What are the new trends in the NFT market in 2025?

1. Utility NFTs have become mainstream

Trend Description

NFT is transitioning from simple digital collectibles to practical NFTs that provide actual functionality and value. These NFTs not only represent ownership but also unlock exclusive content, event tickets, membership benefits, or real-world services. For example, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) enhances the long-term value of NFTs by offering offline event experiences through ApeFest to holders.

Market Impact

• Growth Driver: Practical NFTs have attracted a wider audience, especially in the gaming, entertainment, and fashion industries. By 2025, more projects are expected to integrate practical features, such as digital tickets or brand loyalty programs.
• CaseThe in-game NFT trading volume of Axie Infinity has exceeded $4 billion, demonstrating the potential of practical NFTs in the gaming economy.
• Data support: Statista predicts that the revenue of the NFT market will reach $608.6 million and the number of users will increase to 11.64 million by 2025, with practical NFTs being the key driver of growth.

Investment advice

Focus on collections that offer ongoing rewards (such as royalties or airdrops) in NFT projects, and prioritize collaborations with well-known brands or gaming platforms.

2. Tokenization Accelerates Real World Asset (RWA)

Trend Description

NFTs are being used to tokenize real-world assets, such as real estate, art, and luxury goods, into digital assets, supporting partial ownership and broader investment opportunities. This trend, facilitated by the transparency and liquidity of blockchain, reduces the barriers to entry for high-value assets.

Market Impact

• Emerging MarketsBy 2025, the application of RWA NFT in real estate and art fields is rapidly growing. For example, Centrifuge's Tinlake platform allows enterprises to tokenize real assets for use as collateral for loans.
• Regional Dynamics: North America is expected to dominate the largest market share by 2035 (USD 17.5 billion) due to strong demand for digital ownership; the Asia-Pacific region is growing rapidly due to the blockchain gaming craze.
• Challenge: Regulatory clarity is still needed, especially in terms of intellectual property rights and anti-money laundering compliance, which may affect the widespread adoption of RWA NFTs.

Investment advice

Focus on platforms that specialize in tokenizing real estate or art, such as Rarible or Mintable, and prioritize projects with clear legal frameworks.

3. The explosion of NFT games and virtual economy

Trend description

NFT integration in the gaming industry is reshaping the relationship between players and virtual assets, allowing players to truly own and trade in-game items (such as weapons, skins, virtual land). By 2025, NFT games are expected to become the core of market growth, driven by low-cost Layer-2 solutions and user-friendly platforms.

Market Impact

• Data-Driven: The NFT game market is expected to grow from $471.9 billion in 2024 to $942.58 billion in 2029, with a CAGR of 14.8%. The daily NFT trading volume remains as high as 12,000 transactions, indicating a vibrant gaming economy.
• Leading project: Axie Infinity and The Sandbox empower players with asset control through the NFT market, creating billions of dollars in transactions respectively.
• Technical Support: Blockchains like Polygon and Solana attract developers with low costs and high scalability, driving the popularity of NFTs in the mass market.

Investment advice

Invest in NFT gaming projects on Polygon or Solana, focusing on metrics such as player community activity and asset liquidity.

4. The Integration of AI and NFT: The Rise of Intelligent NFTs (iNFTs)

Trend Description

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is injecting new vitality into the NFT market, especially in the fields of AI-generated art and intelligent NFTs (iNFTs). By 2025, the ERC-7857 standard introduced by 0G Labs will allow AI agents to securely transfer NFTs, re-encrypt sensitive data, opening up new markets for AI ownership and decentralized technology.

Market Impact

• Search Trends: The search volume of 'AI NFT' is expected to rebound in 2025, indicating the market's interest in AI-driven collectibles. AI algorithms are also used to curate personalized NFT collections, enhancing user engagement.
• Application scenarios: iNFTs can be used in games (dynamic upgrading of characters), art (digitized works that change over time), and emerging AI markets, attracting more creators and investors.
• Challenge: Copyright and originality issues of AI-generated content may trigger legal disputes, requiring close attention to regulatory developments.

