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.

Michael Saylor has hinted that Strategy will soon make another Bitcoin purchase, pushing its holdings beyond 3% of Bitcoin’s total supply.

Saylor posted “Bigger Orange” on X, a phrase he has used in the past before announcing new Bitcoin buys. Strategy currently holds about 687,410 Bitcoin, which equals roughly 3% of Bitcoin’s maximum supply of 21 million coins. The company has made more than 94 Bitcoin purchases since 2020, with an average buying price of around $75,000 per Bitcoin.

Last week alone, Strategy bought 13,627 BTC for about $1.25 billion, using a mix of debt, equity, and cash. With Bitcoin trading close to $95,000, Strategy’s unrealized gains have grown significantly. This large exposure has made the company one of the biggest corporate Bitcoin holders in the world, strengthening its image as a long-term Bitcoin-focused firm.

₿igger Orange. pic.twitter.com/HI47hMCnui

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) January 18, 2026

Strategy’s Bitcoin Bet Strengthens as MSTR Lags Holdings

However, Strategy’s stock price has not fully reflected its growing Bitcoin holdings yet. According to TradingView data, MSTR shares rose about 4% in the past week and are up over 12% year-to-date. The stock was trading near $174 at the time of reporting. Over the last five years, MSTR has gained more than 180%, showing strong long-term performance.

Investor confidence also improved after MSCI decided not to change its index rules, removing uncertainty around Strategy’s market position. Many investors now see MSTR as a leveraged proxy for Bitcoin, meaning the stock often moves more sharply when Bitcoin rises or when Strategy announces new purchases.

Meanwhile, short-term Bitcoin market sentiment remains cautious. Analyst Ted Pillows noted tightening liquidity and heavy trading interest between $96,000 and $98,000. These price levels often attract strong activity and can slow price movement or trigger volatility.

Despite caution among retail traders, institutional Bitcoin futures activity is increasing, suggesting larger players are still positioning for future moves. Overall, corporate accumulation remains strong, but short-term Bitcoin price action may stay volatile.

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Tether has scaled back fundraising talks to about $5B after investors pushed back on a proposed $500B valuation.

Tether has reportedly scaled back its planned multibillion-dollar fundraising target after facing resistance from investors.

According to a report from the Financial Times on February 4, advisers for the stablecoin issuer are now examining the possibility of raising at least $5 billion, down from the $15 billion to $20 billion figure circulated during early talks in 2025.

Lower Target Follows Valuation Concerns

The original range, first reported by Bloomberg in September 2025, was linked to a valuation of roughly $500 billion, placing Tether among the world’s most valuable private companies. However, the number has reportedly proven difficult to justify for several prospective investors.

In comments cited by the FT, Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief executive, said the higher figure was never a firm target. According to the executive, the amount discussed was only the maximum the company would consider selling. “If we were selling zero, we would be very happy as well,” Ardoino said, noting that the firm is profitable and does not urgently need external capital.

Tether is the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, with about $185 billion in circulation. The company has generated strong earnings from returns on reserves backing USDT, mainly U.S. Treasuries. Ardoino said Tether made around $10 billion in profit last year, a figure that has featured prominently in valuation discussions.

Despite that profitability, some investors have taken a cautious stance, with the FT reporting that concerns centered on how the $500 billion valuation was calculated and whether it reflects realistic growth expectations in the current market environment.

Nonetheless, fundraising talks are still in the early stages, and no decision has been made on the size or timing of any raise.

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Profitability, Reserves, and Lingering Skepticism

Tether’s capital plans have come against a backdrop of mixed sentiment around the stablecoin issuer. The firm has expanded beyond cash-like reserves in recent years, building large positions in Bitcoin and gold. Earlier in the year, Ardoino confirmed that the company bought about $779 million worth of Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2025, lifting its holdings to more than 96,000 BTC.

At the same time, scrutiny around transparency has not faded, especially considering that S&P Global Ratings assigned USDT its lowest score on the agency’s stablecoin stability scale in November 2025, citing gaps in disclosure and a higher share of assets such as Bitcoin, gold, and secured loans. Ardoino publicly criticized the rating, arguing that traditional frameworks fail to capture Tether’s business model.

The reduced fundraising target suggests Tether is adjusting to market feedback rather than pressing ahead with an aggressive valuation. Whether the company proceeds with a smaller raise or pauses altogether will likely depend on investor appetite and broader conditions in crypto markets over the coming months.

IREN Ltd., once known for mining Bitcoin, is undergoing a dramatic reinvention as an AI infrastructure provider—a transformation that will face a critical test when the company reports second-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Formerly Iris Energy, IREN has shifted away from crypto mining and into what it calls a “Neocloud” model, repurposing its stranded-energy Bitcoin sites into large-scale data centers designed to support artificial intelligence workloads.

A $9.7 billion partnership with Microsoft helped position IREN as a potential player in the race to supply next-generation compute capacity.

