While the cryptomarkt is preparing for turbulence in the midst of the tariff wars, the NFT market seems to be in a worse position.
Trade volumes are falling and the market are closed.
The once hyped world of non-fungal tokens, which analysts once projected courageously, were able to be bothered by more than $ 264 billion in 2032. Weekly trading volumes have been descending for weeks like domino’s, scare capital and drag the market back to levels that are no longer seen since the explosive debut of 2020.
Art NFTS Annual Trade Volume and Sales Count Source: D -appadar
Blockchain -analyzed company Dapradar shows that trade volumes reached high reason in 2021 and reached almost $ 3 billion.
Fast-Forward to the first quarter of 2025. That figure has set 93% to just $ 23.8 million because “active traders have disappeared”, noted Blockchain analyst Sara Ghaghelas.
“This rapid growth fell together with global shifts driven by the COVID-19 Pandemie, which accelerates the acceptance of digital platforms and artists are pushed to explore innovative methods to come into contact with their audience. Three years later, however, three years later the Hype around Art NFTs decreased considerably.”
Sara Ghaghelas
The data supports her. In 2024, the trade volume fell by almost 20% compared to the year before, while the total turnover fell by 18%. As Ghaghelas placed it in her research from 2025, it was “one of the worst performing years since 2020.”
Still speculative assets
In an interview with Crypto.news, the legal officer of OutetPR Alice Frei implied that regulations are still a mess, because “governments are still undisputed about classifying NFTs.”
In the US they are often treated as effects, which means that platforms must run with a legal cord. In the UK they are seen more as collective objects under intellectual property law.
“These are examples of leading countries with clear cryptocurrency regulations; in many other countries, the situation is even more uncertain. This lack of regulatory clarity creates an environment that is ripe for fraud and the trust of investors. Until there is more consistency, the acceptance of NFT continues to stagnate.”
Alice Frei
Frei also emphasized a deeper problem: outside the worlds of cryptocurrency and gaming, NFTs are still trying to prove that they offer real value. “
“In theory they can bring about a revolution in different industries – think of concert tickets that scalper, prevent digital IDs for online verification or ownership deed stored on the blockchain. But in practice most NFTs are still largely speculative assets.”
Alice Frei
Speaking of gaming, where NFTs have the most potential for mainstream, their adoption is also struggling, Frei noted, reminded that Ubisoft’s project Quartz, an attempt to integrate NFTs into AAA games, was investigated with “resistance of players, who prolonged the company to close it.”
Frei notes that gamers are “hesitant about digital assets that feel more like currency than a real addition to their experience.”
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Revolving door
If the data was not already gloomy, March brought more bad news: a series of shutdowns from the Marktplaats added fuel to the fire. Among them, the South Korean Tech giant LG closed his LG Art Lab, which was launched only three years ago at the peak of the NFT mania. The company has not shared detailed reasons and only said that “it is the right time to shift our focus and to explore new opportunities.”
Only a week later X2Y2 – a former OpenSea rival who once had a lifelong volume of $ 5.6 billion – also stopped his activities, with a “90% contraction of NFT -trading volume from his peak in 2021” and is struggling to remain competitive in space.
Then came Bybit. The crypto exchange, which is still faltering of a theft of $ 1.46 billion linked to North Korea-Lied Hackers, quietly closed his platform.
Emily Bao, head of Web3 at Bybit, said that the decision would enable the company to “improve the overall user experience, while concentrating on the next generation of blockchain-driven solutions.”
In the midst of the wave of closures, Frei says that the NFT market now ‘feels like a revolving door’.
“Take, for example, the bored Ape Yacht Club-Zodra The highlight of the NFT status, prices have fallen dramatically. At the height a single bored monkey are sold for $ 400,000, but now some are hardly $ 50,000. The problem lies in the fact that many NFT projects are dependent on.”
Alice Frei
Last hope
Coinbase also seems to be withdrawn. Although it has not officially closed its NFT platform, all signs suggest that the shifting focus is. During a profit call in early 2023, President and COO Emilie Choi indicated that the company sees ‘medium and long -term opportunities’ in NFTs. But the real focus seems to be behind the base, the Layer-2 blockchain network.
Coinbase refused to comment on its position as the NFT activity continues to fall, despite several requests from crypto.news.
The legal officer of OutSetPR thinks that with the current trajectory of the market, smaller platforms will probably pass the storm through the storm. “Smaller platforms will stand still, leaving only a few dominant players such as OpenSea and fading,” she said.
She explained that the shift is driven by two major forces. Firstly, there are stricter regulations on the horizon, which will probably put an end to the “Wild West days of NFTs”. Secondly, the NFTS game sector can offer a lifeline – but it is still a narrow one. As Frei says, Gaming can be the ‘last hope’ of NFTS, although developers still have to avoid ‘pay-to-win mechanics that players can show away’.
“The hype is over. If NFTs have to survive, they must prove that they offer more than just expensive photos on the blockchain,” Frei concluded.
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