Questioning the Legitimacy of NFT: A Study on Public Engagement in Indonesia

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) as a new entity and social construction in the blockchain ecosystem has been widely discussed recently and is still little researched. Our study seeks to understand how the public can accept and engage with NFT. We use institutional theory and legitimacy theory to explain how these entities can be formed, accepted, and influence people’s behavior patterns to explain this phenomenon. This study identifies three distinct types of legitimacy in order to analyze the public’s perception of NFT. This study will investigate the Indonesian public’s engagement with NFT. Data is collected from people involved in the NFT project and those who have bought or sold this entity. The results show that the public engages with NFT entities because of their pragmatic and cognitive preference for NFT. They tend to want quick profits and make quick decisions in investing. They also tend to understand the benefits of blockchain technology. This study also provides findings that the image of crypto companies can affect the process of public engagement on NFT. When the image of a crypto company is high, the relationship between legitimacy and engagement will increase. Still, at a certain point, when the public has known the crypto company, the relationship between legitimacy and engagement is not stronger than before.