Speculation killed NFTs, utility will bring it back
As a long-term enthusiast of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), I've always held a strong opinion that the value of NFTs lies where the market has rarely looked.
When you look at NFT stats, all you see are projects whose entire brand identity is tied to issuing "rare NFTs with good vibes, inclusivity and positivity."
There's not much else to their existence and usually, whenever there's more specified, they are often things one cannot truly track their applicability or value.
This is a problem.
Over the past 30 days, there's reportedly been over $320 million in NFT trading volume and realities of these projects suggests that trading activities are mostly speculative or simply wash trading.
The sad part is that as significant as this number would seem to someone new to this ecosystem, this is actually poor performance.
The NFT market has recently been reported to have fallen to pre-hype valuation of 2021.
The global non-fungible token (NFT) sector fell below $1.5 billion in total market capitalization, returning to levels last seen before the sector’s rapid expansion in 2021.
The market reset has been compounded by a growing imbalance between NFT supply and buyer demand.
CryptoSlam data showed that the number of NFTs in circulation rose to nearly 1.3 billion in 2025, up by 25% compared to 2024. Total NFT sales fell 37% year-over-year to $5.6 billion, while average sale prices slipped below $100. — Cointelegraph report
High profile names like Nike, Nifty Gateway, and social NFT platform Rodeo, are reportedly pulling out of the market.
Footwear conglomerate Nike has quietly offloaded RTFKT, the digital collectibles studio it acquired at the height of the non-fungible token (NFT) boom, according to a report by The Oregonian.
This was reported early January.
Nifty Gateway, one of the earliest and most recognizable NFT marketplaces, is set to shut down operations next month, marking another high-profile exit amid the sector’s prolonged downturn.
This was reported on 25th January, and Rodeo announced closing down three days later.
The reason these businesses are closing down and web3 brands pulling out of the NFT market is because it was never built on any sustainable system.
It has always been speculation-driven and as far are financial products go, speculation-based trading fades away as quickly as it comes.
At the peak of NFT hype, anyone who's been here knows that most trades that NFT projects attracted were simply from traders who were hoping to sell their collectibles quickly after purchase for a profit.
The game was built on the idea of hunting drops to sell to the next sucker, no skin in the game and you cannot blame any of them because these projects never launched with anything worth holding onto.
That said, while I believe there will always be a market for NFT projects that lean into finance/investment based solutions or products, the future of NFTs really lies on utility across industries where non-fungibility solves a problem or increases value.
The product (and it's value effectively) is the tech, not the jpeg.
Posted Using INLEO