Chicago-based derivatives exchange CME Group is examining how tokenized assets could reshape collateral and margin across financial markets, CEO Terry Duffy said during a recent earnings call. The conversations revolve around tokenized cash and a CME-issued token that could run on a decentralized network, potentially used by other market participants as margin. Duffy argued that the quality of collateral matters, suggesting that instruments issued by a systemically important financial institution would provide more confidence than tokens from smaller banks attempting to issue margin tokens. The comments signal a broader industry push to experiment with tokenized collateral as traditional markets increasingly explore blockchain-based settlement and liquidity tools.

Key takeaways

• CME Group is evaluating tokenized cash alongside a possible CME-issued token designed to operate on a decentralized network for margin purposes.
• Registry-style collateral could be favored if issued by systemically important financial institutions, rather than tokens from smaller banks.
• The discussion ties into a March collaboration with Google Cloud around tokenization and a universal ledger, indicating a concrete technical path for pilots.
• CME plans 24/7 trading for cryptocurrency futures and options in early 2026, subject to regulatory approval, reflecting a broader push toward continuous pricing and settlement.
• In parallel, CME has outlined growth in regulated crypto offerings, including futures tied to Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar, and a joint effort with Nasdaq to unify crypto index products.

Tickers mentioned: $ADA, $LINK, $XLM

Market context: The CME move comes as traditional banks and asset managers accelerate experiments with tokenized assets and stablecoins, while policymakers in the United States weigh regulatory frameworks for digital currencies and centralized versus decentralized settlement rails. The sector-wide trend includes both institutional pilots and ongoing regulatory scrutiny surrounding stablecoins and token-based payments.

Why it matters

The potential introduction of a CME-issued token or the broader use of tokenized collateral could redefine how institutions post margin and manage risk during periods of market stress. If a CME token were to gain traction among major market participants, it could provide a recognizable, regulated anchor for on-chain settlement workflows, potentially reducing settlement latency and settlement risk across a spectrum of asset classes. The emphasis on collateral quality—favoring instruments from systemically important institutions—helps address credibility concerns that have accompanied attempts by other entities to issue margin-related tokens in the past.

The development sits within a wider institutional push into tokenization and digital assets. Banks have been advancing their own experiments with tokenized cash and stablecoins to streamline cross-border payments and interbank settlements. For example, large banks have publicly discussed stablecoin exploration and related payment technologies, underscoring a broader demand for faster, more efficient settlement rails. Yet this momentum coexists with a regulatory push to address potential risks, coverage, and disclosure standards around tokenized instruments and stablecoins, including debates over yield-bearing stablecoins and the evolving legal framework in the CLARITY Act era.

Beyond the tokenization plans, CME’s broader crypto strategy—ranging from planned futures on leading tokens to a unified Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index—signals an intent to align traditional derivatives infrastructure with blockchain-enabled assets. The push toward 24/7 crypto derivatives trading marks a notable shift in market structure, as exchanges and market participants increasingly expect around-the-clock access to price discovery and settlement. The timing aligns with a confluence of industry experiments and policy discussions, creating a testing ground for tokenized collateral to become a practical, regulated element of mainstream finance.

What to watch next

• Regulatory clearances for 24/7 crypto derivatives trading expected in early 2026; approval status will shape CME’s execution timeline.
• Details on the CME-issued token’s design, governance, and interoperability with decentralized networks remain to be seen—watch for formal disclosures or filings.
• Progress of the Google Cloud-based Universal Ledger pilot for wholesale payments and asset tokenization; any case studies or results will inform practical feasibility.
• Updates on CME’s planned futures tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (XLM) and how liquidity and risk controls will be implemented under the Nasdaq-CME alignment.

Sources & verification

• CME Group CEO Terry Duffy’s remarks on tokenized cash and potential CME-issued token during a Q4-2025 earnings call (Seeking Alpha transcript referenced in coverage).
• March press release announcing CME Group and Google Cloud’s tokenization initiative using Google Cloud’s Universal Ledger to enhance capital-market efficiency.
• Cointelegraph reporting on the CME-Google Cloud tokenization pilot and related technology discussions.
• CME’s January disclosures about expanding regulated crypto offerings with futures on Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (XLM) and the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index integration.
• Regulatory context and policy discussions surrounding stablecoins and tokenization, including debates around the GENIUS Act and related rulemaking.

