After three years of operation, NFT marketplace X2Y2 has announced it will officially shut down on April 30, 2025, marking the end of its run in a once-booming sector. The team is now turning its attention toward a new frontier, AI-powered crypto infrastructure.
In a March 31 statement, X2Y2 said the pivot reflects both a changing market reality and a growing conviction in artificial intelligence as the next transformative force in crypto.
“It’s a pivot. Over the last 12 months, we’ve been diving deep into AI—hands down the biggest paradigm shift we’ll see in our lifetimes—and how it can transform crypto. We’re building something new.”
At its peak, X2Y2 emerged as a notable player in the NFT trading ecosystem. While it never reached the scale of market giants like Blur and OpenSea, the platform still recorded $53.6 million in trading volume over the past year, according to Token Terminal. That figure placed it fourth among NFT marketplaces, trailing Blur, OpenSea, and Immutable.
But momentum slowed considerably as NFT speculation waned and trading volumes plummeted industry-wide. With the speculative phase all but over, platforms like X2Y2 faced increasing pressure to evolve or exit.
Not a Collapse—But a Changing of the Guard
Despite the shutdown, experts argue this is not a death knell for NFTs.
Charu Sethi, president at Unique Network, emphasized that the industry is simply entering its next growth phase, one centered around utility, integration, and real-world applications.
Real-world projects support her claim. Mythical Games, for instance, has issued large-scale NFTs on Polkadot for in-game use. DappRadar also reports that blockchain gaming reached 7.4 million daily unique active wallets in 2024.
Sethi believes platforms like X2Y2 underscore a key lesson: network effects alone aren’t enough. Survival in this evolving space requires meaningful community-building and use cases that extend beyond trading.
Utility Over Hype: The New NFT Mantra
Alexander Salnikov, co-founder of Rarible, echoed similar sentiments. For him, the perceived slump in NFTs is part of a natural market cycle, not a structural failure.
“NFTs remain one of the most powerful primitives in crypto,” Salnikov said. “The next wave will be led by projects that focus on strong use cases—whether in gaming, digital identity, or brand engagement.”
While the team has kept details sparse, their announcement hints at a new AI-powered platform, one that offers yield opportunities across all market conditions, both bull and bear. The vision, according to the announcement, is to “imagine yields in a permissionless way, powered by AI.”
“This isn’t just another project,” the team wrote. “It’s our shot at creating real, long-term value in crypto for the broader community we’re proud to serve.”
Although the pivot comes as AI-related tokens have seen drawdowns of up to 90% from 2024 highs, there’s growing sentiment that the sector may follow a boom-bust-resurgence trajectory—similar to early ICO-era projects that later evolved into foundational protocols.
Embracing the Shift
X2Y2’s closure is not a sign of collapse, it’s a reflection of how fast innovation cycles in crypto move. As hype cools, the shift toward utility and integration is becoming the new industry standard.
For X2Y2, that means leaving behind the NFT marketplace model in favor of building AI-driven tools aimed at delivering sustainable, decentralized value. Whether their next chapter will define a new standard remains to be seen—but it’s clear they aren’t done making noise in Web3.
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