Popularity declines, top projects are absent, highlights and regrets of NFT.NYC, the "Super Bowl of NFT"

While hundreds of Web3 conferences in Hong Kong ignited the crypto craze in the East, the 2023 "NFT Super Bowl" NFT.NYC also held a three-day event in New York, USA from April 12 to 14. Although the influence and popularity of this conference have declined due to the fact that the overall NFT market is not as large as before, the real use cases in the event, such as NFT treasure hunt games, the combination of NFT and NFC chips, and Web3 science fiction films, show that NFT still has strong innovation and narrative power.
With the absence of multiple leading projects, NFT.NYC market popularity has declined
NFT.NYC was co-founded by Jodee Rich and Cameron Bale in 2018. The original intention was to listen to the voice of the community and promote the value of NFT for NFT creators and collectors. This year is the fifth NFT.NYC, with a total of about 1,500 speakers, including OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah, PwC partner Anna Kajirian, Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu, etc. The speech topics are divided into features, art, brand, community, entertainment, future, games and law.
Affected by the weak NFT market, compared with the last year's sponsorship of over 260, NFT.NYC 2023 attracted only 88 projects/enterprises such as Immutable, OpenSea, AWS, PwC and TRON. At the same time, the number of NFT.NYC attendees also dropped from 16,000 in 2022 to about 6,000 this year. Not only that, only 66 NFT.NYC official tickets, NFT NYC 2023 PASS, were sold, accounting for only 26.4% of the total.
In addition, unlike the 2022 NFT.NYC event, which was held in seven well-known venues in New York City, including the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel and Times Square, most of the events at this conference were shared by multiple sponsors, and some were held in free or affordable venues, such as public spaces in apartment buildings or dive bars. In this regard, internal members of NFT.NYC said that external activities are more important, and all the money the company has invested in the past few years does not necessarily help the Web3 cause.
The popularity of NFT NYC may also be related to the absence of some leading projects. Compared with last year's star lineup, BAYC, Azuki, Doodles and Coolcats are all absent from NFT.NYC this year. At the same time, the ApeFest held by BAYC and NFT NYC in 2022 was a star-studded event. Eminem, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Shawn Yue, Stephen Fung and other well-known domestic and foreign stars participated in the event, attracting a lot of traffic inside and outside the circle. This year, BAYC's parent company Yuga Labs will not hold it together with NFT NYC, but will find a new location.
Innovation moments worth noting
"Whether it's a bear market or not, Web3 and NFT culture still exist and develop well." NFT NYC officials said. Despite the decline in popularity, the creativity of NFT is still fully demonstrated at NFT NYC.
For example, many projects have launched NFT activities based on geographic location. Among them, the NFT treasure hunt launched by well-known NFT collector Gmoney and its Web3 native luxury brand 9dcc has created an immersive NFT experience. Over three days, the NFT treasure hunt requires participants to follow clues to find various landmarks in New York City and sign in at least seven different locations. By scanning each location on their mobile phone to sign in, they can get a commemorative POAP and pin from New York City artist Snuffy (while supplies last); prizes include rare Chromie Squiggle NFTs, unminted Chromie Squiggle NFT series launched by Art Blocks CEO Erick Calderon, and holders will be eligible to participate in gamification activities created by 9dcc in the future; DeLabs, the startup behind DeGods and Y00Ts, launched a multi-day DeNYC experience, where participants can win NFT casting opportunities and prizes worth more than $100,000 by checking in at famous landmarks such as Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, and Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital.
At the same time, NFC and NFT have more integration, including the ITERATION-03 baseball cap launched by 9dcc, which introduces an NFC chip to increase the social attributes between wearers; the traditional American cowboy brand Wrangler Jeans and NFT artist Jeremy Booth have teamed up to create an exclusive phygital wearable device. The NFC chip embedded in the item can be connected to the NFT designed by Booth. In addition to its collection value, it can also be used as a means of enhancing identity authentication and proof of ownership. The first 300 collectors who met Booth during NFT NYC will be able to obtain an exclusive NFT, which has not yet been publicly released. More details on the relevant issuance mechanism, price and date will be announced soon.
In addition, the NFT NYC conference also demonstrated that the concept of Web3 is being spread to a wider range of groups through film and television works. Veteran film producer and actor David Bianchi presented the upcoming dystopian science fiction drama "RZR" at the conference. This is a truly Web3 native work produced by Web3 and will premiere on the Web3 entertainment platform Gala Film. NFT holders can obtain exclusive rewards, access rights and movie experiences through four rare levels of NFT.
In addition, with the release of the Ordinals protocol, Bitcoin NFT has also become popular this year. During the NFT NYC event, the Bitcoin application ecosystem Trust Machines held an event at a Bitcoin-themed bar called PubKey, and many Bitcoin enthusiasts also participated.
It is worth mentioning that many well-known projects and companies also issued NFTs during the NFT NYC conference. For example, Pudgy Penguins and the NFT derivatives trading market 0xmerch.io jointly launched the NFT NYC 2023 limited edition Brick toy. Buyers will automatically receive the Pudgy Penguins NFT NYC 2023 commemorative SBT. In the future, the Pudgy Penguins community and the 0xmerch platform will empower the holders of this SBT more. Mastercard has launched a free Music Pass NFT, which can be minted for free on Polygon before the end of April. Holders can use features such as the AI ​​music generator application and have a chance to win a live concert hosted by artists in the Mastercard Accelerator Program in June. Moonbirds' parent company PROOF launched a new NFT series, which will be released on April 27, including 22 digital art works created by 10,000 artists including Beeple, and will host Beeple's LIVE Everyday party for Moonbirds holders at NFT NYC. Camera giant Canon USA Inc. USA will launch the Ethereum NFT market "Cadabra" later this year, which will offer NFTs based on photos in various categories, including wildlife, sports, lifestyle, and scenery. Cadabra will also provide photo collections and secondary market services for reselling NFTs.
From this point of view, although market changes have a certain impact on market participation, the real use cases of these NFT NYCs have demonstrated that NFTs still have strong creativity in fields such as entertainment, fashion, art and culture, as well as disruptive power for the economy of artists and creators.