In yesterday’s post I shared how I often use AI to generate header images for my posts and Cryptonator quite rightly pointed out that such images have “no soul”. I agreed and I said that my collection of Non-NFT artwork (done on Microsoft Paint) had more soul than a lot of what AI produces.

Anyway this got me wondering. Back about five years ago there was a lot of hype about NFTs and I never bought into it and at least in part because much of what I was seeing was the heavily pixelated images that a five year old could come up with.

I rather suspected it was nothing but hype – a fad, a passing phase and that it’d only be a matter of time before it burst and sure enough I was right (I don’t get to say that too often in the crypto-verse – so let me enjoy the moment). The burst when it happened (2022-23) came down to a number of factors including the market being swamped by what could be called low‑effort projects (there’s my heavily pixelated images for you!). Furthermore  with the collapse of play‑to‑earn tokenomics, a broader crypto bear market and regulatory uncertainty there was little chance of them taking of sustainably and inevitably there followed a loss of retail interest By 2024, most PFP (profile picture) projects were worth almost nothing, with only a few blue‑chips retaining value.

However, certain NFTs have managed to hold value in 2026 and while most mid‑tier and low‑tier art NFTs have largely collapsed some digital art & collectibles have continued not only to survive, but to thrive. Blue‑chip collections such as BAYC, CryptoPunks, Azuki, Art Blocks still hold strong floor prices and there has been a massive growth in  gaming NFTs, largely because they are tied into real in‑game utility (weapons, skins, land, characters) with games like Illuvium, Parallel, Pixels dominate trading volume. In fact in 2026  gaming accounts for ~25% of all NFT volume.

As seems to be the magic characteristic across the whole cryptoverse, there is a need for anything to have representative value when comes to them becoming Real‑World Assets (RWA) & Tokenised Property. Significant growth areas include Real estate (Propy(, tokenised invoices (Centrifuge) and luxury goods authentication, all of which are legally recognised and institutionally adopted.  Corresponding  with this NFTs are increasingly being used for ownership verification, licensing, royalties, and on‑chain commerce.

So here we are in 2026, with the total NFT market cap standing at ~$28–$32B, or about 80% of its ~$40B+ with an expectation of it reaching ~$46.3B later this year with a projected growth trajectory that will see it potentially reach $60B by 2030.

So, while they are not dead, it is fair to say that while the market is smaller than it ever was at its peak it has evolved into something far healthier and more utility‑driven. They are no longer what some analyists have called “expensive JPEGs” (I like this as it very much aligns with my personal view on them) to programmable digital property rights:

NFTs have broadly failed to live up their hype concerning 2021‑era PFP collections and especially those that called be defined as low‑effort art and aimed at speculative play‑to‑earn projects. With evolution though NFTS do have a place when it comes to blue‑chip art, gaming assets, tokenised real‑world assets, identity and membership and innovative digital rights infrastructure.

When it comes down to it NFTs that have any value have to have real world utility and not be seen as something speculative. In the latter they are worse than MemeCoins that hold no intrinsic value.

Despite what I have uncovered today, I still wouldn’t touch an NFT and while you should always DYOR, I wouldn’t recommend them to anybody else either.

As always stay safe and well my friends.