when i first found my way into crypto and nfts in late 2021, there was a very clear narrative: this is how artists make money on chain. nfts were the entry point. they were the bridge between creativity and income, and for a moment in time, that bridge was real.

someone close to me suggested i check out the space and encouraged me to experiment. they even suggested i bring my crystal world into it, to turn good juu juu crystals into nfts. good juu juu is my online + irl crystal store, and it’s also where my alias, juu juu mama, came from. it felt aligned, so i created crystal nfts called juu juu gallery. they’re still on opensea. i token-gated the store so that if you connected your wallet, you could get discounts.

digital ownership meeting physical ritual. art meeting commerce. web3 enhancing a wellness brand.but it didn’t really catch on. it wasn’t that people didn’t like the crystals or the art. the tech just wasn’t there yet. it wasn’t easy or seamless. and we launched on polygon, which added another layer of complexity for people who were already new to wallets, networks, and nfts. looking back, it feels less like a failure and more like an experiment that was ahead of its time.

i went on to see much more success minting my own original AI art as NFTs, without all the extra utility on onboarding necessary. i got myself onto prestigious platforms like superrare and my arts been shown all around the united states thanks to NFTs.

but four years later, things look very different.

there was a time when i would tell artists: just keep minting. mint consistently. mint through the doubt. and for a while, that advice made sense. but the landscape has shifted.

very few artists today are making sustainable, primary income from nfts alone. the era where artists could mint, sell out, and rely on collector demand has mostly passed. the collector base is smaller, and secondary resale value has largely dried up. without resale potential, a lot of speculative interest disappeared.

what’s left is a much smaller, more intentional group: people who genuinely collect art.

the overlap between people who love art and people who understand crypto, wallets, and blockchains is tiny. extremely niche. what’s needed is real collector outreach: irl, modern and traditional art collectors being introduced to blockchain art in ways that feel human and accessible. that’s something i want to build someday, but i don’t have the time or resources for it right now.

so instead of telling artists to mint more, i’m thinking about something else entirely.

i think now it’s about tending to what you’ve already made. selling the work that exists. giving it context, care, and new life. positioning creative projects in ways that feel relevant now, not the market of two or three years ago.

what i’m seeing now (how artists and creatives are making money onchain) seems to fall into three main paths.

the first is creator coins and token launches.

platforms like zora (which now supports solana, not just base) let creators coin their content and launch creator coins. they’re different from nfts in important ways i won’t unpack here, but the important thing is this: attention and collecting behavior have shifted.

artists are also launching their own tokens on different launchpads like pump, bonk, bagsapp, and others. i’ve done this myself with my token launch on bagsapp with billie. this is where momentum and liquidity are right now.

tokens aren’t just about speculation. they can be used to build community, tell ongoing stories, support missions, and fund initiatives that extend beyond a single drop.

the second path is infofi.

artists are using the platforms they’ve built in web3 (especially on x) to participate in emerging campaigns and ecosystems. by posting, creating, and ranking on leaderboards, they earn airdrops. people call it airdrop farming, but that framing misses something important: projects don’t just want volume. they want creativity.

artists bring storytelling, visuals, emotion, and originality. i’ve seen this firsthand. through wallchain, i joined a campaign where a project asked users to make a short video using their product. i made one. they liked it so much that they ended up working with me independently, outside the campaign, to create videos for them.

that opportunity came from showing up creatively, even inside an incentive system. it reminded me that how you show up matters. care, intention, and originality are noticed. they lead to real relationships.

the third way i’m seeing artists monetize their creativity is by training ai models on their own work.

this is something i’ve personally explored through platforms like midjourney, but also through onchain-native tools like TITLES.xyz and the Emerge mini-app.

the idea isn’t about replacing the artist. it’s about extending the artist. training models on your work allows your visual language, your aesthetics, your creative essence to become interactive. supporters don’t just look at the art, they engage with it. they can prompt it, remix it, explore it, and collaborate with it in ways that weren’t possible before.

i see this becoming increasingly popular for artists, especially those who think in systems, worlds, and long-term narratives. it’s another way to let your community step inside your creative universe, rather than just observe it from the outside.

for artists, this opens up new possibilities: new forms of patronage, new types of access, new storytelling layers, new economic models.

and again, it all comes back to the same thing: community.

whether it’s nfts, tokens, infofi, or ai-trained models, the common thread is invitation. how do you invite people into your work in ways that feel alive, participatory, and meaningful?

community. community gives your work visibility. community amplifies you. community sustains you when markets shift and narratives collapse. that’s where i’ve been focusing: community building, education, and adapting to where people are actually engaging and collecting.

i still have many uncollected nfts and i’m okay with that.

what i’m not going to do is keep minting endlessly into a void. i’m not interested in forcing an outdated model. instead, i’m choosing to shift... to follow the collectors, the culture, and the momentum. right now, that momentum is around creator coins, tokens, and community-driven ecosystems.

this isn’t an ending. it’s an evolution.

