I don't think it's appropriate to suggest that a newbie goes straight into NFT, because NFT is something new that may still lack a method to research what kind of NFT he should buy in order to have value in the future.

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For OP, the altcoin suggestions given are quite good, they have a large market and a fairly strong community, except for AXS which is still relatively new, but the adoption of AXS games is already quite popular, it should be an alternative for your colleagues. However, always remind him, about risk management of his investments, if he already have experience in trading, maybe you don't need to do this.