Investment advice

Explore platforms or AI NFT generation websites that support ERC-7857, prioritizing projects with clear copyright protection mechanisms.

5. Expansion of blockchain infrastructure and native tokens

Trend Description

NFT projects are shifting from single collectibles to building blockchain infrastructure, launching native tokens to enhance the ecosystem. For example, the PENGU token of Pudgy Penguins and the upcoming Abstract blockchain (Layer-2) have driven their NFT floor price to a record high (35 ETH). Similarly, the partnership between Azuki's ANIME token and AnimeChain (Layer-3) has also boosted market interest.

Market Impact

• Project CaseBAYC and Memeland are also developing Layer-3 and Layer-2 networks, indicating that NFT projects are transitioning towards a comprehensive ecosystem.
• Market reaction: After the airdrop of Pudgy Penguins and Azuki tokens, the floor prices of NFTs rose by 35 ETH and 2 ETH respectively, showing a positive response from the community to infrastructure investment.
• Long-term potentialBy 2030, the NFT market is expected to reach $152.54 billion (CAGR 34.2%), with infrastructure-driven ecosystems being a key growth point.

Investment advice

Focus on launching NFT projects with native tokens and blockchain networks, such as Pudgy Penguins or Azuki, and prioritize projects with high community involvement and fair token distribution.

Market background and challenges

Market Size

By 2025, the NFT market is expected to generate revenues of $608.6 million, a decrease of 11.01% from $683.9 million in 2024, reflecting market consolidation and the fading speculative frenzy. However, long-term forecasts are optimistic, with the market size potentially reaching $35 billion by 2035 (CAGR 30.41%).

Regional Highlights

• United StatesLeading with revenue of $1.152 billion.
• PhilippinesThe NFT ownership rate (32%) far exceeds the global average, indicating the potential of the Asia-Pacific region.

Challenge

• Environmental Impact: Despite Ethereum's move to PoS, energy-intensive blockchains still face criticism. By 2025, more platforms will adopt Layer-2 and eco-friendly minting processes.
• Regulatory pressureThe global legal definition of NFT is still unclear, especially in the fields of intellectual property rights and anti-money laundering. By 2025, regulatory clarity may attract institutional investors, but it may also increase compliance costs in the short term.
• Market fluctuationsThe NFT trading volume in early 2025 decreased by 24% from December 2024 (from $9.01 billion to $6.839 billion), indicating continued market volatility.

Investment and participation advice

Diversified investment

Diversify investments in practical NFTs, RWA tokenization, and game NFTs to reduce single-project risk.

Platform Attention

Preferably choose OpenSea (which accounts for 90% of the trading volume), Rarible, or low-cost platforms like Polygon, and pay attention to newcomers such as Amazon Digital Marketplace.

Track community dynamics

Through X platform (such as@NFT_NYCTo get the latest trends and project updates, pay attention to community-driven projects to assess long-term potential.

Risk Management

Beware of speculative bubbles and fraud risks, choose projects with transparent smart contracts and audit records.

Conclusion

The NFT market in 2025 is moving towards a new stage of utility, sustainability, and technological innovation. Practical NFTs, tokenization of RWAs, NFT games, AI-driven iNFTs, and the expansion of blockchain infrastructure are core trends expected to drive the market from speculation to long-term value creation. Despite facing regulatory and volatility challenges, NFTs have broad prospects in the fields of gaming, art, and digital ownership. Investors should closely follow leading projects (such as Pudgy Penguins, Azuki) and emerging technologies (such as ERC-7857), track market dynamics through Gate.com, CoinMarketCap, and X platform to seize growth opportunities in 2025.

Disclaimer;The NFT market is highly risky, and it is recommended to conduct thorough research and assess personal risk tolerance before investing. Refer to the latest data from CoinMarketCap or Statista for real-time market insights.