when i first found my way into crypto and nfts in late 2021, there was a very clear narrative: this is how artists make money on chain. nfts were the entry point. they were the bridge between creativity and income, and for a moment in time, that bridge was real.

someone close to me suggested i check out the space and encouraged me to experiment. they even suggested i bring my crystal world into it, to turn good juu juu crystals into nfts. good juu juu is my online + irl crystal store, and it’s also where my alias, juu juu mama, came from. it felt aligned, so i created crystal nfts called juu juu gallery. they’re still on opensea. i token-gated the store so that if you connected your wallet, you could get discounts.

digital ownership meeting physical ritual. art meeting commerce. web3 enhancing a wellness brand.but it didn’t really catch on. it wasn’t that people didn’t like the crystals or the art. the tech just wasn’t there yet. it wasn’t easy or seamless. and we launched on polygon, which added another layer of complexity for people who were already new to wallets, networks, and nfts. looking back, it feels less like a failure and more like an experiment that was ahead of its time.

i went on to see much more success minting my own original AI art as NFTs, without all the extra utility on onboarding necessary. i got myself onto prestigious platforms like superrare and my arts been shown all around the united states thanks to NFTs.

but four years later, things look very different.

there was a time when i would tell artists: just keep minting. mint consistently. mint through the doubt. and for a while, that advice made sense. but the landscape has shifted.

very few artists today are making sustainable, primary income from nfts alone. the era where artists could mint, sell out, and rely on collector demand has mostly passed. the collector base is smaller, and secondary resale value has largely dried up. without resale potential, a lot of speculative interest disappeared.

what’s left is a much smaller, more intentional group: people who genuinely collect art.

the overlap between people who love art and people who understand crypto, wallets, and blockchains is tiny. extremely niche. what’s needed is real collector outreach: irl, modern and traditional art collectors being introduced to blockchain art in ways that feel human and accessible. that’s something i want to build someday, but i don’t have the time or resources for it right now.

so instead of telling artists to mint more, i’m thinking about something else entirely.

i think now it’s about tending to what you’ve already made. selling the work that exists. giving it context, care, and new life. positioning creative projects in ways that feel relevant now, not the market of two or three years ago.

what i’m seeing now (how artists and creatives are making money onchain) seems to fall into three main paths.

the first is creator coins and token launches.

platforms like zora (which now supports solana, not just base) let creators coin their content and launch creator coins. they’re different from nfts in important ways i won’t unpack here, but the important thing is this: attention and collecting behavior have shifted.

artists are also launching their own tokens on different launchpads like pump, bonk, bagsapp, and others. i’ve done this myself with my token launch on bagsapp with billie. this is where momentum and liquidity are right now.

tokens aren’t just about speculation. they can be used to build community, tell ongoing stories, support missions, and fund initiatives that extend beyond a single drop.

the second path is infofi.

artists are using the platforms they’ve built in web3 (especially on x) to participate in emerging campaigns and ecosystems. by posting, creating, and ranking on leaderboards, they earn airdrops. people call it airdrop farming, but that framing misses something important: projects don’t just want volume. they want creativity.

artists bring storytelling, visuals, emotion, and originality. i’ve seen this firsthand. through wallchain, i joined a campaign where a project asked users to make a short video using their product. i made one. they liked it so much that they ended up working with me independently, outside the campaign, to create videos for them.

that opportunity came from showing up creatively, even inside an incentive system. it reminded me that how you show up matters. care, intention, and originality are noticed. they lead to real relationships.

the third way i’m seeing artists monetize their creativity is by training ai models on their own work.

this is something i’ve personally explored through platforms like midjourney, but also through onchain-native tools like TITLES.xyz and the Emerge mini-app.

the idea isn’t about replacing the artist. it’s about extending the artist. training models on your work allows your visual language, your aesthetics, your creative essence to become interactive. supporters don’t just look at the art, they engage with it. they can prompt it, remix it, explore it, and collaborate with it in ways that weren’t possible before.

i see this becoming increasingly popular for artists, especially those who think in systems, worlds, and long-term narratives. it’s another way to let your community step inside your creative universe, rather than just observe it from the outside.

for artists, this opens up new possibilities: new forms of patronage, new types of access, new storytelling layers, new economic models.

and again, it all comes back to the same thing: community.

whether it’s nfts, tokens, infofi, or ai-trained models, the common thread is invitation. how do you invite people into your work in ways that feel alive, participatory, and meaningful?

community. community gives your work visibility. community amplifies you. community sustains you when markets shift and narratives collapse. that’s where i’ve been focusing: community building, education, and adapting to where people are actually engaging and collecting.

i still have many uncollected nfts and i’m okay with that.

what i’m not going to do is keep minting endlessly into a void. i’m not interested in forcing an outdated model. instead, i’m choosing to shift... to follow the collectors, the culture, and the momentum. right now, that momentum is around creator coins, tokens, and community-driven ecosystems.

this isn’t an ending. it’s an evolution.