Source: Cointelegraph Original: "{title}"

The NFT trading platform X2Y2 has announced it will shut down after three years of operation.

According to an announcement on March 31, X2Y2 will officially cease operations on April 30, and the team will shift its focus to AI project development. The team has shown great enthusiasm for this rapidly evolving field:

"This is a strategic transformation. Over the past 12 months, we have delved deeply into AI—undoubtedly the biggest paradigm shift we will witness in our lifetime—and how it will change the crypto industry. We are building new projects."

Data from Token Terminal shows that X2Y2's trading volume over the past 365 days was $53.6 million. While this is far from the $3 billion trading volume of market leader Blur, it still places X2Y2 fourth after Blur, OpenSea, and Immutable.

X2Y2 365 Trading Volume Chart. Source: Token Terminal

Charu Sethi, president of Unique Network, which focuses on NFTs on the Polkadot and Kusama chains, stated that this decision does not signify a decline in the NFT market. She told Cointelegraph: "The speculative phase dominated by collectibles and trading has ended, but NFTs are entering the next growth era as core infrastructure, bringing tremendous opportunities for gaming, AI, fan interaction, and content authentication."

Real-world applications are key

Sethi highlighted the numerous NFT cases for in-game integration released on Polkadot after Mythical Games completed a $75 million funding round in 2021. She also cited a DappRadar report indicating that the number of daily active unique wallets in the blockchain gaming sector reached 7.4 million in 2024.

Sethi believes: "X2Y2's experience proves that NFT platforms cannot solely rely on market network effects." Businesses should build community and market resilience by integrating NFTs into real-world applications, focusing on practical value rather than speculation. She stated: "Platforms should shift to a utility-driven model, incentivizing users to engage continuously through gaming, sports fan economies, or AI applications. Successful platforms will create ecosystems that sustain the value cycle of NFTs, rather than merely serving as speculative trading assets."

Alexander Salnikov, co-founder of the Rarible NFT marketplace, told Cointelegraph that the current downturn is just a part of the larger NFT cycle. He agrees with Sethi's viewpoint, emphasizing: "NFTs remain the most powerful foundational element in the crypto space, and the next wave will be led by projects focusing on strong use cases like gaming, digital identity, or brand interaction."

New direction

The X2Y2 announcement did not provide detailed information about the new projects but hinted that readers could envision "an AI-driven permissionless revenue system." It is reported that the new platform will allow users to profit throughout bull and bear cycles, creating a new paradigm for decentralized AI trading: "This is not just another project; it is our attempt to create long-term value in the crypto space for the community."

At the time of the announcement, AI-related tokens had dropped by up to 90% from their 2024 highs. However, recent analyses indicate that the trajectory of AI-driven crypto agents may replicate the classic cycle of boom, bubble, and revival seen during the ICO era.

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