The whole 'NFTs are dead' narrative keeps popping up, but honestly, if you look at what's actually happening on-chain, it's way more nuanced than that. Yeah, we're nowhere near the $1B monthly sales from 2021-22, but we're still sitting around $300M a month. That's not nothing.

I was reading about Yat Siu from Animoca Brands talking about this at a crypto conference, and he made a really solid point. NFTs aren't dead - they've just shifted. The hype cycle cooled, sure, but wealthy collectors are still very much active. Think about how billionaires collect Picassos or Ferraris. That same collector mentality exists in the digital art space now. Siu himself is a big collector and his portfolio is down like 80%, but he treats these as long-term holdings, not flip plays. That's the mentality that's keeping the market alive.

The thing people miss is that five years ago this was a zero-dollar market. So even at $300M monthly, we're talking about real adoption and real value being created. Some of the big moves are pretty telling - guys like Adam Weitsman openly buying Otherdeed lands and Bored Apes. These aren't anonymous moves. Wealthy people are comfortable putting their names behind NFT purchases, which says something about legitimacy.

Now, the narrative around NFT Paris getting canceled? That's more about geopolitics than the actual market. France basically turned its back on crypto. Add in the kidnapping issues targeting crypto execs and investors over there, and you get why people are hesitant. It's a security and regulatory problem, not an NFT problem.

So yeah, 'NFTs are dead' makes for a good headline, but the data tells a different story. The market consolidated, the speculators left, and now you're seeing what actual demand looks like. Smaller, but probably more sustainable.