Honestly, rumors of NFT death are greatly exaggerated. Yes, the market went through hell — prices dropped, projects shut down, even the legendary NFT Paris gave up. But here’s the paradox: at the beginning of 2026, the market suddenly revived. In a week, capitalization grew by $220 million, hundreds of projects showed green candles. Is this really a recovery for NFTs or just a speculative bounce? Let’s figure it out.

The problem is that it looks more like a game of existing money within narrow limits than a true revival. Liquidity is simply dead. Out of more than 1,700 projects, only 6 reached a trading volume of a million dollars in a week. Most trade in the tens of thousands range or not at all. A report by The Block showed that in 2025, volumes fell to $5.5 billion — 37% below 2024 — and market capitalization shrank from $9 billion to $2.4 billion. NFTs have long become an asset for old-timers — the old players hold positions, new money isn’t flowing in.

Meanwhile, capital just migrated. OpenSea now pushes tokens instead of JPEG images. Flow is seeking salvation in DeFi. Zora has fully shifted to content tokens. Even crypto artists like Beeple switched to robots, and crypto elites began buying physical assets — Wintermute invested $50 million in dinosaurs, the founder of Animoca spent $9 million on a Stradivarius violin, Sun Yuchen bought a banana for $6.2 million. Collectible demand hasn’t disappeared; it’s just moved into the physical realm.

So will NFTs recover? It seems the future belongs to NFTs with real value. There’s still speculative demand — people buy at the bottom hoping for a bounce. There are ‘golden shovels’ — NFTs that give access to airdrops and whitelists, but these are short-term games. When the snapshot is taken, the price often drops to zero.

Truly, a few categories hold their value. First, top IP like CryptoPunks — they are already part of the MoMA permanent collection, real assets with cultural value. Second, NFTs with functions — tickets, voting rights in DAOs, identities for AI agents. Third, real assets on the blockchain. Platforms like Collector Crypt and Courtyard tokenize Pokémon cards, allowing trading of rights while physical items are stored in safes. It works.

Finally, there’s the narrative of acquisition — when a strong investor buys a project, the market re-evaluates its valuation. Pudgy Penguins and Moonbirds grew exactly this way. Vitalik Buterin recently changed his avatar to Milady, and the price soared.

The simple conclusion: the era of pointless small pictures is over. NFTs with real utility, clear value, or cultural status — that’s where the money is going. NFT recovery is happening, but it’s a completely different market than before.