NFTs During "Tough Times": How Aesthetics Shifts During Market Downturns - January 7, 2026

Art becomes a weird thing during times of economic uncertainty because on one hand, when times get tough, the art budget is usually the first to go.

On the other hand, the hard times itself creates demand for escapism and understanding - which is what the medium itself provides.

The demand for art remains the same. The *types* of art that gets popular changes. You can see society's changing priorities the most clearly by looking at the art of its time.

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[AI Summary]

The NFT space is facing a "Great Depression" moment, with hype cycles dead and markets down. But history shows tough times don't kill art—they transform it. Here’s the shift we’re entering:

From Speculative Asset to Cultural Tool: The VC-funded bubble is over. Projects like Cryptopunks, with little utility beyond status, are losing relevance. The future isn't about flipping JPEGs; it's about using NFTs for what they're good for: verification, access, and preserving culture.

Aesthetic Shift: Darker & More Authentic: Just as Romanticism gave way to darker Modernism pre-WWI, NFT art is reflecting our sobering reality. Look at chains like Tezos: the art is grittier, more direct, and less commodified. This isn't a bug; it's the market correcting towards truth.

The Real Opportunity: Public & Community Utility: The next cycle belongs to builders, not speculators. NFTs will find legitimacy in public sector use (e.g., preserving historical sites) and deep community projects (like Teia's artist-run DAO). This is a return to crypto's "power to the people" roots—decentralization as a tool for transparency and collective ownership, not just get-rich-quick schemes.

Bottom Line: The downturn is a necessary purge. The cheap money is gone. Now, we build the infrastructure for the next era: one where NFTs serve as records, keys to experiences, and the backbone of a new, authentic digital culture. The art that survives will tell the truth about our times.

#NFTs #web3 #cryptoart #Tezos #bearmarket

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teia.art | Arts Collective on Tezos
teia.art/ryangtanaka | Ryan's Music and Artworks


