A picture of the future

The new art medium also enables various creators to become NFT artists, such as illustrators and designers who are good at computer graphics.

Digital artist Yu Yang started painting on his tablet many years ago. The 43-year-old learned design at Peking University and oil painting in Hunter College in New York. He has three iPads for painting.

As one of those artists who actively embraced blockchain, he says NFTs are good for artists to guarantee their works' authenticity and validity.

Yu Yang combines traditional culture with pop culture. His series of the Chinese "door god" in hip-hop style is popular among young collectors. The youngest among his buyers is 17.

Many of his works are sold online. One of his NFTs from the series was sold at Shanghai Jiahe's auction. Apart from the digital works, he also creates physical pieces and sells them at art fairs.

A fan of Beeple, Yu Yang devoted himself to digital art when visiting New York in 2018.

After returning to China, he started to share his works on social media. Now, he has more than 310,000 followers on Sina Weibo.

"NFTs are still very new, but they have decentralized the traditional art market," says Yu Yang, adding that he does not have to sign with a gallery to sell his works.