It's already 2026. Who is still playing with NFTs?

Author: Nancy, PANews

It’s 2026, and the story of NFTs should have long been over.
Once sold for astronomical prices, most NFTs have now become unnoticed small images; many NFT projects are struggling to transition, sell, or shut down amid waves of rebranding and closures; the once-top-tier event NFT Paris also recently announced its discontinuation, even falling into refund disputes.
During consecutive years of downturn, with hot money retreating and narratives failing, “NFT is dead” seems to have become a market consensus.
However, in the week of 2026, the NFT market surprisingly shows signs of recovery, with prices rising and trading volume increasing. Has NFT really come back? What are the remaining players still in the game playing now?
New Year’s Kickoff, Price Surge “Like a Different World”
Entering 2026, the long-dormant NFT market finally stirs with a long-awaited ripple.
According to CoinGecko data, since the beginning of 2026, the overall market cap of NFTs has increased by over $220 million in the past week. NFT Price Floor data further shows that in the past week, hundreds of NFT projects experienced price rebounds, with some projects even recording three- to four-digit gains. For players who have endured years of decline, their illusions have long been shattered; this market movement feels like a different world.

Although this is only a drop in the bucket compared to historical highs, compared to the freezing point at the end of 2025, the long-lost green market is enough to bring some comfort to steadfast players.
However, behind the price increase, the current market warming appears more like a game of existing capital within a very small range, rather than a true recovery driven by incremental funds. The extreme lack of liquidity is a fatal flaw the market cannot ignore.
From weekly trading volume, among over 1,700 NFT projects, only 6 have transaction volumes reaching the million-dollar level, 14 projects have volumes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and only 72 are in the tens of thousands. Overall, very scarce. Even top projects with higher trading volumes have only a single-digit percentage of active NFTs relative to total supply, with most NFTs trading in single digits or even zero.

In fact, The Block’s 2025 report also shows that the NFT market throughout the year did not see strong re-entry capital, with speculative enthusiasm cooling significantly, and the multi-chain proliferation returning to Ethereum dominance. The total transaction volume for the year dropped to $5.5 billion, a decrease of about 37% compared to 2024; the total market cap shrank sharply from about $9 billion to approximately $2.4 billion.
These data indicate that the so-called rebound has not changed the fact that NFTs have long cooled off. Today’s NFTs have long become “old assets,” only held by veteran players, while new capital has long ceased to buy in.
The Great Escape and Survival Stories, Capital Flows into New Battles
In this long winter wave, from infrastructure to blue-chip projects, various survival stories are unfolding.
For example, leading marketplace OpenSea no longer insists on JPEG images but is transforming into token trading through airdrops; the once-mainstream NFT chain Flow is exploring DeFi growth points; Zora abandons traditional NFT models and shifts toward “content as tokens”; even the iconic NFT Paris event has run out of funds and was reported to have been abandoned.
Even among the remaining top-tier NFTs with some vitality, they are caught in a “praise but no audience” dilemma, where brand influence has not translated into a price moat. For example, Pudgy Penguins successfully built IP awareness in mainstream circles and sold physical toys hotly, but still cannot escape the downward pressure on floor and token prices.
Furthermore, the cessation of NFT services by Reddit, Nike’s sale of its RTFKT brand, and the departure of Web2 giants have further shattered the last illusions of mainstream adoption.
But the decline of NFTs does not mean the disappearance of collecting and speculative demand; capital has just shifted to a new battlefield. Compared to virtual images on-chain, off-chain markets like collectibles and trading cards are still hotly traded, for example, Pokémon TCG trading volume exceeds $1 billion, with revenue over $100 million.
Not only ordinary collectors but also crypto elites are starting to vote with their feet, returning to physical assets and top collectibles.
For example, crypto artist Beeple turned his attention to physical robot creations, with celebrity robot dogs like Elon Musk’s being sold out; Wintermute co-founder Yoann Turpin invested $5 million in buying dinosaur fossils; Animoca founder Yat Siu spent $9 million on a Stradivarius violin.
In the current market environment, ordinary investors need to face the reality of NFT liquidity exhaustion.
Farewell to the Small Image Logic, These NFTs Are More Popular
After the bubble burst, the NFT market is not in a complete capital drought but is flowing toward targets with high profit-loss ratios or clear value support.
· Speculation and arbitrage demand: Some players believe the market has bottomed out, engaging in short-term trading by capturing price mismatches, which offers high risk-reward.
· “Golden Shovel” attribute: These are the NFTs with the highest market participation and liquidity at this stage. Essentially, these NFTs are no longer collectibles but financial certificates for future airdrops, mostly meaning access to airdrops/whitelist privileges. However, expectations are bearish once snapshots are completed or airdrops are distributed; if project teams do not empower NFTs with new utility, floor prices often plummet rapidly or even drop to zero. Therefore, these NFTs are more suitable as short-term investment or arbitrage tools rather than long-term value storage.
· Celebrity/Top Project Endorsements: The value of these NFTs relies on attention economy. Endorsements by celebrities or top projects can significantly boost visibility and liquidity, creating short-term premiums. For example, the top DEX HyperLiquid previously airdropped a series of NFTs called Hypurr, which has been rising steadily; Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently changed his avatar to a Milady NFT, and its floor price has noticeably increased.
· Top IP: These NFTs have moved beyond simple hype, with investment logic leaning toward cultural recognition and collection value, making them relatively anti-dip and suitable for long-term value storage. For example, CryptoPunks, which was officially added to the permanent collection of MoMA in New York last year.
· Acquisition narratives: When projects are acquired by stronger capital, the market re-prices, expecting their IP monetization ability and brand moat to strengthen, thus pushing prices upward. For example, Pudgy Penguins and Moonbirds saw significant price increases after being acquired.
· Real-world asset integration: By tokenizing real assets on-chain, NFTs can gain tangible value support, reduce downside risk, and enhance outside-market appeal. For example, recently popularized Pokémon card tokenization platforms like Collector Crypt and Courtyard allow users to trade ownership of cards/items on-chain, with physical items stored by the platform.
· Practical functions: NFTs returning to tool roles, serving specific application scenarios such as ticketing, DAO voting rights, AI on-chain identities (e.g., Ethereum ERC-8004’s NFT-based AI agent identities).
From this perspective, compared to chasing meaningless small images, NFTs with practical utility or clear upward potential are gradually becoming the focus of capital attention.