Former RBC economist turned NFT enthusiast joins digital sector

Andrew Agopsowicz, a former economist at Royal Bank of Canada, has moved to a non-fungible token company as a researcher, making him one of the country’s first bank analysts to join the sector.

Andrew Agopsowicz, a former economist at Royal Bank of Canada, has moved to a non-fungible token company as a researcher, making him one of the country’s first bank analysts to join the sector.

Agopsowicz left Canada’s largest lender in October to join nameless, a firm that provides software to help consumers launch and sell NFTs. He’ll be tasked with writing up market commentary and analysis of the industry, he said in an interview. nameless is a subsidiary of nft42, an NFT platform that has attracted big name investors like Mark Cuban and Marc Benioff. 

“I’ll be looking at specific pricing models and understanding the economics of pricing and selling specific NFTs, on a case-by-case basis,” he said by phone.

NFTs, which rely on block-chain technology, have been around for nearly a decade, but have taken off in recent months as interest in digital assets has soared.

At RBC, Agopsowicz was well-known for his research on immigration and its impact on the Canadian economy, as well as his insight on labor market and demographic trends. Prior to joining RBC, Agopsowicz was a senior economist at the Bank of Canada. 

Agopsowicz said he first became involved in NFTs last year when he began collecting digital artwork and discovered how little publicly available information there is on the state of the digital marketplace.  He said he pitched the position to nft42 Chief Executive Jim McNelis via Twitter.