Key figures and next steps

Market participants will be watching for concrete technical details behind any CME-issued token, including how it would be stored, audited, and reconciled with existing collateral frameworks. The form and governance of a token designed for margin would influence whether such an asset could be widely adopted by clearing members and other systemically important institutions. As CME progresses its discussions with regulators and industry stakeholders, the potential for tokenized collateral to function as an accepted, high-credibility instrument will hinge on demonstrating robust risk controls, liquidity, and interoperability with existing settlement ecosystems.

Key figures and next steps

In the near term, observers should monitor updates on 24/7 crypto derivatives trading plans, potential regulatory approvals, and any incremental disclosures on how tokenized cash and a CME-issued token would be integrated into margin requirements. The collaboration with Nasdaq to unify crypto index offerings also merits close attention, as it could influence how institutional investors gauge exposure to digital assets in a standardized framework.

Why it matters (expanded)

For users and investors, the emergence of tokenized collateral could offer new pathways to manage liquidity and collateral agility, potentially reducing funding costs for participants who post margin across exchanges. For builders and platform teams, this trend underscores a need to design secure, auditable on-chain representations of traditional assets and to ensure that risk models and governance processes are aligned with regulated markets. For the market at large, CME’s exploration highlights how the line between on-chain assets and regulated, traditional finance is becoming more permeable, creating opportunities and challenges in equal measure.

What to watch next

• Regulatory approvals for 24/7 crypto derivatives trading anticipated in early 2026.
• Detailed disclosures on the CME-issued token’s architecture and governance in forthcoming filings or announcements.
• Milestones from the Google Cloud universal ledger pilot, including any pilot results or expansion plans.

CZ exposed a long-running fake account using AI-generated images to pose as a Binance supporter before spreading BNB-related FUD.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, has publicly identified and dismantled a coordinated misinformation campaign against him and the exchange.

CZ exposed a long-running fake account that apparently used AI-generated images to pose as a loyal supporter before posting critical “feedback.”

The Unraveling of a Fake Supporter

The incident began when CZ noticed a post from an account named “Wei 威 BNB” claiming to close a Binance account due to alleged manipulation. The account had 863,000 followers and used imagery from a BNB Chain event, making it appear legitimate.

However, the former Binance CEO said that concerns about the account’s veracity emerged after some close inspection. For starters, the account, which had blocked him, had posted several images purportedly featuring Zhao posing with the user, all of which appeared altered.

One photo showed Zhao wearing a shirt in a color he said he does not own, while another mixed low-resolution images of him and Binance executive Yi He with a sharper image of the account holder. CZ claimed the original photo featured Aster CEO Leonard.

He also claimed the account history suggested it either changed hands or was compromised years ago. The account’s history shows it originally belonged to a woman and posted exclusively female photos until July 2015, when it abruptly switched to crypto-only content without removing earlier material.

“Either a hacked takeover or bought,” CZ wrote.

He criticized the campaign as “lazy” and suggested it was likely orchestrated by a “self-perceived” competitor more focused on Binance than its own business.

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Influencer ShirleyXBT also noted the account’s profile picture was an artificial copy of her own photo.

Community Backing and a Pattern of Scrutiny

The exposure drew some support from the crypto community, with World of Dypians CEO Teki thanking CZ for the clarification and admitting the initial post had briefly seemed believable.

Commentator Vegas offered a broader analysis, suggesting attackers fall into three categories: opportunists farming engagement, genuinely frustrated traders, and organized FUD campaigns. They also claimed to have been offered payment to spread negative sentiment about Binance, implying possible coordination by large market players or direct competitors.

This latest revelation has come amid sustained scrutiny of CZ and Binance. On January 28, the crypto entrepreneur faced backlash for allegedly promoting harmful market behavior after he advocated a buy-and-hold investment strategy, forcing him to clarify that his advice was personal and did not apply to every token.

Furthermore, on January 30, Binance announced it would convert the $1 billion in its SAFU insurance fund from stablecoins back into Bitcoin, a move some commentators viewed as a bullish signal but which also kept focus on the exchange’s financial strategies.

Despite the criticism, Binance’s market position is still quite strong, with data shared by CryptoQuant at the beginning of the year showing the exchange captured 41% of spot trading volume and 42% of Bitcoin perpetual futures volume among top-tier platforms in 2025.

BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank by assets, said it joined Qivalis, a group of lenders aiming to introduce a regulated euro stablecoin and challenge the dominance of digital dollars.

Adding BBVA, which has $800 billion of assets, the group now includes a dozen major European Union banks, including BNP Paribas, ING and UniCredit.

