NFTs Aren't Dead, They're Just Shedding Their Corporate Skin

Okay, let's be real. You’ve probably seen the headlines: "NFTs are OVER!" "Brands are BAILING!" "The bubble BURST!" Everyone's doing the "told you so" dance. And sure, when you look at it on the surface it does look bad. Nike, Starbucks, hell even GameStop – they’re all high-tailing it back to the hills, tails tucked between their legs. It’s pretty much the equivalent of experiencing thousands of tourists stampede away from a music festival when the porta-potties back up. Messy, and frankly, not that surprising.

Here's the thing: those brands were just tourists. They were sold on the shiny objects—the hype and the excitement around NFTs. Thrilled by the possibility for a quick buck, they dove in without understanding the culture, ethos, and soul that powered them. And now they’re laughing all the way to the bank. Boo-hoo.

Corporate Tourists Ruined the Vibe

Think about it. Think about when you tried to teach grandma how to use TikTok. Cringe, right? It's the same principle. That’s why corporations doing NFTs just felt so forced, so inauthentic, and at the end of the day, just kind of sad. In short, they approached NFTs as just another marketing gimmick, another means to squeeze additional dollars out of their customers. What they totally missed was the community spirit, the artistic expression, the revolutionary potential of the technology. Now the real innovators are getting hurt because they’re being taken to court and losing all the early high-risk investments.

Nike's RTFKT fiasco? A perfect example. They bought their way into the space, generated a cool $185 million, and then pulled the plug, leaving their NFT holders high and dry, and now being sued for 5 million dollars. It is what it is. The culture is digital first, digital means ownership, not renting it from the corporate overlords. It would be like buying a work of art, then having the gallery owner decide to reclaim it because arbitrary. That's not how it works.

Starbucks and their NFT royalty program? Another swing and a miss. In short, it was a loyalty program in blockchain drag and consumers were not fooled. It would have been the equivalent of putting a sports car style spoiler on a minivan and trying to sell it as a sports car.

GameStop? Bless their hearts. The truth is, they tried, but they were doing it more or less blindly — throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck. Closing their NFT marketplace and wallet? Just one more indicator that they were out of their depth. It’s the equivalent of having a toddler build an entire skyscraper out of Lego bricks and then setting fire to it. Cute, but ultimately doomed.

The Phoenix Rises, Decentralized

So, what does all this mean? It means the posers are gone. The tourists have packed their bags. And the real NFT community can now exhale. Artists, collectors, developers, dreamers—everyone’s home and we’re all hard at work again! Now, we can begin to really build it – the something profound, the positive, the enduring, the genuine.

The corporate exodus is a good thing. It's a cleansing. It’s similar to pruning a rose bush so the most hearty flowers can grow. Now is the time to replace this corroding shell with one of people, planet and prosperity. Let’s bring it back to our original principles of decentralization, community and innovation!

Consider what’s going on with crypto-native, crypto-first companies like Jupiter. They are doing this by bringing in platforms like DRiP Haus. Their vision is to build a “super app,” the mall of digital collectibles, if you will. They believe in the long-term potential of NFTs, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

And all these other projects too, Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, etc. They’re not passively sitting by and waiting for the market to bounce back either. They’re changing, they’re dynamic, and they’re creating, developing and establishing these vibrant, unique experiences that is their communities. Pudgy Penguins has an exciting AAA blockchain game, Pudgy Party, in the works and have released the PENGU token while providing a share of it back to their community. Now, Doodles is introducing a new Solana-based token (DOOD) as a key piece of their broader strategy centered around making immersive storytelling the new, interactive default. These are precisely the projects that are going to survive and thrive.

Who Cares About Corporate Validation Anyway?

To be fair, the NFT gold rush of late 2021 and early 2022 was all hype and speculation, let’s admit it. Everyone wanted to buy JPEGs of monkeys for millions of dollars, get rich quick flipping them, and the fads associated with these investments. It was a gold rush mentality and it brought with it all of the wrong type of attention. It was as bad that one time we all thought your aunt would get rich off Beanie Babies. Remember that?

Yet the real promise NFTs hold is in how they can unlock new possibilities for creators, inspire communities, and disrupt industries and the status quo. It's about giving artists more control over their work, allowing them to connect directly with their fans, and creating new forms of digital ownership. It’s about making our future more decentralized, more equitable and more creative.

The old guard is dying. Good riddance. Now it’s up to the incoming generation, the crypto-natives, to paddle their boats into the waters and create magic. Forget the corporate hype. Forget the get-rich-quick schemes. So let’s work together to create a future in which the best uses of NFTs—supporting artists, fostering community, inspiring innovation—prevail. And of course if you don’t agree, LOL… enjoy your life of poverty! (It's a meme, chill.)

The NFT space isn't dead. It's just getting started. And this time, it really IS going to be different. This time, it's going to be real.