I was once told the two most stressful things in life are getting married and buying a house. When my wife and I were first time buyers, it seemed relatively straightforward. But when you are selling & buying a new home, it might be the most stressful thing I’ve ever experienced. Especially when the place you had put all your chips onto falls through at the eleventh hour, and you must scramble to find another property before your buyer grows impatient and pulls out…

That being said, whilst I don’t see myself as superstitious, I do think that things work out for a reason. And things did eventually work out.

Its been a while since I’ve written anything. After moving in, I took some time to focus on the new place with my family and decompress. I also took time out from NFTs, Crypto and the Art scene for a short while.

And boy, has the space changed yet again.

On the one side, you have Zora turning all minted posts into (meme)coins with their own marketcaps for ppl to collect and trade. You also have the upcoming Duels from the team at Remx, where you pitch art against each other and bet on the winner.

Meanwhile, Rodeo has seemingly decided to drop crypto altogether, moving over to USD. In their words, the platform is “Still On-Chain, but with none of the Crypto Bullshit”.

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about all of this.

In the case of Zora and Duels, I’m growing concerned that the market is leaning towards a necessity to incentivise art collection via gamification. Simply collecting for arts sake is no longer enough. In order to attract an audience, there needs to be a gimmick, a hook.

Less “How does the art make you feel”, more “what can the art do for me and why should I care”. Its almost about what mechanics are behind the token, rather than the token itself. I know in some regards you could argue its always been that way, but now it feels even more disingenuous.

In my bid to confirm my suspicions, I am trying out the recent changes at Zora. I can see how some will degen hard into it, similar to the likes of Pump.fun. But as a Web3 Instagram its also interesting, and the interface is clean. I will review Duels when I eventually get access, to better understand the systems.

As for Rodeo, its a decision that will split the audience in half. Particularly those who came over from Foundation. It could be seen to leave a bad taste in the mouth. For a long time, Foundation was seen as a key NFT Curated marketplace, originally on ETH, and then Base when the L2 was integrated. With all the published work from thousands of artists tied to cryptocurrency, to then say on your new platform that “Crypto is Bullshit” is a bold move indeed. What does that say about the legacy and preservation of their origins?

The crypto art space in 2025 feels more and more confused with what it wants to be, and I’m not sure how this identity crisis will manifest itself further. On the one hand it feels the need to employ gaming and gambling tactics to maintain relevance & attention. On the other, its shunning its roots. Perhaps time will tell.

Dan | Digitalgyoza is a lighting designer and digital AI artist based in the UK, who writes about Art, Technology, Web3, Culture and Blockchain.

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