When's the last time you've seen somebody with a handle that ends in .nft or .eth? Not recently, is my guess.

You've probably noticed the trend. Or more accurately a shift in trend.

Between late 2021 and 2023, it seemed like everyone and their dog changed their handle, especially on Twitter (when it was still called Twitter) and also Instagram, to .nft or .eth.

It became a thing. And everyone was at it.

Then things changed.

These days you don't see that anymore. Aside from hardcore NFT enthusiasts and developers who won't show their faces, most nft and eth handles are gone.

Of course there are still a lot of people that do it, but nowhere near as many as there used to be.

Even a lot of crypto-focused accounts on X got rid of it.

Some of these people bought an equivalent Web3 domain to match their handle, at some point Twitter even allowed you to verify it (via the blockchain) your handle/domain.

They still own the NFT domain, but got rid of the .nft or .eth (and so on) part of the name because, wait for it, it kinda makes you look like... a fool.

I think that's the true reason. It just looks silly.

At first, it was cool, then it became so common it became dull, and now, if I see somebody with the nft in their name I'm like, "oh come off it, man".

And I know because I used to be one of those people. I changed my Instagram handle and Twitter handle to .nft, and kept it like that for a while, but then I saw people's reaction when they asked me for my Twitter or Instagram and it was clear they were thinking 'really?!'.

So yeah, that's my take.