_N_ot _F_ully _T_hriving
OpenSea, the self-proclaimed “first and largest” marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), is reportedly laying off 50% of its current staff, as the platform looks to cut costs and reorganize amidst the continued fall of the digital tokens.
The days of tweets selling as NFTs, “crypto punks”, and celebrities going on Jimmy Fallon to talk about their “bored apes”, are now a very distant memory. Indeed, NFT sales on OpenSea have fallen almost 99% from their trading volume heights of ~$4.9 billion, hitting less than $50m in October. That’s the lowest figure on record since January 2021 — suggesting that we’re well past “peak NFT”.
Tokenistic
At the height of NFT-mania, everyone from Paris Hilton and Eminem to Twitter’s founder / ex-X exec Jack Dorsey seemed to be getting involved in buying, selling, and shilling the buzzy tokens. When digital artist Beeple sold an NFT for $69m, it spurred a flood of digital music, art, games, and meme assets that quickly oversaturated the market — which wasn’t helped by high-profile scam allegations.
Although the tokens seem to still hold some cultural worth — they featured heavily in the latest Halloween Simpsons special last night — the diminished standing of the technology seems to have proven the original naysayers right: NFTs were a solution looking for a problem.