The project’s goal is to create a token backed by a network of established banks, offering an alternative to crypto-native stablecoins, many of which are tied to the dollar and operated by companies based outside of the bloc.

Of the $300 billion stablecoin market, only $860 million are tied to the single currency. Tether, based in El Salvador, dominates with its $185 billion USDT, followed by New York-based Circle Internet’s (CRCL) $70 billion USDC.

A euro-pegged coin could allow EU businesses and consumers to make blockchain-based payments and settlements using euros, without relying on traditional financial rails or third-party providers outside the bloc.

“Collaboration between banks is key to create common standards that support the evolution of the future banking model,” Alicia Pertusa, head of partnerships and innovation at BBVA CIB, said in a statement.

BBVA’s involvement “reflects the increasing dedication of European banking institutions to jointly develop a European on-chain payment ecosystem based on the trust that banks provide,” said Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO of Qivalis and a former executive of Coinbase Germany. “This step consolidates Qivalis’ standing as Europe’s foremost bank-supported stablecoin initiative.”

Qivalis is currently pursuing authorization from the Dutch central bank to operate as an electronic money institution, a step required to issue stablecoins under the EU’s digital asset regulatory framework dubbed MiCA.

The project plans to debut the token in the second half of 2026.

Read more: BNP Paribas Joins EU Bank Stablecoin Venture Helmed by Ex-Coinbase Germany Exec

The Ethereum price has surged 2% in the last 24 hours to trade at $3,350 after co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for a major simplification of the protocol.

Buterin warned that Ethereum’s increasing complexity, driven by the continuous addition of new features without removing outdated ones, poses a threat to trustlessness, self-sovereignty, and long-term sustainability. According to him, even a highly decentralized system with strong security measures can fail if its codebase becomes too complicated for users to understand or rebuild independently.

Buterin highlighted three main risks caused by protocol bloat. First, users are forced to rely on experts, or “high priests,” to explain how the system works, weakening trust. Second, Ethereum fails the “walkaway test,” as rebuilding high-quality clients would be nearly impossible if development teams disappear. Third, self-sovereignty is compromised because even technically skilled users cannot fully inspect or reason about the system.

An important, and perenially underrated, aspect of “trustlessness”, “passing the walkaway test” and “self-sovereignty” is protocol simplicity.

Even if a protocol is super decentralized with hundreds of thousands of nodes, and it has 49% byzantine fault tolerance, and nodes fully… pic.twitter.com/kvzkg11M3c

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 18, 2026

Buterin Calls for Ethereum “Garbage Collection”

To address these challenges, Buterin urged Ethereum developers to introduce “garbage collection,” a process aimed at simplifying the protocol. This involves removing rarely used features, reducing lines of code, limiting reliance on complex cryptographic primitives, and introducing fixed rules, or invariants, to make client behavior more predictable. He pointed to previous upgrades, such as Ethereum’s shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and recent gas cost reforms, as examples of effective simplification.

Future changes could move less essential features into smart contracts, easing the burden on client developers while maintaining network security. In contrast, Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko argued that blockchains must keep evolving to meet user and developer needs. He emphasized that constant iteration is vital for Solana’s survival, even if no single team drives the changes. Buterin, however, maintained that Ethereum should eventually reach a state where it can operate securely and predictably for decades without ongoing developer intervention.

Ethereum Price Eyes Upside After Key Support Bounce

The 4-hour Ethereum chart shows clear signs of bullish momentum. Price recently bounced off a strong support level around $2,950–$3,000, which has held multiple times over the past month. This support has acted as a solid foundation, allowing Ethereum to recover from previous declines.

Before this bounce, Ethereum was moving in a bearish channel, making lower lows and lower highs. The recent breakout above this channel marked a key trend reversal, signaling that buyers are regaining control. Between January 10 and January 16, a rounded bottom pattern developed, which often signals a shift from bearish to bullish sentiment.

This pattern reflects a period of accumulation, where sellers gradually lost influence and buyers began gaining momentum. The rounded bottom now supports price consolidation above $3,300, showing that the market has stabilized and is preparing for potential further gains.

ETHUSDT Analysis Source: Tradingview

On the upside, there is a clear resistance zone between $3,350 and $3,400. Ethereum has tested this area multiple times but has struggled to break above it decisively. Currently, the price is consolidating just below this zone, forming a potential springboard for the next upward move.

