Recent changes in the NFT market are quite interesting. Not long after the New Year, this track that had been sentenced to death for years suddenly came back to life. Both price increases and trading volume are rising again, suggesting that people are still paying attention.

To be honest, this uptick is a bit strange. According to data, in the past week the total market capitalization of the NFT market increased by more than $220 million. Many projects recorded gains in the three digits or even four digits. For long-time players who have been stuck in positions for several years, seeing a green market really feels like a distant memory.

But if you look closely at the trading activity, it becomes clear that this is not a true rebound driven by fresh capital entering the market. Instead, it’s essentially existing funds making small-scale bets within a very narrow range. Out of more than 1,700 NFT projects, only 6 have trading volumes reaching the million-dollar level—liquidity is depleted to an absurd degree. Most NFTs are barely traded at all, which shows that NFTs have long turned into “old-timers’ assets,” with only those who are trapped still holding on, while new capital has already left.

What’s interesting, though, is that the funds haven’t disappeared—they’ve just moved elsewhere. OpenSea is no longer fixated on those JPEG images and has shifted toward token trading; Flow has started exploring DeFi; Zora has also abandoned the traditional NFT model. Even the crypto elite have started casting votes with their feet. Beeple has turned to creating physical robot artwork. Some people have spent $5 million to buy dinosaur fossils, while others have paid $9 million for a violin. By comparison, Pokémon card trading volume exceeds $1 billion—physical collectibles are the real prize.

So, are people still playing NFTs now? Yes, but the gameplay has changed. The most active ones are “golden shovel” NFTs with expectations of airdrops. At their core, they’re financial instruments—once the snapshot is taken or the airdrop is distributed, the floor price often crashes. There are also NFTs backed by celebrities or top-tier projects. For example, after Vitalik changed his avatar to Milady, the floor price rose noticeably.

Ironically, NFTs with genuine long-term value are actually those that are detached from hype logic—such as CryptoPunks, which are included in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s income collection, or projects that combine real-world assets and allow users to trade real-world ownership on-chain. There are also utility-based applications like NFT ticketing and DAO voting rights.

In the end, the era of purely speculating on small pictures is truly over. The current NFT market is redefining itself: either it has clear practical value, strong backing from capital, or it combines with real-world assets—otherwise, it can only end up trapping people. For ordinary investors, the most important thing is to face the reality of liquidity drying up, and don’t be fooled by occasional price rebounds.