Does This Signals A Losing Investor Confidence?
NFT trends are dying out, with a steep decline in their trading volume, and many NFT marketplaces are being affected. X2Y2, a leading NFT marketplace, has announced its plan to shut down its trading platform on April 30 after 3 years of operation.
The decision follows a 90% decline in its trading volume since its peak in 2022. The market cap of its native token X2Y2 also shows a steep downturn, a 99% drop from its all-time high of $4.14 in February 2022, now trading at $0.0014.
It’s Time To Move On
After 3 successful years of contribution to NFTs, X2Y2, once the 2nd leading NFT marketplace after OpenSea, is saying goodbye to NFT trading. With a trading volume of $5.6 billion, the platform is now ranked as the third-largest in-game NFT platform. Its front-end service will no longer be accessible to its users from April 30, however, its smart contract will remain functional.
With its peak trading volume of $209 million in May 2022, X2Y2 has established its position in the NFT marketplace, giving stiff competition to OpenSea and Blur. However, the overall NFT market downturn and heavy competition from rivals led to the platform’s closure. X2Y2 founder, TP, revealed in its shutdown announcement that the marketplace lives or dies by network activities, and amid their hard work to become the number 1, it’s time to move on.
The X2Y2 shutdown marks an unfortunate end to a crypto utility that was hyped as the next big thing in the crypto industry in the last bull cycle.
X2Y2 To Focus On Long-Term Value Products Within Crypto
Though winding down its NFT marketplace, X2Y2 is not bidding bye to the crypto industry, instead, it is planning to focus on new financial tools that incline to artificial intelligence and provide more useful crypto investment products.
Despite describing the upcoming project as ‘decentralized, innovative and built to matter across market cycles, ’ the announcement doesn’t give many details of the project; however, many anticipate a new platform that focuses on generating yields in a permissionless manner.
Not Only X2Y2, But Many NFT Marketplaces Are Facing A Similar Downturn
It is not just X2Y2 that was affected by the declining NFT trading volume; OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, is also struggling to keep up with changing NFT industry dynamics. Its revenue has shrunk to a few hundred thousand from millions in the previous year.
The token launch announcement in February, which was aimed at broadening the ecosystem and giving it a new look, had no further follow-ups, signaling a pause to the proposed plans.
LG, a strong contributor to the NFT marketplace, has recently announced its plan to discontinue its NFT platform, LG Art Lab, following the changing market conditions.
Launched in September 2022 to enable users to display NFTs on smart TVs and collaborate with artists, the platform has created a strong impact on NFT aspirants, and with its shutdown on June 17, the NFT industry will witness another painful ending.
Investors Losing Confidence In NFTs?
Since the beginning of 2024, the NFT market has witnessed an overall decline. The decline is followed by a reduced interest among investors in speculative trading. However, according to industry experts, NFTs are emerging beyond speculations and will evolve in gaming, digital identity, and brand management.
The 2025 NFT Paris event, which attracted around 20,000 audiences, including developers and investors, signals that the interest in NFTs has not faded and still remains the same, though not as strong as the 2022 boom. The current decline is a part of the market correction and overall crypto downturn.
NFTs are promising assets in crypto, and future projects will focus on these real-world utility products. Ups and downs are part of the volatile crypto market, and NFTs with strong utilities are poised to be strong assets of the future.