# The 10 Biggest NFT Stories of 2025 *Author: William M. Peaster* *Published: Dec 23, 2025* *Source: https://www.bankless.com/read/10-biggest-nft-stories-2025* --- 2025 wasn’t a *euphoric *NFT year, but it was an important year for the NFT space nonetheless. It had cultural flashpoints, infra breakthroughs, regulatory resets, and a few genuine manias. That said, let's recap the 10 happenings that mattered most here in my opinion! ## **The SEC Ended Its NFT Cases** Crypto-friendly leadership took over at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this year, followed by a wave of investigation closures into onchain projects, including NFT teams like [OpenSea](https://www.theblock.co/post/342799/sec-ends-opensea-probe-weeks-after-nft-platform-confirms-sea-token-airdrop-bloomberg), [Yuga Labs](https://www.theblock.co/post/344348/yuga-labs-says-sec-has-closed-its-investigation-into-the-company-nfts-are-not-securities), and [CyberKongz](https://www.theblock.co/post/350905/nft-collection-cyberkongz-says-its-in-the-clear-after-sec-probe). For now, then, it's clear NFTs aren’t inherently securities in America, despite what Gary Gensler’s SEC implied with its 2023 enforcements against [Impact Theory](https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023-163) and [Stoner Cats](https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023-178). ## **Hypurr Drop Reminiscent of 2021** NFT collectibles had a relatively quiet year overall, but the post-drop trading frenzy around the Hyperliquid ecosystem's [Hypurr collection](https://opensea.io/collection/hypurr-hyperevm) was the closest 2025 came to reliving 2021's bull run energy. The project sparked ~$45 million in first-day volume and produced multiple six-figure sales for rares, including one north of $470,000. No other NFT launch has managed to approach this sort of demand this cycle. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/12/hyperliquid-the-year-perps-caught-fire-featured-image-6939c7151fcec70001855a3b.webp) ## **GONDI's Bear Market Resistance** While there was a general downturn in NFT trading in 2025, NFT lending platform [GONDI](https://www.gondi.xyz/) had a standout year. Alongside major infra upgrades, like [V3 lending](https://docs.gondi.xyz/), [native NFT trading](https://x.com/gondixyz/status/1937542413779620273), and [peer-to-peer swaps](https://x.com/gondixyz/status/2001346671041778152), the platform facilitated multiple [+$1M XCOPY sales](https://x.com/Tyler_Did_It/status/1928451707731644869) and a [permissionless extension](https://x.com/0xRoses0x/status/1967430527020863952) of the largest onchain NFT loan to date: $2.75M USDC against the rarest seven-trait CryptoPunk. ## **Tokenized Pokémon Cards Surged** Another bullish pocket of NFT activity in 2025 came via [Pokémon cards tokenized](https://www.bankless.com/read/will-tokenization-change-pokemon-forever) onchain. This format paved the way to gacha-style digital “pack rips,” where users pay to open randomized pulls with possible rare, high-value outcomes. The mechanic clearly resonated, as [more than $600M](https://dune.com/zkayape/pokemontcgsol) was spent on Pokémon TCG gacha activity across platforms like [Courtyard](https://x.com/Courtyard_io), [Collector Crypt](https://x.com/Collector_Crypt), and [Phygitals](https://x.com/phygitals) this year. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/12/will-tokenization-change-pokemon-forever-featured-image-68bb0c6bd972210001439f25.webp) ## **The AB500 Announcement** [Art Blocks](https://www.artblocks.io/) brought generative art into Ethereum’s mainstream after launching in Nov. 2020. 5 years later, Art Blocks solidified its legacy with [AB500](https://www.artblocks.io/articles/art-blocks-500-complete-collection), formally sealing its first 500 projects as a complete foundational set. The cap reframes these initial releases as a canon and signals a shift from perpetual Art Blocks Curated drops toward preservation, tooling, and new generative Studio and Engine collaborations. ## **Bitcoin's NFT Schism ** Bitcoin’s NFT debate escalated in 2025 from cultural grumbling into open governance conflict. The [v30 update to Bitcoin Core](https://www.bankless.com/read/bitcoins-nft-schism-is-intensifying) that made data storage cheaper and more flexible reignited backlash against meta-protocols like Ordinals, with critics labeling Bitcoin NFTs as spam and reviving soft-fork rhetoric. The technical dispute has now turned into a broader fight over Bitcoin’s neutrality and long-term identity. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/12/the-bitcoin-knots-vs-core-civil-war-featured-image-68fcdf6b3a591400018b3a41.webp) ## **TokenStrategy Arrived** One team that did bring considerable excitement back to NFT collectibles this year was TokenWorks, namely through its [PunkStrategy](https://www.bankless.com/read/beginners-guide-punkstrategy-pnkstr), [NFTStrategy](https://www.bankless.com/read/nftstrategy-extending-punkstrategy), and [TokenStrategy](https://www.bankless.com/read/the-strategy-meta-tokenstrategy) releases. By complementing NFTs with liquid, tradable strategy tokens that are designed for symbiotic flywheels, the project created a surge of interest in this space the likes of which few NFT experiments have managed since 2021. ## **New ERC-8004 Standard** ERC-8004 was [introduced in Aug. 2025](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004) as a mechanism to bring trustlessness to AI agents onchain. Its identity layer relies on ERC-721 NFTs to represent agents and make them ownable and tradable. The standard quickly gained traction on testnet, and with an early 2026 mainnet rollout ahead, ERC-8004 should increasingly converge with other AI standards, like [A2A](https://developers.googleblog.com/en/a2a-a-new-era-of-agent-interoperability/) and [x402](https://www.bankless.com/read/x402-v2-and-the-road-to-agentic-commerce) (e.g. Daydreams), into a major new coordination layer. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/12/ethereum-foundation-forms-new-ai-team-featured-image-68c86bee84c68400017a135b.webp) ## **DX Terminal's Trading Game** One of the largest crypto gaming events of 2025 came via [DX Terminal](https://terminal.markets/), an AI-driven financial simulation built by DX Research Group on Base. Nearly 4,000 players made +2M simulated trades via [+36,000 NFT-based agents](https://opensea.io/collection/dxterminal), with secondary trading volume having since surpassed $100M. The title showed that hybrid AI-onchain games can scale from being niche experiments into genuine mass-participation spectacles. ## **CryptoPunks in MoMA** This December, the Museum of Modern Art added [CryptoPunks and Chromie Squiggles](https://www.theblock.co/post/383446/moma-adds-cryptopunks-and-chromie-squiggles-nfts-to-permanent-collection-following-coordinated-donation) to its permanent collection. The coordinated community [donation effort](https://x.com/ethereum/status/2002531906546708591) further canonized these major NFTs as new media art worthy of institutional history, and their advance here suggests we'll see similar efforts with other leading museums in the years ahead. --- *This article is brought to you by [MetaMask](https://www.bankless.com/sponsor/metamask-1776260643?ref=read/10-biggest-nft-stories-2025)*