A confirmed breakout above $3,400 could open the door to a reward zone near $3,550–$3,600, representing the next likely target for bullish traders. RSI analysis further supports this positive outlook. The Relative Strength Index sits around 59, below overbought levels, suggesting there is still room for Ethereum to move higher before encountering selling pressure. The RSI has steadily strengthened after recovering from previous dips, highlighting growing buying momentum in the market.

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The U.S. government is formally reversing its previous stance on banning certain activities at prediction market firms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig moving Wednesday to withdraw a proposed event-contracts rule from 2024 and scrapping an earlier advisory he said confused the industry.

In 2024, the derivatives regulator proposed a rule that would have banned contracts based on the outcome of political events, legally equating them with illicit contracts on war, terrorism and assassination and calling them “contrary to the public interest.” That rule never advanced to a final stage before President Donald Trump returned to the White House and appointed new CFTC leadership. The CFTC had allowed prediction markets based on political events to launch after losing a court fight over Kalshi’s intended offering that same year.

The recently confirmed chairman of the agency, Selig, has now cleared the decks of that and a minor advisory issued in September on certain contract markets.

“The 2024 event contracts proposal reflected the prior administration’s frolic into merit regulation with an outright prohibition on political contracts ahead of the 2024 presidential election,” Selig said in a statement. “The Commission is withdrawing that proposal and will advance a new rulemaking grounded in a rational and coherent interpretation of the Commodity Exchange Act that promotes responsible innovation in our derivatives markets in line with Congressional intent.”

Selig’s action is unsurprising, following closely on the heels of his remarks last week that signaled it was coming. He said he’d “directed CFTC staff to move forward with drafting an event contracts rulemaking.”

The Trump administration’s embrace of the prediction markets has paved the way for increased interest from companies seeking to throw their hat into the sector, such as Coinbase, or the tangential pursuit of similar products from Cboe.

The September advisory Selig pulled back had been meant to caution platforms about litigation concerns, he said, but it had “inadvertently created confusion and uncertainty for our market participants.”

The CFTC is expected to become a central voice in digital assets oversight, in which the prediction markets have had an overlapping interest. Selig is working on a number of new initiatives, and the Congress is negotiating its crypto market structure bill that — among many other points — is meant to establish the CFTC as the rightful watchdog of crypto spot markets that don’t involve securities.

Read More: U.S. SEC, CFTC chiefs push united front on paving the way for crypto

Kyle Samani, co-founder of crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital, is stepping down from his role as managing director, he announced Wednesday in a post on X.

“It’s a bittersweet moment for me because my time at Multicoin has been some of the most meaningful and rewarding of my life,” Samani wrote. “After nearly a decade in crypto, I’m more confident than ever that crypto is going to fundamentally rewire the circuitry of finance.”

Samani said he’s taking time off and “exploring other areas of technology,” but made clear he’s not walking away from crypto entirely. “While I’ll be stepping away professionally from the industry, I will continue to make personal investments in the space,” he wrote.

He also pointed to the potential impact of U.S. crypto legislation in development, particularly the Clarity Act, a bill designed to provide legal definitions for crypto assets. “I believe the Clarity Act will unlock a tidal wave of new entrants and spur adoption unlike anything we’ve seen,” he wrote.

Samani did not say what his next role would be or when he might return to the industry. As of now, Multicoin has not named a replacement. Co-managing partners Tushar Jain and Brian Smith are currently running the firm’s day-to-day operations.

Founded in 2017, Multicoin quickly gained visibility for backing projects like Solana SOL$90.59 and HNT$0.8819 before they became widely known. It operates across both venture capital and liquid token markets, setting it apart from traditional VC firms.

Samani says he will remain as chairman at Solana treasury company Forward Industries (FWDI) and is requesting in-kind redemption in FWDI shares and warrants from the Multicoin Master Fund, rather than cash.

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Bitwise Asset Management, said the market is experiencing a crypto winter.

According to his analysis, the crypto winter began in January 2025, but heavy institutional inflows “papered over that truth,” masking the depth of the downturn. The key question now is, how long will the winter last?

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Market Weakness Signals an Ongoing Crypto Winter

In a recent market commentary, Hougan rejected the idea that recent price weakness represents a temporary pullback. Instead, he described the current environment as a “full-blown crypto winter,” pointing to steep drawdowns across major assets.

He highlighted that Bitcoin (BTC) is now trading about 39% from its October 2025 all-time high. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) has fallen roughly 53%. Many altcoins have declined far more.

