Is the NFT revival at the beginning of 2026 just a drop in the bucket? Exploring the new strategies of surviving players

Entering 2026, the long-dormant NFT market suddenly stirs with ripples. According to CoinGecko data, the overall market capitalization of NFTs increased by over $220 million in the past week. Some projects even experienced triple to quadruple digit gains. For players who have endured years of decline, this market rally indeed feels like a different world. But a closer look reveals that this rebound is merely a drop in the bucket for the vast NFT market—it’s a game within a small range of existing funds, far from a true recovery driven by new capital. The real challenge behind the surface is the extreme lack of liquidity.

Market pulse is alive, but liquidity shortage is a fatal flaw

A review of transaction data reveals the story. Among over 1,700 NFT projects, only 6 have weekly trading volumes reaching the million-dollar level, 14 projects are in the hundreds of thousands, and even only 72 are in the tens of thousands. In other words, the vast majority of projects are “sleeping.”

Even among top projects with higher trading volumes, the number of actively traded NFTs only accounts for a single-digit percentage of the total supply. Many NFTs have weekly trading volumes in the single digits or even zero. What does this mean? Holders have long lost the means to cash out, and their NFTs have become real “hidden assets.”

The 2025 report by The Block is even more disappointing. The total NFT trading volume for the year was only $5.5 billion, down 37% from 2024; the total market cap shrank from about $9 billion to approximately $2.4 billion. The once “multi-chain blooming” landscape has contracted, and the market has fully reverted to an Ethereum-dominated scene.

The stories behind these numbers are clear: new capital is no longer interested in entering, leaving only trapped old players and projects trying to save themselves. NFTs have long fallen from a speculative hotspot to “old assets,” waiting only for time to pass.

Web2 giants retreat, where has the capital gone?

Since the story of virtual assets is no longer compelling, the remaining participants are seeking their own survival paths.

OpenSea no longer insists on JPEG image trading but has shifted toward token trading through airdrops; the former NFT star blockchain Flow is exploring DeFi; Zora is embracing the “content as token” new model. Even the iconic Paris NFT event has been canceled due to funding shortages, and some have fallen into refund disputes.

What’s more disappointing is the decisive exit of Web2 giants. Reddit has stopped NFT services, Nike sold its RTFKT brand—both endorsements once made many believe NFTs would go mainstream. But the reality proved it was just a fleeting experiment; big companies ultimately chose to give up.

However, the decline of NFTs does not mean the disappearance of collecting and speculative demand—funds are simply flowing into new battlegrounds. Pokémon TCG trading volume exceeds $1 billion, with annual revenue surpassing $100 million; the market for trendy toys and high-end collectibles remains hot. Even crypto industry elites are voting with their feet—

Crypto artist Beeple has turned to physical robot creation, launching celebrity robot dogs that sell out instantly; Wintermute co-founder Yoann Turpin spent $5 million on dinosaur fossils; Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu spent $9 million acquiring the Stradivari violin. These actions send a clear signal: in today’s market environment, physical assets and real-world collectibles are more attractive than virtual images.

Farewell to JPEG small images, these NFTs are being revalued

But this does not mean NFTs are completely dead. Market funds are not entirely dried up but are searching for targets with high return potential or clear value support. In other words, NFTs with practical use cases and explicit expectations are being re-priced.

Speculation and arbitrage opportunities still exist. Some players believe the market has bottomed out and are engaging in short-term trading based on price mismatches, with relatively high risk-reward ratios.

“Golden shovel” NFTs are currently the most actively traded. These NFTs are no longer just collectibles but financial certificates for obtaining future airdrops—holding them means qualifying for airdrops or whitelists. But this is a double-edged sword; once the snapshot is taken or the airdrop is received, if the project does not assign new practical functions to the NFT, the floor price often plummets or even drops to zero. Therefore, these NFTs are best suited as short-term arbitrage tools rather than long-term value storage.

NFTs endorsed by celebrities or top projects leverage attention economy to command premiums. After HyperLiquid airdropped the Hypurr NFT series to early users, prices surged; Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin changed his avatar to a Milady NFT, causing its floor price to rise accordingly. The value of such NFTs comes from celebrity effects, providing short-term price momentum.

Top IP-based NFTs have moved beyond hype, with investment logic focusing more on cultural identity and collection value. For example, CryptoPunks, officially included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York last year, are typical. These NFTs tend to be more resistant to price drops and have long-term value storage potential.

Acquisition narratives also drive price revaluation. When projects like Pudgy Penguins and Moonbirds are acquired by strong capital backers, market expectations of their IP monetization and brand moat strengthen, leading to significant price increases.

On-chain real assets are a new growth point. Platforms like Collector Crypt and Courtyard tokenize physical items such as Pokémon cards, allowing users to trade ownership on-chain while the platform holds the physical items. This model provides clear tangible value support for NFTs and reduces downside risk.

Practical functions are becoming the new foundation of NFTs. Use cases like NFT tickets, DAO voting rights certificates, AI on-chain identities (such as Ethereum’s NFT-based AI agents) are gradually being implemented. These are no longer speculative illusions but real utility tools.

From this, it’s clear that the era of chasing meaningless small images is over. NFTs with actual utility, clear value support, or speculative opportunities are now the focus of capital. For average investors, rational risk assessment and choosing assets with fundamentals are far more important than blindly chasing price surges.