Many people believe that NFTs are finished but I don't think we are even close to the death of NFTs. And to be honest they do look dead currently and the headline grabbing mania has fizzled out. However, the tech that makes these one of a kind digital proof of ownership has remained extremely useful. In this article, I want to cut through the hype and show real use cases that are already creating value for NFTs. Let us dig in!
The boom that fizzled out
The initial NFT boom was very spectacular and it was largely driven by speculation not value. This created a bubble that inevitably burst. Many projects offered little to no real world value and this left investors holding assets that are worth a fraction of their purchase prices. Today you have NFTs that were worth thousands at their ATH being valued at a few dollars.
The other problem was that the NFT market was saturated with low effort copies and a wave of rug pulls that eroded the trust of the investors. When this was coupled with a shifting global economy, the speculative frenzy fizzled down and left many to declare the death of NFts as digital assets. However, I believe that this hangover was a necessary correction that cleared noise, and paved the way for builders to focus on real world utility. This resulted in the new version of NFTs that seek to bring real world value.
Real use cases of NFTs
Most of the current version of NFTs has several use cases that provide real value.
True digital ownership and economies in gaming
Nowadays, NFTs have become an integral part of gaming economies and experience. Some of these NFTs allow players to truly own their ingame items, and move them between market places or use them across games. This unlocks real economic values rather than locked platform inventory. The good thing is that players can sell these in game assets for real money or to buy better ones. If I remember correctly, Web 2 games like COD prohibited real world monetary sales on game assets and you would be banned if found out. However, there is one thing that I love about game NFTs, it's that if you win them in game, or buy them, they are yours to do with what you please.
A real example is that of the Axie Infinity game. This game proved a model where players earned tokens and sold NFT characters. As a result of this, the game had a massive real world impact. There are also other recent projects and Solana based games which have shown healthier and sustainable models that focus on sustainability and utility not speculative minting. It is also important to note that NFT gaming volumes and integrated token economies keep attracting the attention of developers.
Now, this model is very easy to scale because when game studios design items that can be rented, collateralized or cross used, rare desirable NFTs become revenue engines and collectible assets with long term secondary market value.
Real world asset tokenisation and financial infrastructure
With the current real world asset tokenisation boom, I can say that NFTs have found a way into utility value. The thing is that NFTs can be used to represent the ownership of real world assets like fractionalised real estate, rare physical collectibles or legally backed shares of artwork. This has been well received in the financial markets as it allows high value assets to be liquid and tradable without selling the whole asset. Imagine a fractional share of the Mona Lisa that you can trade.
Currently there is a growing number of NFT lending platforms that now let owners to use blue chip NFTs as collateral. In addition, CoinGecko data shows that NFT lending volumes have been hitting record levels, proving markets are building real financial rails around NFTs. There is some academic work and projects working at securitization and fractional ownership to improve liquidity and governance of real world assets and NFTs.
This model of NFTs will easily scale because institutional tools like custody, compliant tokenisation and lender-markets will turn NFTs from speculative images into programmable ownership vehicles. In this case, the original form of the market will matter less than the enforceable rights and liquidity attached to it.
Use for identity, access and membership
In the many recent offerings, some projects are trying to use NFTs for identity, access and membership. NFTs are perfect as tamper proof digital credentials. They have real utility use in things like event tickets, concert VIP passes, membership keys, certifications and even in digital passports for virtual worlds. Now, imagine the current issue with universities needing verification of your other qualifications from other universities and the hustle you may have to undertake for the verification process. You would not understand this struggle if you are not from a third world country in a UK university. Now, if every certificate for each year would have been tokenised wouldn't it be easier to verify it on the blockchain for authenticity?
A real example is that of brands and luxury houses that use phygital NFTs to tie a digital token to a physical good or exclusive access. This fashion industry experiment shows NFTs as membership proof and backstage passes, not mere collectables based on speculations. When an NFT grants access to services, IP rights or ongoing revenue streams, it retains growth and value.
It is these utility driven NFTs that reduce speculation because value comes from services and rights the token reliably unlocks.
Utility over hype
While the speculative frenzy of 2021 might be a distant memory, the underlying technology is now dead and obsolete. So, if you ask me, are NFTs dead? I will tell you that they are not dead, it's the speculative ones and their speculative technology that died. The market correction was very brutal but it helped in weeding out hype and exposing real projects with real utility value.
As the blockchain networks become more scalable and transaction fees decrease,, especially for Ethereum networks, the real world applications of NFTs become more accessible and practical. The future of NFTs is not about hype or speculation, it is about their ability to provide verifiable ownership, streamline processes and unlock new forms of value across diverse industries. The hype of the digital art industry died, now it's the age of utility and value.
However, not every created NFT will be valuable. Data shows that most collections are inactive or illiquid. This means that if you invest in the wrong project, you will be trapped with useless digital art. So, before you invest, vet teams, roadmap realism and onchain utility of any NFT. And lastly, scams and poor metadata practices are real problems, real utility requires regulatory clarity and robust infrastructure for storage, custody and governance.
Final thoughts and conclusion
I don't think NFTs are dead, instead, I think that they are matured. What we had before were JPEGs in a speculative circus, yes people made money but the system was not sustainable. On the other hand, gaming economies, tokenised real world assets and utility first identity/membership NFTs are built on durable value. If you really want to find NFTs that would be worth something for a long time, better look for enforceable rights, real world integration and products that people use everyday, not shiny airdrops or hype.
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References
Cointelegraph — “NFT market rally” coverage and market analysis. https://cointelegraph.com/news/nft-market-rally-cryptopunks-penguins-surge-2025 (cointelegraph.com)
CoinGecko — NFT market pages and NFT lending report. https://www.coingecko.com/en/nft and NFT lending Q1 data. (coingecko.com)
Investopedia — Axie Infinity explainer and its real-world effects. https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-axie-infinity-5220657 (investopedia.com)
Alchemy overview — Solana NFT and gaming projects (examples like STEPN). https://www.alchemy.com/overviews/solana-nft-collections (alchemy.com)
Vogue Business — fashion “phygital” NFTs and real brand experiments. https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/the-vogue-business-nft-tracker (voguebusiness.com)