“This is not a ‘bull market correction’ or ‘a dip.’ It is a full-bore, 2022-like, Leonardo-DiCaprio-in-The-Revenant-style crypto winter—set into motion by factors ranging from excess leverage to widespread profit-taking by OGs,” Hougan noted.

Institutional demand, he said, played a key role in masking the downturn. Using data from the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index, Hougan highlighted a clear divide.

Assets with strong institutional support, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP (XRP), have posted relatively modest declines since January 2025. Tokens that gained ETF access in 2025, like Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), and Litecoin (LTC), suffered deeper losses.

Nonetheless, assets without any institutional exposure fell between roughly 60% and 75%. According to him,

“The thing that separates the three groups is basically whether or not institutions had the ability to invest in them.”

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During this period, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT) accumulated more than 744,000 Bitcoin, worth an estimated $75 billion. Hougan argued that without this level of institutional support, Bitcoin’s losses would likely have been far greater.

“Retail crypto has been in a brutal winter since January 2025. Institutions just papered over that truth for certain assets for a while,” the executive remarked.

Hougan also addressed a question many market participants have raised: why do crypto prices continue to fall despite positive developments such as increased institutional adoption, regulatory progress, and broader acceptance by Wall Street?

His answer was straightforward. In the depths of a crypto winter, good news typically has little immediate impact on prices.

“Those of you who followed crypto during past winters—either 2018 or 2022—will remember that good news doesn’t matter in the depths of winter. Crypto winters don’t end in excitement; they end in exhaustion,” he added.

However, he suggested that while positive developments are often ignored during bear markets, they do not disappear. Instead, they accumulate as what he described as “potential energy,” which can fuel a recovery once sentiment improves.

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Hougan pointed to several factors that could help lift market sentiment, including stronger economic growth that triggers a risk-on rally, a positive surprise related to the Clarity Act, signs of sovereign adoption of Bitcoin, or simply the passage of time.

Looking at historical cycles, Hougan said crypto winters typically last around 13 months. If the current winter indeed began in January 2025, then it’s possible that the end may be near.

Bitcoin mining crossed a historic threshold in late 2025. According to a recent report from GoMining, the network entered the zetahash era, surpassing 1 zetahash per second of computing power.

But while hashrate surged to record levels, miner profitability moved in the opposite direction. The result is a mining industry that is larger, more industrialized — and more exposed to price risk than at any point this cycle.

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Hashrate Reaches Record Highs as Mining Scales Up

The report shows Bitcoin’s network sustained over 1 ZH/s on a seven-day average, marking a structural shift rather than a temporary spike.

This growth reflects aggressive hardware upgrades, new data centers, and expanding industrial operations. Mining is no longer dominated by marginal players. It now resembles energy infrastructure.

As a result, competition for block rewards has intensified sharply.

Revenue Per Miner Falls Despite Network Growth

While hashrate expanded, revenue per unit of compute fell into one of its tightest ranges on record.

The report highlights that miner earnings increasingly depend on Bitcoin’s price and difficulty alone. Other buffers have faded, including transaction fee spikes and the higher block subsidies that once softened margin pressure

This compression means miners now operate with thinner margins, even as they deploy more capital and power. 

According to GoMining, the impact was visible in the mempool. For the first time since April 2023, the Bitcoin mempool fully cleared multiple times in 2025. 

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It means the Bitcoin network was so quiet that transactions cleared immediately, even at the lowest possible fees. 

As a result, miners earned almost nothing from fees and had to rely almost entirely on Bitcoin’s price and block subsidy for revenue.

Transaction Fees Offer Little Relief After the Halving

Post-halving dynamics worsened the pressure.

With the block subsidy reduced to 3.125 BTC, transaction fees failed to offset lost revenue. The report notes that fees made up less than 1% of total block rewards for most of 2025.

As a result, miner economics became directly exposed to Bitcoin price swings, with fewer internal stabilizers.

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Hashprice Hits Lows as Margins Stay Under Pressure

The squeeze showed up clearly in hashprice — the daily revenue earned per unit of hashrate.

According to the report, hashprice fell to an all-time low near $35 per PH per day in November and remained weak into year-end. It finished the quarter near $38, well below historical averages.

This left little room for operational error.

Shutdown Prices Turn Price Levels Into Economic Triggers

These findings align closely with recent data on miner shutdown prices.

