NFT Disruption in Platform Competition: Evidence from Trading Card Collectibles

The rise of blockchain-based platforms is reshaping how digital and physical products interact, with important consequences for platform strategy and market regulation. Evidence from the introduction of NBA Top Shot shows that digital collectibles can directly reduce prices, sales volume, and market value in adjacent physical markets, indicating a clear cannibalization effect. However, the impact is highly uneven: Physical products with close digital substitutes and low digital scarcity become especially vulnerable, whereas low-cost items in certain segments can experience market expansion as new collectors enter through digital channels. These patterns demonstrate that digital transformation alters competition not only between platforms but also across product categories, making strategic decisions around scarcity, product design, and release timing critical for firms managing multiformat ecosystems. For practice, the findings highlight the need for companies to anticipate cross-market spillovers when launching digital offerings and to manage physical and digital product lines in an integrated way. For policy, the results underscore the importance of establishing transparent standards for digital collectibles and providing clear consumer guidance, while recognizing that many NFTs function as collectible goods rather than financial securities and may warrant distinct regulatory treatment.

• 저널Information Systems Research
• 토픽Digital Platforms and Economics · Strategy and Management
• DOI10.1287/isre.2024.0829
• 저자Ioannis Filippos Kanellopoulos, Dominik Gutt, Ting Li