As the NFT market is undergoing a steady decline, X2Y2, which, at its peak, ranked as the second-largest NFT platform behind OpenSea, is shutting down to move to a new, exciting AI project.
X2Y2, a popular marketplace platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has announced its intention to close the service as of April 30, 2025.
The team behind the project is going to explore new avenues, currently developing a long-term value AI-driven crypto initiative.
X2Y2 was, and till the end of the next month, still is a notable NFT marketplace. Although not as large as the market leader Opensea, X2Y2 managed to achieve an all-time trading volume of $5.6 billion just when the NFT hype was in full swing. At the time, it was the second-largest volume recorded in the industry. Even after the notable market decline, X2Y2 maintained its prominence. In the year leading up to its closure, the platform recorded a trading volume of $53.6 million, placing it fourth among existing NFT marketplaces.
The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market has experienced significant fluctuations over the last few years. It peaked in late 2021 and early 2022, when virtual land plots in Decentraland were selling for between $6,000 and $100,000 and Beeple’s artwork was valued at almost $70 million. However, the rush for non-fungible tokens didn’t last long.
In less than a year, OpenSea, the largest marketplace for digital collectables and NFTs, experienced a dramatic 94% drop in monthly trading volume, from $4.86bn in January 2022 to $303m in October 2022. Between May 2022 and September 2024, the NFT market’s total value plummeted by approximately 97.5%, from $1.04 trillion to $25.7 billion. The number of wallets engaging in NFT transactions decreased by 75%, indicating a significant reduction in market participation.
As nearly 44.5% of NFT holders reported financial losses, the average lifespan of an NFT project was reduced to just a little over one year, which is considerably shorter than traditional cryptocurrency ventures. As of September 2024, 96% of over 5,000 analysed NFT collections were deemed “dead,” exhibiting no trading activity and minimal social media engagement. Even in 2024, the market saw no recovery signs despite falling interest rates and rising affection for crypto.
Speculative transactions, including NFTs, continued their steady decline instead. In the first quarter of 2025, NFT sales totalled approximately $1.5 billion – a 63% decrease compared to the $4.1 billion recorded during the same period in 2024.
Although some enthusiastic projections still anticipate growth in the NFT market over the coming years, X2Y2 decided not to wait in vain. The founding team decided to discontinue X2Y2 as an NFT marketplace to update the project with a new mission and vision in the future.
In particular, the project developers want to shift the focus to long-term value creation over fleeting trends and explore advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and its transformative potential within the crypto space. Although the exact plan is still unknown, the X2Y2 team mentioned leveraging AI to create decentralised, permissionless financial solutions that drive sustainable value across market cycles.
X2Y2 explained that the underlying smart contracts will remain active, allowing users to interact with them as needed. However, the marketplace itself will no longer function. That would very likely have a negative impact on the value of X2Y2 tokens, native utility tokens of the closing NFT marketplace, which the team acknowledges, promising to remain committed to transparency throughout this transition process.
As of March 31, 2025, the X2Y2 token is trading at approximately $0.0014, with a 24-hour trading volume of around $189,6K. This represents a 99.96% decline from its all-time high of $4.17, registered at the peak of popularity. In the last 24 hours, the token’s value decreased by about 12,6%.
X2Y2 is not alone in its efforts to re-shift the focus to more profitable and prospective blockchain venues. In late 2024, Kraken decided to close its NFT marketplace, entering withdrawal-only mode, to reallocate resources to new products and services. Quidd and MakersPlace NFT platforms announced closures earlier in 2025.
The retailers also understand the futility of the fleeting NFT trend for now. Thus, Starbucks’ “Odyssey Beta program” which allowed users to engage in coffee-themed games and challenges in return for digital collectable NFT stamps wound up in March 2024. LG also announced the shutdown of its NFT platform, Art Lab, which allowed users to buy, sell, and display digital artwork via their TVs, due on June 17, 2025.
