Unnecessary — Issue 005
NFTs Aren’t Dead.
They Stopped Being Easy.
The obituary for NFTs has been written approximately forty-seven times since 2022. The patient keeps breathing. The Chimp Magnet Trillionaire Club has been watching from the Penthouse.
Every six months, reliably, someone publishes the definitive piece on why NFTs are over. The headline varies. The conclusion does not. And then, quietly, the chain keeps running. CryptoPunks sells another one for $2.7 million. The market that was declared deceased is, measurably, still transacting.
This is not the 2021 market. Total NFT trading volume hit $10.7 billion in a single quarter back then. That market is gone. But this is also not a graveyard.
The Actual State of the Market. No Spin.
Total NFT transaction volume in 2025 was $5.5 billion — down 37% from 2024.← consolidation, not collapse Out of more than 1,700 tracked projects, only 6 reached weekly volumes above $1 million.
Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu described the market as "in the doldrums, but definitely not dead," pointing to roughly $300 million in NFT sales in the previous thirty days. Gaming NFTs now account for 38% of all NFT transaction volume.
Why It Collapsed and What It Revealed
The 2021-2022 boom was, in significant part, a story about money looking for a home during a period when every asset class was running hot. When the free money stopped, the market discovered most of what it had been selling was the speculation itself, not the underlying asset.
Reddit ceased its NFT services. Nike sold RTFKT. The web2 giants who entered as prices peaked left as prices fell. Their departure confirmed the institutional interest was opportunistic, not structural.
What the House of Kong Has Always Understood
The Chimp Magnet Trillionaire Club was never a floor-price play. The Citadel, the Penthouse, the Mansion — these are not assets waiting for a narrative. They are the narrative, built out over time, with a visual identity and a content network that operates independently of market conditions.
The Honest Controversy
The global NFT market is projected to reach $60.82 billion in 2026. Phygital NFTs — connecting physical goods with digital tokens — saw 60% transaction volume growth, particularly in luxury markets. A Bugatti sold alongside an NFT. A Jacob & Co. timepiece with a verifiable digital twin. That intersection is where web3 starts to look less like speculation and more like infrastructure.
The people building value in 2026 are not timing the market. They are building the thing behind the door. That takes longer. It also survives when the speculative layer evaporates.
The House of Kong Take
Coming Up — Issue 006
The personal brand has replaced the CV. We're going deep on the economy of You, Inc. — what it actually takes to build something around yourself that pays.
