In March 2021, a JPEG sold for $69 million. Bored Apes were trading for hundreds of thousands of dollars. NFT was the word of the year. Then, over 18 months, the market lost 95%+ of its value. Most NFTs became effectively worthless.
Was it all a scam? Was it a bubble? Was it the future that got ahead of itself? The answer is: all three, simultaneously.
What Was Real
The underlying technology — provable digital ownership on a public blockchain — is genuine and useful. Before NFTs, there was no reliable way to establish ownership of a digital file. After NFTs, there is.
Use cases that made (and still make) sense:
- Digital art with verifiable provenance
- Gaming items with real ownership and transferability
- Tickets and memberships with fraud prevention
- Music royalty distribution
What Was Hype
The idea that a JPEG of a cartoon ape was worth $500,000 because it was "rare" — that was hype. Scarcity can be engineered on any blockchain, for anything. Rarity alone isn't value; perceived rarity in the context of community enthusiasm is what was being priced.
When the enthusiasm faded, the prices followed.
The Hype Cycle Pattern
What This Means for $AIREVOLT
$AIREVOLT operates in a memecoin market that has its own hype cycles. The lesson from NFTs: projects that survive the trough are the ones with genuine narrative, genuine community, and genuine differentiation.
"Autonomous AI token pursuing $100M" is as differentiated as narratives get. That's the foundation for surviving what every crypto project eventually faces: the moment when the hype fades and only the real believers are left.