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Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Hello everyone. This is Ryan from Teia Cafe. Today is season two, episode Today we're gonna take a little bit of a turn and talk about art, actually, and more specifically, NFTs. And if you've been paying been going on in the industry, now is pretty tough times. As people say, the markets are I just heard news that NFT Paris going to happen because, the they're struggling, financially. So for those of us who kind of beginning, it's not a great not really a reason to give up. That's kind of the point of this episode, and I kind of wanted to talk about more on how I wouldn't say, it's not a rosy picture, but it is a different picture. And if you keep your eyes out, there might be some opportunities there worth exploring. But it's going to be a very, And I think now is the time that about it, because there are some these things play out. You don't really know what's but if you look at history and often, we can have maybe a rather than just like throwing But anyway. So, just before we start, I have to mention that I used to be a cryptopunk owner. And if you don't believe me, you can look on ryangtanaka.eth and look at the, ledger records there, and some activity in there. and you can trace it two thousand. Was it sixteen or that time where I bought a hundred bucks. And if you know the prices are these days, you do the math. And, I did pretty well with that thing, but but I did sell it off, and I sold it off earlier last year and kind about a year ago, I guess, don't quite remember exactly, but, mostly because I sense like the markets were shifting. And I honestly was one hundred bucks, I could worth it. I really don't think it's worth that much right now, and it's probably not going to get any better. And, the reason why do with the technology itself, it works. for those not familiar, Cryptopunks in twenty fifteen or so, and it was kind of made public around that time as well. Lots of people got in, obscure thing, hence the lower price. Right? It was just could geek out on and, at the interesting technology. It's NFT thing? and you can buy it online, right. Like people on the internet until that point. So a couple people with it. It gained a little bit twenty sixteen seventeen, market hype cycle. But then in, just too far. And then the bubble back down. But it made a is how, the price shot up so much. But that's besides the an era where I don't think that work anymore. And the reason why is because not just NFTs, but of the industry as a whole in the last decade or so has been propped up by financial that are closely tied with the fiat markets. So what I mean by during Covid, there was a huge it well, actually a lot of it companies, right? Because locked up in their rooms and was a huge demand for indoor activities, which of fueled the metaverse, hype and then crypto and NFTs, people were just at home, not what to do. So they put a lot of what's this interesting thing internet, right? And crypto and be there. And that spawned the a nutshell. So for a while, good, right? In the crypto, the Web3 space. But not all things last. Eventually the and then people moved on to AI, shiny thing that people are obsessed about. But even that's too, right. So I do think right that well. if you look at the stock prices and like the news, you might think otherwise, all these billions of dollars flowing everywhere. But at the off their workers every day. And a lot of the reside in. They're not very now either. So we're going to end up entering a, quote, tough times period. And if you listen just for tech but America as a whole. And it's going to be rough. You know, I won't lie, following this for a while, I'm happen sooner. But, there's a just wants everyone to believe things. You know, it's as usual. Nothing to see here. But if you look at the the case. And I do think we're comparable to the Great Depression. And, it's not scare anyone because even the Great Depression. Right? It was a maybe thirty, forty percent or so. It's tough, but it's not the world. that happens in week, right? Right. Like, if you have used to it at this point. Oh, it's down fifty you know. But you gotta keep in the average person who obsesses return is considered a great thing, right? So they're very, not used to percentages swaying normal activity. But, you know, to speak. We're used to that. And, you know, in a very, we're more prepared than just because we're used to all and that volatility is going to the world. So it's going to it's not something that people people anyway. And like tied very closely to crypto. And I've seen it go like crazy. I like, I'm I don't that much. So my, taxes are comparatively speaking. But if I cash out on all my stuff, I be in different tax brackets depending on the time month, you know? So what is one to do when there are all these crazy things happening all the time, everywhere, in every aspect of society, including the economy, politics, culture, tech, government? Nonprofits. Charity. You know, I and on. It's it's going to be crazy. And the interesting thing that happens during these times, just like the Great Depression, is people often go to find safe havens. for wealthy people, in art. Because interesting thing enough is that the demand art and entertainment doesn't change no matter what. the economic is right. During good times, that stuff because people are monuments to celebrate their success. Right? When times are bad, people consume art because need an escape. Or maybe they're just the hell is going on, right? And the shift really art, but what kind of art? And so that's why we're bit of how that might play out near future. Now, if, you know, very strongly involved with in particular. Teia is a how to call it. It is a NFT platform a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous makes up primarily of artists. And I'm one of the core team members of Teia and we've been running a non-profit arts organization through collective organization last couple of years. It's kind of a say, right? But if you look at site and you can look at our governance, pages like, You can see everything pretty transparently. We're of it. But we have been running collective organization without years now. And yeah, and it's still going. So, for me, it's of like the ideals of crypto all in one