Created digital scarcity that felt revolutionary. CryptoKitties sold for $117,000 in 2017. OpenSea became the dominant marketplace, capturing 90% of NFT trades by 2021 as celebrities and mainstream buyers piled in.
COVID brought bored people and government stimulus checks looking for speculation. The market exploded to $25B in 2021, but 60% of trades were fake wash trading to inflate prices. Crypto winter hit, scams proliferated, and trust evaporated as people realized scarcity alone doesn't create value.
Over 95% of NFT collections are worthless. 23 million people hold NFTs worth zero. OpenSea's valuation crashed 90%. The music stopped.
