State of NFTs and the Future of IP Collectibles Prices have plummeted. The skepticism is loud. Many have concluded the NFT experiment failed. But if you zoom out far beyond the last cycle, the question flips entirely. Because collecting isn’t an NFT invention. It’s a human instinct. And instincts don’t disappear because of a bear market. 1. The Collector Instinct Archaeology shows the same pattern everywhere. Prehistoric humans kept shells. Ancient societies collected coins. Modern culture hoards sneakers and cards. None of this began as "investment." Meaning came first. Value came last. Take my personal experience with Pokémon cards. I still have my binders from childhood. When I was ripping open booster packs as a kid, not once did I think: "I'm going to 100x this in 25 years." I wasn't looking for ROI. I was looking for the joy of owning a piece of the world I loved. Collecting is emotional long before it becomes financial. 2. The Liquidity Disconnect This is where the cultural mismatch happens. Crypto culture thrived from trading, speculation, leverage. Naturally, the first question is: "Does this go up?" If it doesn't, they assume it has no purpose. But true collectors don’t think like that. Collectors are the final consumers. Collectors care about meaning now. Not resale later. This is the core cultural mismatch around NFTs: trader logic vs. collector logic. The people buying Pokémon cards today at premium for further profit? They are traders, and liquidity providers, not the foundation who are collectors. 3. The World after the Bubble Yes. NFT prices were excessive. But bubbles don’t kill categories; they precede them. Railroads, or internet stocks all followed similar arc. After every bubble comes the quiet phase: Speculators leave. Builders focus. Collectors stay silent. Foundations form. Digital collectibles is in that incubation window right now. Human behavior hasn’t changed. The medium is simply catching up. 4. The "First Editions" of Digital IP We are seeing the first real attempts at turning NFTs into lasting IP. These are not finished products. They are toddlers. But the direction is correct: @Azuki is now focusing on a TCG. If people actually enjoy playing and collecting, emotional attachment compounds - exactly how real collecting cultures start. @pudgypenguins spreads its characters across retail and the internet, especially through GIFs. When a character becomes casually recognizable, cultural seepage has begun. Recent wins with Congressmen wearing $PENGU PFP and the BE@RBRICKS collabs showcase how they have grown in relevance. @doodles is expanding through animated characters and mainstream partnerships (McDonald’s, Crocs, Adidas, Universal), slowly distributing their joyful visual palette. The recent McDonald's holiday promotion was a massive distribution to millions of people. The OG @BoredApeYC is trying to turn a cultural moment into a broader world through Otherside. Early, uncertain, but world-building always is. None of these are “finished". They’re simply first drafts. Note that every major IP began with awkward first drafts. 5. Great IP Thrives with Time. Marvel wasn’t Marvel three years in. Hello Kitty wasn’t Hello Kitty three years in. Good IP takes years. Great IP takes decades. All NFT-native IPs are toddlers. Barely beginning their cultural journey. To the financial eye, the current state looks like a crash. To the anthropological eye, it looks like the incubation window. And that’s the entire point: So will NFT floor prices ever return to the mania of the last cycle? Honestly, probably not, and that’s fine. But will digital IP collectibles dominate future collecting behavior as our lives become more online, more global, more digital? For me, that answer is obvious: Yes, absolutely. Markets fluctuate. Hype fades. Cycles reset. But collecting survives everything. And whenever the world becomes more digital, our instinct to collect simply moves with it. Digital collectibles aren’t going away. They’re just getting started.