Three years ago, he pressed the confirmation button and bought a BAYC monkey for 1.5 million. At that moment, he felt he had obtained a passport to the digital world.

Today, the floor price of this monkey is 150,000. This is not a halving; it’s an ankle cutting.

Golden Age: When avatars were worth more than houses.

2021-2022, those were the craziest years for NFTs.

  • Twitter blue verification? Weak. A monkey avatar is the true symbol of identity.

  • Some people bought houses in Shanghai with cash by flipping Punks.

  • In the Discord community, holders refer to each other as 'family' and share the joy of sudden wealth.

The belief back then was very simple: scarcity = value.

We all believe that what we bought was not just an image, but a ticket to a digital renaissance.

Collapse: From altar to memorial

The tide recedes faster than anyone can imagine.

Data does not lie:

  • BAYC floor price dropped from a peak of 150 ETH to 15 ETH

  • CryptoPunks trading volume shrank by 90%

  • OpenSea's daily active users are less than one-tenth of the peak

The more brutal reality is cognitive collapse:
We thought we were buying art, but it was just a JPG;
We thought we were buying a community, but it was just a Discord group;
We thought we were buying an identity, but we found everyone was wearing the same mask.

Nirvana: The second life of NFTs

But has NFT really died? No, it has just shed the emperor's new clothes.

A new generation of NFTs is returning to essence:

🎮 Game assets: StepN's sneakers, Axie's pets, only valuable when used
🆔 On-chain identity: ENS domain names, Galxe credentials, becoming your Web3 resume
🎨 Creator economy: Artists sell directly, fans pay for content

The bubble has burst, but the foundation is exposed.

The bloody lesson: What have we learned?

  1. Liquidity ≠ Value
    The floor price can drop to zero instantly; true value takes time to accumulate

  2. Community ≠ Belief
    In a bull market, we are brothers; in a bear market, we fly solo. A true community is built together, not just a group.

  3. Scarcity ≠ Necessity
    10,000 monkeys are scarce, but the world doesn't necessarily need them.

Written for you who are still holding on

If you still hold a certain 'monkey', don’t despair.

That 'he' who spent 1 million might not be a fool, but a prophet—his clock just ticks a little faster than ours.

The NFT experiment is far from over; it has merely returned from the speculator's casino to the builder's site.

The bubble will burst, but the stories will be passed down.
The 1 million spent was not on monkeys, but a ticket into an era.

💬 The truth is in the comments:
→ How much 'tuition' have you paid for NFTs?
→ Do you still believe in the value of digital assets?
→ Where will the next wave of NFT craze be?

Share this article to commemorate our shared NFT youth.

If you resonate, please:
Like 👍 so more 'monkey owners' can see
Collect ⭐ this memory of the era
Follow ➕ to see more industry truths#nft