the prices of cryptopunks and present the first study examining gender bias in the broader NFT market.
Our first goal is to thoroughly analyze gender and racial biases in Cryptopunks through hypothesis testing. This will indicate whether the differences in prices are significant enough not to attribute them to random chance. We find that darker-skinned cryptopunks outsell lighter cryptopunks, but unlike the analysis in [8]The difference in crypto price for males and females was not statistically significant.
Our second goal is to extend our analysis to other groups to determine whether there are gender biases to the broader NFT market. To this end, we analyze 44 gender-tagged NFT collections and apply hypothesis testing to each collection to determine whether male-looking NFTs sell for higher prices than female ones. As in Cryptopunks, we conclude that the price difference in males and females is not statistically significant. Due to the lack of race labels, we were only able to find 3 groups to classify between light and dark skinned NFTs, analyzing that lighter NFTs sell for more than dark skinned NFTs.
