The Current Meta
September 2019 sits at an inflection point in the non-fungible token ecosystem. While the broader cryptocurrency market has settled into a period of consolidation — Bitcoin trades at $10,178 and Ethereum at $178.73 — the infrastructure underpinning digital collectibles is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. The emergence of the ERC-1155 token standard and the concurrent expansion of marketplace support for this technology is reshaping how developers and collectors think about digital asset ownership.
The dominant narrative in crypto throughout 2019 has centered on institutional adoption, regulatory clarity, and the ongoing quest for a Bitcoin ETF. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton told CNBC on September 11 that “progress is being made” toward approving a Bitcoin ETF, while acknowledging the issues surrounding market surveillance and custody are “not trivial.” But beneath these headline-grabbing stories, a parallel revolution in token standards and marketplace design is gathering momentum.
Volume and Floor Dynamics
The NFT market in 2019 remains a fraction of what it will become, but the signals of growth are unmistakable. OpenSea, the dominant marketplace for crypto collectibles, announced support for ERC-1155 tokens in September 2019, signaling a shift toward more efficient token standards. Meanwhile, Enjin launched its own dedicated marketplace with a 2.5% transaction fee structure, backed by an integrated ecosystem that includes the EnjinX explorer and Enjin mobile wallet.
The practical implications of ERC-1155 adoption are substantial for trading dynamics. Unlike ERC-721 tokens, which require individual transactions for each asset transfer, ERC-1155 enables batch operations — multiple assets can be moved in a single transaction. For traders and collectors managing diverse portfolios of digital items across multiple games and applications, this translates directly into lower gas costs and faster execution. The standard also supports both fungible and non-fungible tokens within a single smart contract, eliminating the need for developers to deploy separate contracts for different asset types.
The launch giveaway of over 4,000 items backed by 30,000 ENJ tokens, worth approximately $1,800 at September 2019 prices, demonstrated the market-making potential of incentivized liquidity. Each item carries intrinsic ENJ value that can be recovered by melting the asset, establishing a novel price floor mechanism unique to the Enjin ecosystem.
Community Sentiment
The blockchain gaming community has responded enthusiastically to the marketplace evolution. Developers across dozens of games in the Enjin ecosystem now have a ready-made secondary market for their in-game assets. The QR-code-based transaction flow — browse on web, transact via mobile wallet — represents a significant UX improvement over the often clunky interfaces of early NFT platforms.
Beyond Enjin, the broader sentiment in the NFT space in September 2019 is one of cautious optimism. Investment data paints a picture of a sector experiencing a funding cooldown: total blockchain and cryptocurrency investment reached $7.5 billion in 2018 but was projected to decline in 2019, with only four deals exceeding $50 million completed in the first half of the year compared to 16 such deals in all of 2018. Yet this institutional pullback has not slowed developer activity. The number of active NFT projects continues to grow, spanning gaming, digital art, virtual real estate, and domain names.
The contrast between declining venture capital and continued grassroots development is telling. It suggests that the NFT ecosystem, while still small, is driven less by speculative capital and more by genuine utility and community engagement. Projects like CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, Decentraland, and the growing roster of Enjin-powered games are building real user bases rather than chasing hype cycles.
The Next Evolution
Several trends emerging in September 2019 point toward the future trajectory of NFTs. The adoption of ERC-1155 by both Enjin and OpenSea signals that the market is moving toward more efficient, multi-asset token standards. The concept of backed value — where NFTs have inherent worth through embedded cryptocurrency — pioneered by Enjin could become a standard feature of digital collectibles.
The integration of marketplace, wallet, and explorer functionality into a unified ecosystem also previews the direction of NFT platform development. As the user experience improves and transaction costs decrease through better token standards, the barriers to entry for mainstream collectors and gamers continue to fall. The 2.5% marketplace fee, now standardized across both OpenSea and Enjin, establishes a competitive benchmark that future platforms will need to match or beat.
Meanwhile, the expansion of NFT use cases beyond gaming — into digital art, virtual land, identity, and decentralized finance — is creating a more diversified market less dependent on any single application. The foundational infrastructure being built in late 2019 is positioning the NFT ecosystem for significant growth as market conditions improve.
Investor Takeaway
For those watching the NFT space from an investment perspective, September 2019 represents a moment of quiet accumulation. The infrastructure being deployed — ERC-1155 marketplaces, integrated wallet solutions, ENJ-backed value guarantees — will serve as the backbone of the digital collectibles economy. With blockchain investment declining but developer activity holding steady, the projects building real utility during this bear market lull are likely to emerge strongest when conditions turn favorable.
The convergence of improved token standards, lower transaction costs, and growing developer adoption creates a compelling foundation for the next phase of NFT growth. While the explosive growth that will define 2021 remains more than a year away, the seeds planted in September 2019 — from Enjin’s marketplace to OpenSea’s ERC-1155 support — are already taking root in fertile ground.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
ERC-1155 was the real upgrade nobody talks about. batch transfers alone saved so much gas on gaming items
the Enjin team was pushing 1155 hard back then, they saw the gaming use case way before anyone else
spot on about Enjin seeing the gaming use case first. their Minecraft plugin in 2019 was actually functional, nobody else was shipping anything real at that point
gatekeep_ the Enjin Minecraft plugin was ahead of its time. problem was Minecraft players dont wanna buy NFTs they just wanna build stuff
batch transfers were clutch for gaming items but the real sleeper feature was the semi-fungible token type. one contract handling fungible + non-fungible simplified deployment costs massively
batch transfers were the real innovation here. ERC-721 forced you to do one transaction per token which was absurd for gaming inventories
0xTokenNerd batch transfers alone justified ERC-1155 for gaming. the gas savings on inventory operations were massive compared to individual 721 transfers
funny reading this now knowing OpenSea would do billions in volume two years later. $10k ETH and people were bored
Enjin had the right idea pushing gaming NFTs early. The problem was every game they built had like 200 active players. The tech was solid, the ecosystem wasnt
Mika Torni Enjin had 200 players because the Minecraft crowd doesnt care about tokenized items. they just wanna build and play, the NFT angle added friction
ERC-1155 launching and OpenSea still doing 10k in volume. nobody in 2019 could predict the 2021 NFT explosion was coming. the infrastructure was ready before the demand