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At current difficulty and electricity costs near $0.08 per kWh, widely used S21-series miners approach breakeven between $69,000 and $74,000 per BTC. Below that range, many operations stop generating operational profit.

More efficient, high-end machines remain viable at much lower prices. But mid-tier miners face immediate pressure.

Why This Matters for Bitcoin Price Now

This does not create a price floor. Markets can trade below mining breakeven.

However, it creates a behavioral threshold. If Bitcoin stays below key shutdown levels, weaker miners may sell reserves, shut down equipment, or reduce exposure.

In a market already strained by tight liquidity, those actions can amplify volatility.

Bitcoin mining is stronger and more industrial than ever. But that scale comes with sensitivity. As hashrate grows and fees fade, price matters more, not less, for miner stability.

That makes levels like $70,000 economically meaningful — not because charts say so, but because the network’s cost structure does.

TLDR:

• NFT trading volumes collapsed from $2.9 billion in 2021 to just $23.8 million by early 2025 quarterly data. 
• Major platforms including Nifty Gateway, Foundation, and MakersPlace announced closures within days in January 2026. 
• Centralized storage systems left 27% of top NFT collections vulnerable to permanent loss after server shutdowns. 
• OpenSea recaptured 67% of Ethereum NFT volume by expanding into fungible tokens as competitors exited the market.

The digital art marketplace landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation as prominent NFT platforms cease operations.

Trading volumes collapsed from $2.9 billion in 2021 to $23.8 million by early 2025, representing a 93 percent decline.

Gemini’s Nifty Gateway, Foundation, and multiple other platforms announced closures or ownership transfers within days of each other in January 2026, marking the effective end of the venture-backed NFT marketplace ecosystem.

Wave of Platform Closures Reshapes Digital Art Infrastructure

Nifty Gateway announced its shutdown on January 24, 2026, with approximately 650,000 NFTs requiring withdrawal before the April 23 deadline.

Community outcry initially extended the original February 23 closure date. Three days later, Foundation’s creator transferred ownership to BlackDove, a digital art streaming company. The platform had generated $230 million in primary sales during its operational period.

MakersPlace shut down in January 2025 after facilitating the landmark $69.3 million Beeple sale through Christie’s in 2021.

Content manager Brady Evan Walker announced that “ongoing market challenges and funding difficulties have made it impossible to sustain operations while fulfilling our mission.”

KnownOrigin, acquired by eBay in 2022, wound down operations in July 2024. Async Art closed in October 2023 despite raising $2 million in seed funding.

Active traders declined from 529,101 in 2022 to 19,575 by 2025, according to DappRadar. Average art NFT prices fell from $2,044 in 2021 to $475 in 2023.

CEO Conlan Rios reflected that when Async Art launched, “the NFT world was smaller and simpler” with “a genuine sense of altruism all around.”

Christie’s eliminated its digital art department in September 2025 after none of its 11 auctions exceeded $400,000 in sales.

Technical Infrastructure Exposes Centralization Vulnerabilities

A 2024 Pinata analysis revealed that 27 percent of top NFT collections stored metadata on centralized servers. The report noted that some NFTs “simply no longer exist” as their “smart contracts point to metadata that is no longer accessible from the original centralized servers.”

Sam Spratt commented on Twitter that Nifty Gateway’s closure represented “a pure loss” and expressed “gratitude for what was given” before the platform’s ending.

XCOPY’s early work demonstrates the fragility of NFT storage systems. The London-based artist described how Ascribe “fell into the cryptoart platform graveyard” after the service closed.

“Death Wannabe,” released on July 17, 2018, had ten editions but only three remain accessible. Seven editions are locked in the original RareArt Labs contract while “Disaster Suit” survives in four editions but lost its metadata entirely.

Nifty Gateway responded to criticism by announcing metadata migration to Arweave for newer NFTs. Artist Bryan Brinkman acknowledged that “many of us knew the risks of minting on there” but noted the platform “still clung to too many centralized choices” despite contract improvements.

Collector G4SP4RD warned that collections from artists like Beeple and Spratt could become “broken with no possibility of recovery” if servers shut down.

OpenSea recaptured 67 percent of Ethereum NFT volume by late 2025 after expanding into fungible tokens. CEO Devin Finzer tweeted that the platform crossed $2.6 billion in trading volume with “over 90 percent from token trading.”

SuperRare announced on Twitter it was “not going anywhere” and continued operating. Art Basel Miami Beach launched Zero 10 in December, selling 65 percent of digital art works by mid-afternoon on opening day.