Counting NFTs Out? Why the Market Isn't Dead Yet—Wealthy Collectors Keep Proving Skeptics Wrong

Reports of the NFT market’s death may be greatly exaggerated. While non-fungible token sales have declined significantly from their $1 billion monthly peak in 2021/22, the sector continues to demonstrate surprising resilience, with recent trading activity reaching close to $300 million over the past 30 days. The narrative isn’t one of collapse—it’s one of maturation and consolidation around committed participants.

Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, a Web3 development and venture capital firm focused on real-world asset tokenization, offered a compelling counterargument to the “NFT is dead” chorus during his appearance at the CfC St. Moritz crypto conference. Rather than viewing current market conditions as a death knell, Siu sees a shift toward a more sustainable ecosystem powered by serious collectors and digital art enthusiasts with substantial purchasing power.

The Collector’s Case: Why Wealthy Buyers Still Show Up

The fundamental misunderstanding about NFT adoption stems from conflating speculative trading with genuine collecting. Siu draws an intriguing parallel between digital art acquisition and traditional collecting behaviors—compare it to how ultra-high-net-worth individuals collect Picasso paintings or vintage Ferraris. The psychological and social motivations remain identical; the medium simply changed from canvas and metal to blockchain-based tokens.

“I’m a collector myself, and I share similar insights with my peers in this space. It’s a community,” Siu explained. The affinity extends beyond individual purchases; collectors develop shared cultural identity and status associations tied to specific assets. Someone who owns a Bored Ape or Otherdeed NFT (representing virtual land in the Otherside 3D metaverse created by Yuga Labs) joins a distinct peer group, much like owning a Rolex or Lamborghini signals membership in particular social circles.

Notably, Siu disclosed that his own NFT portfolio has appreciated less than anticipated—down roughly 80% from peak valuations. Yet he emphasizes these were never short-term flip opportunities but rather long-term holdings. This distinction matters enormously: the remaining participants are precisely those treating NFTs as assets to hold, not liabilities to offload.

Public figures like billionaire Adam Weitsman have become visible symbols of this collector mentality, openly acquiring Otherdeed lands and Bored Apes while drawing minimal concern about temporary valuation swings. The market, in this reading, hasn’t died—it’s simply filtered out the speculators and retained the devotees.

The Numbers Game: Context Reshapes Perception

One critical perspective shift: five years ago, the NFT marketplace literally didn’t exist. Monthly sales volumes approaching $300 million represent a thriving market by any pre-2017 standard. Placing current figures against the speculative bubble of 2021/22 creates an optical illusion of market death—a case of comparing present reality to exceptional circumstances rather than to actual baseline conditions.

The original NFT wave emerged in late 2017 with Cryptokitties, demonstrating proof-of-concept for blockchain-based collectible ownership. The market subsequently evolved through development cycles, attracting institutional capital and creating more sophisticated use cases. When tokenization and digital ownership mechanisms finally matured, sales peaked in 2021/22 at over $1 billion monthly. Today’s $300 million monthly figure, while lower, occurs within a fundamentally more developed and regulated ecosystem.

Geopolitical Headwinds: Why Paris—and Europe—Abandoned the Space

The cancellation of NFT Paris, formerly a flagship sector conference, wasn’t fundamentally about NFT viability. According to Siu, the real culprit was France’s dramatic policy reversal. “France was very pro-crypto at one point, but it has completely veered away from that stance,” he observed. Regulators scrutinized projects like Sorare (a fantasy soccer gaming platform) as gambling products, implementing regulatory frameworks hostile to digital assets.

Beyond policy, France faces acute security challenges. The region experienced multiple kidnapping and abduction attempts targeting crypto executives and investors over the past year—a tangible threat that compelled even prominent industry figures like Siu himself to reconsider attending. The cancellation reflected not market weakness but rather geopolitical and security headwinds that affected the broader crypto ecosystem across Europe.

The Tokenization Thesis: Where Institutions See the Real Opportunity

BlackRock’s Larry Fink brought institutional legitimacy to the broader tokenization narrative during his recent shareholder letter. Rather than narrowly focused on NFT art, Fink positioned digital asset infrastructure as potentially transformative for global finance. Recording asset ownership on digital ledgers and utilizing regulated digital wallets could fundamentally accelerate investment issuance, trading velocity, and accessibility.

Fink framed tokenization within a macro context: addressing systemic inequality and strained public finances. By digitizing asset records and reducing friction in financial processes, institutions could democratize access to investments while maintaining regulatory safeguards around counterparty risk and investor protection.

The Real Story: Evolution, Not Extinction

The NFT narrative has been distorted by conflating a speculative excess correction with market death. The reality is more nuanced: wealthy collectors continue participating, monthly volumes remain substantial by historical standards, and the underlying blockchain infrastructure supporting NFTs has only strengthened.

Is the sector facing challenges? Absolutely. Regulatory hostility in certain jurisdictions, security concerns, and the normalization of volatility have all impacted adoption patterns. But “challenged” and “dead” represent fundamentally different conclusions. The data on the blockchain tells a story of survival, adaptation, and institutional acknowledgment—not extinction.