The ambition has not come cheap

Ahead of earnings, IREN shares have tumbled, falling nearly 19% intraday on Wednesday and down about 28% over the past five days, as investors worry that funding the company’s GPU-heavy cloud expansion could require dilutive equity issuance.

After a 314% rally over the past year, the pullback underscores growing skepticism about whether IREN can scale its AI cloud business without eroding shareholder value.

The upcoming earnings report represents a clear break from the company’s Bitcoin mining past, shifting attention to cloud execution, financing discipline, and competition with established players like Amazon and Oracle—making it a critical test of the company’s pivot.

IREN isn’t alone

Other companies have attempted comparable transformations—some successfully, others less so:

• Core Scientific – Transitioned from pure Bitcoin mining to offering high-performance computing and AI colocation services after emerging from bankruptcy, leveraging existing infrastructure to attract AI customers.
• Hut 8 – Expanded beyond crypto mining into HPC and data center services, pitching its energy assets as ideal for AI workloads.
• Northern Data – Repositioned itself as a European AI and cloud infrastructure provider, shifting investor focus from Bitcoin exposure to GPU-based compute capacity.
• Nvidia (earlier era) – While not a crypto miner, Nvidia successfully pivoted from gaming-focused GPUs to becoming the backbone of AI compute, showing how infrastructure players can redefine their identity through demand shifts.
• IBM – Moved from legacy hardware to cloud and AI services over the past decade, using partnerships and hybrid infrastructure to reinvent its growth narrative.

IREN now joins this list at a moment when AI infrastructure demand is booming—but capital markets patience is thinning. Whether it becomes a case study in smart reinvention or costly overreach may hinge on what it delivers this earnings season.

Key takeaways:

• Heavy outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and massive liquidations show that the market is purging highly leveraged buyers.

• Bitcoin options metrics reveal that pro traders are hedging for further price drops amid a tech stock sell-off.

Bitcoin (BTC) slid below $73,000 on Wednesday after briefly retesting the $79,500 level on Tuesday. This downturn mirrored a decline in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index, driven by a weak sales outlook from chipmaker AMD (AMD US) and disappointing United States employment data. 

Traders now fear further Bitcoin price pressure as spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded over $2.9 billion in outflows across twelve trading days.

The average $243 million daily net outflow from the US-listed Bitcoin ETFs since Jan. 16 nearly coincides with Bitcoin’s rejection at $98,000 on Jan. 14. The subsequent 26% correction over three weeks triggered $3.25 billion in liquidations for leveraged long BTC futures. Unless buyers deposited additional margin, any leverage exceeding 4x has already been wiped out.

Some market participants blamed the recent crash on the lingering aftermath of the $19 billion liquidation on Oct. 10, 2025. That incident was reportedly triggered by a performance glitch in database queries at Binance exchange, resulting in delayed transfers and incorrect data feeds. The exchange admitted fault and disbursed over $283 million in compensation to affected users.

According to Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, huge liquidations at Binance “could not get filled, but liquidation engines keep firing regardless. This caused market makers to get wiped out, and they were unable to pick up the pieces.” Qureshi added that the October 2025 crash did not permanently “break the market,” but noted that market makers “will need time to recover.”

The analysis suggests that cryptocurrency exchanges’ liquidation mechanisms “are not designed to be self-stabilizing the way that TradFi mechanisms are (circuit breakers, etc.)” and instead focus solely on minimizing insolvency risks. Qureshi notes that cryptocurrencies are a “long series” of “bad things” happening, but historically, the market eventually recovers.

BTC options skew signals traders doubt $72,100 bottom

To determine if professional traders flipped bearish after the crash, one should assess BTC options markets. During periods of stress, demand for put (sell) instruments surges, pushing the delta skew metric above the 6% neutral threshold. Excess demand for downside protection typically signals a lack of confidence from bulls.

The BTC options delta skew reached 13% on Wednesday, a clear indication that professional traders are not convinced Bitcoin’s price has found a bottom at $72,100. This skepticism stems partly from fears that the tech sector could suffer from increased competition as Google (GOOG US) and AMD roll out proprietary artificial intelligence chips.

Related: Bitcoin open interest falls by $55B in 30 days–What’s next for BTC price?

Another source of discomfort for Bitcoin holders involves two unrelated and unfounded rumors. First, a $9 billion Bitcoin sale by a Galaxy Digital customer in 2025 was previously attributed to quantum computing risks. However, Alex Thorn, Galaxy’s head of research, denied those rumors in an X post on Tuesday.

The second speculation involves Binance’s solvency, which gained traction after the exchange faced technical issues that temporarily halted withdrawals on Tuesday. Current onchain metrics suggest that Bitcoin deposits at Binance remain relatively stable.

Given the current uncertainty in macroeconomic trends, many traders have opted to exit cryptocurrency markets. This shift makes it difficult to predict whether Bitcoin spot ETF outflows will continue to apply downward pressure on the price.