When Celebrity Names Return: Yi Nengjing and the NFT Market's Shift From Hype to Real Value

The return of high-profile names to the NFT market raises a familiar question: is this genuine recovery or just cyclical hype? The answer lies deeper than trading volumes. While celebrities like Yi Nengjing have re-entered the space alongside longtime players like Maji Da Ge, what’s truly different this time is the fundamental transformation underlying the market’s resurgence. This isn’t 2021’s speculative frenzy—it’s a market learning to distinguish genuine value from celebrity endorsements.

2025: When Yi Nengjing and Familiar Faces Return to NFTs

The narrative feels cyclical. In 2021, celebrities fueled an explosion in NFT adoption. Then came the collapse. Now, in 2025, those same names are back. Yi Nengjing has quietly re-entered after her Theirsverse project suffered devastating losses. Maji Da Ge, who once spent 425 ETH on a Cyborg Bored Ape, has pivoted toward Memecoin trading but remains visible in the crypto ecosystem. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz switched to a Pudgy Penguin avatar. Billionaire entrepreneur Qian Fenglei announced a $100 million NFT project called “Peach Blossom Spring.”

On the surface, it appears we’ve returned to 2021’s carnival atmosphere. But beneath the familiar names lies a market that has fundamentally changed—one that’s skeptical of celebrity endorsements and demanding proof of actual utility.

The Graveyard of Celebrity Projects: How PhantaBear and Theirsverse Lost 98%

To understand why celebrity returns matter less this cycle, examine the wreckage from the last one. When Jay Chou’s PhantaBear launched in late 2021, it was a sensation—sold out in 40 minutes with daily trading volumes exceeding $10 million. Within months, it became a cautionary tale: floor prices collapsed from their peak to nearly worthless, a 98% decline that left countless investors with digital dust.

Yi Nengjing’s Theirsverse followed a similar trajectory. What began as a promising venture crashed from 0.219 ETH to 0.02 ETH, a 96% decline that earned her the sardonic title “Queen of Chives”—crypto slang for someone who’s harvested investors’ losses. Similar fates befell projects from Shawn Yue (ZombieClub) and Edison Chen, all launched with celebrity backing and all devastated by the 2022 bear market.

The lesson was brutal: star power alone cannot sustain an NFT project. When Bitcoin plummeted from $69,000 to below $20,000, and the broader crypto market capitalization halved, celebrity credibility disappeared overnight. These crashes revealed that the 2021 boom wasn’t built on utility—it was built on FOMO and social proof.

The Data Paradox: Why Falling Prices Actually Signal Market Maturation

Here’s where the 2025 recovery becomes interesting. According to data from DappRadar, NFT transaction volume declined 29% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2025. By conventional metrics, this looks like bad news. But the full picture tells a different story.

While transaction volume (measured in dollar terms) fell, the number of individual transactions surged 78%—from 7.02 million to 12.5 million. Simultaneously, the number of unique buyers increased 44%, growing from 651,000 to 936,000. This unusual pattern—declining valuations paired with rising participation—reveals a market shifting away from high-priced collectibles and toward broader participation.

As analyst commentary from Coindoo noted: this data suggests “the driving force behind transactions is shifting from pure speculation to practicality and community consensus.” The price decline isn’t a market collapse; it’s a correction filtering out speculative excess.

Long-term projections support this interpretation. Institutions like Vancelian predict the NFT market will exceed tens of billions of dollars in valuation, suggesting confidence in the sector’s structural recovery rather than temporary bounce-back.

The Real Recovery: Community as Judge, Not Follower

The most significant change isn’t in prices or volume—it’s in who decides value. In 2021, celebrity endorsement functioned as a primary value signal. If a star launched an NFT, followers assumed it had worth. The community was passive, reactive, and vulnerable to manipulation.

In 2025, that dynamic has inverted. The community now functions as an active “judge” of projects. Community members on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) openly debate project merit, demanding utility over hype. Influencer @RicecakeNFT stated bluntly: “The 2021 NFT craze won’t repeat. The barrier to entry has significantly increased, and investors prioritize practicality and community value.”

This represents a maturation. Rather than chasing celebrity projects, sophisticated participants now focus on blue-chip NFT platforms like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and Pudgy Penguins—projects valued not for cultural cachet but for community strength and relative stability. Even when these projects gained traction in 2025, community response remained notably restrained, absent the euphoric speculation of 2021.

Predictive commentary from community member @waleswoosh captured the new ethos: “By 2025, not a single top NFT project may exist, but we will see several with floor prices exceeding 50 ETH. This year will be a year of repricing and real value.” The message is clear: scarcity and speculation are being replaced by utility and collective assessment.

Why Yi Nengjing and Others Return Now: A Maturing Market Reconsidering NFTs

The return of figures like Yi Nengjing in 2025 should be understood not as validation of celebrity-driven NFTs but as recognition of market maturation. These players aren’t returning to the 2021 playbook—they’re adapting to new rules. Yi Nengjing’s quiet re-entry likely reflects learning from past mistakes. Maji Da Ge’s shift toward Memecoin trading (a higher-risk, faster-paced sector) suggests he’s pursuing strategies more aligned with his trading acumen than celebrity brand-building.

What’s changed: these figures are testing a fundamentally different market. One with higher barriers to entry, more sophisticated participants, demand for tangible utility, and skepticism toward celebrity endorsements. The market isn’t rejecting familiar names—it’s rejecting the idea that names alone create value.

The Verdict: Recovery Built on Rationality

The NFT market’s apparent recovery in 2025 masks something deeper: rationality replacing mania, community consensus replacing celebrity gospel, and utility displacing pure speculation. Returning celebrities like Yi Nengjing and Maji Da Ge serve as historical reference points, reminding the market of past excesses and cautioning against their repetition.

This isn’t the exuberant recovery of 2021. It’s slower, more selective, and ultimately more sustainable. The market is repricing itself, shedding speculative excess, and consolidating around projects with genuine community support and practical applications. If 2021 was a carnival fueled by FOMO, 2025 is a market learning to think.

That’s not just recovery. That’s evolution.