No, NFTs aren’t dead, but it’s the question on everybody’s lips at the moment. You’d be forgiven for asking, considering the week from hell they’ve just gone through.

A slow bleed on floor prices across the board of NFTs has been ongoing for the better part of a year now, so much of the doom has been something many holders have come to terms with by now. What’s been shocking as of late has been the complete and utter destruction of collections formally considered “blue-chips.”

Doodles and Moonbirds set the pace on this freefall months earlier with self-sabotage from their respective founders so violent that you couldn’t think of any other explanation than it had to be intentional, for some unknown motive only known to the perpetrators.

Last week, Azuki decided to have their “hold my beer” moment with their Elementals drop, which was the catalyst for their main collection dropping from 15 ETH to just under 6 ETH in a matter of days. Meanwhile, Yuga’s BAYC and MAYC are now at levels that many thought were previously not possible. One reason for this could be that Yuga has simply not done anything of note for a long time, and interest is waning.

However, despite all this, some categories of NFT have held up reasonably well considering the bloodbath. Some have not, but have a bright future all the same:

ETHEREUM NAME SERVICE (ENS)

Many consider ENS as a leveraged bet on Ethereum itself. Much the same, many say that ENS fails only if ETH itself fails; something which seems unlikely at this stage.

During previous sharp falls in price for NFTs, ENS has emerged as a “flight to quality” asset where people have parked their cash to mitigate any further risk caused by more speculative categories such as PFPs. While that’s yet to happen during this round, could it be just around the corner?

MEMBERSHIPS

This genre of NFT seems to be finally getting the respect it deserves. The failure of PFP collections in terms of utility has awakened many to the fact that if you really want utility from an NFT, it probably lies in a membership pass that grants you direct access to like-minded individuals and successful entrepreneurs.

Neo Tokyo is a fine example of this, with the floor price barely budging since the start of last week’s troubles.

GAMING

NFTs and gaming are inevitable. The only question is when and how they will start interlinking on a grand scale.

Once again, gaming fills the utility void where PFPs have failed to do so. That said, there aren’t many NFTs to choose from in this category yet that have a proven track record of success. Impostors, Treeverse, and Yuga’s Otherside are three of the best bets so far, but there’s plenty of time for new challengers to enter the arena between now and the next bull run.

ART

The one time you can say with a straight-face “I’m in it for the art!”

Art is never going away. Its reason for existing is simple, and people collect it with no expectation of what future benefits may arise from holding it. Art is the final boss of NFT flight-to-quality, and time and time again, it has been seen that funds will flow here during downturns.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, no, the good news is NFTs are not dead—despite my horrendously intentional clickbaity title! Are we seeing a paradigm shift in how people view NFTs though? Perhaps so.

The death knell for PFPs, however, is likely very overstated. Humans, but no one more so than NFT people, love to flex. PFPs are the ultimate and most accessible avenue to flex on others in the NFT space. They aren’t going anywhere. Whether the blue-chips that currently account for the gold standard of PFPs make it through is another question altogether.

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