place, right? Decentralized. there's no to do. We vote on everything, including, Like the budgeting of, we have a shared treasury that we, budget year to, like, make sure things are running. All of our code is use it. Basically, you can think of it as a open source projects for NFTs. And, if you look at how, like, open source projects work elsewhere in programming, we have a similar sort of structure. Many of those by non-profits, which we also as well. most of the industry we're very different from what's up until this point, right? Everyone was like sort of flocking around, the hype cycle, which is primarily by VC money. We, opted not to get of that. And so we're sort of this non-profit organization for couple years. But if you look, site, we have almost a million NFTs minted. And every day I go the site and people are still putting up art. And that's why I decided to kind of take a chance on this whole, organization. And I've very involved. And it has a lot around not just NFTs, but art in general. And I do think TEIA to take advantage of that. So if you look, back in the Great Depression, prior to nineteen twenty nine, it was on today. Stocks were going up, feeling good. People were. Some people were bubble, right? That was the reality. It was a bubble. It wasn't. The growth wasn't real. A lot of it was the economic reality started to hit. But if you look at the to that, a lot of it was sort of Visions of Utopia, or actually sort of like a metaphor for the gonna go to a different world. Everyone was quite literally. Right. Going up as as well. it's a weird human getting higher. They equate it literally physically. Right. A lot of the, off of they're, companies and interested in space travel, and coincidence that it's so common, right? Among, people in that position, they're feeling like they're being lifted up into another world. And, you know, if as well make it real, right? Like in a spaceship or whatever. Like, I don't know, it's a hard thing for, for a lot of, like, regular people to, like, identify with because it's so out there. Right? Quite literally, out there. But but it is what it is. And it's not that unusual at past artistic cycles, there among people feeling that way. So for example, the era, right? Leading up to the twentieth century. There's a lot upward movement. Back then, more religious. So, it's this growth and going into heaven, right? Quite like people they were being uplifted and all because they were getting off of the, you know, industrial revolutions. Like it whole new layer of wealth and sorts of things. People were getting more wealthier. it's just that up, right. Moving on up right now. You compare that to art, right? leading up to the romantic era was World War one World War two. So all that feelings of is also connected to like, kind of feeling like unified and right. Like centralized. Right. You think like a centralized movement where there's all these provinces across all over and for once in their freaking lives, you know, we are finally agree on something. The nation of or the nation of whatever, Germany and England. And it was all in Japan. They had a similar of nationalism. Right? So for a feeling optimistic. But once they started looking at the don't know about that over there. How come? Why don't you guys join us? Right. And then that led to world wars. And as most people pretty terrible. Right. So there's a about that. But in terms of art, see that the modern art, in the turn of the twentieth century, started and more darker because the enlightened ones, right. The artists, not right here, you know? so when, kind of look it in that lens, The darker tones of these artworks sort of serves as a metaphor for what's going on in the society at the time, and that ended up becoming what represented if that makes sense. So now we go all stuff can apply to NFTs. Possibly because NFTs served a similar well, not served, but followed a similar trajectory from, let's tens to twenty twenties, where a lot of the growth and the hype, also economically. Right. But time period where there was a into the system through stimulus interest loans. So the art that right, is going to be a of a makes sense. So the kinds of art we see that were successful during twenty twenty of it really was about sort of the optimism people had about, Well, Cryptopunks is a good example, right? It's cyberpunk. Right? Aesthetically, follows the cyberpunk movement because the idea of, like, decentralizing the digital very, very interesting to a lot of people because for the most part, we're living in kind of a monopoly slash oligarchy of a few tech companies owning almost everything, right? If they don't it up. So we've known this for a a centralizing aesthetic, if makes sense. so the idea of very interesting to a lot of the time. But that really didn't last Because eventually a lot of these crypto projects sort of got co-opted by the status quo, right? And then now we're the idea of is this really feasible? So that's the crashed, right. The markets have spoken. They got after FTX. And just like sort of right like scams and the and the people losing their life savings. And you know, a bad stuff happened and it sort of disillusioned everyone. And the that we've been in this state a while. NFTs and crypto as a whole is that from the very beginning, it positioned itself being this anti-establishment, the banks, right? Power to the people. And that was its core message. And the reason why groups of people is because it transcended your usual political lines, right? It's something that both conservatives and liberals believe in. Right? Power to the people. So whether that another thing. But at least that the idea. And I see interesting markets are starting to tank. I've seen even Vitalik said something like that recently in a, in a tweet, like pretty explicitly. Yeah, it's people, right? I've been saying kind of lost its way in terms of to do. They got distracted by all the cheap money and the right, the hype cycle and the VCs and, quick cash. but now that the kind of reflecting and going begin with. Right. So it'd be go back to that, because I do Ethereum's case, it's probably too late. They have too many too many. There's too much money, man. There's just too much money. And too many people have their hands in the pot and they're not gonna let go without a fight, And and it's gonna be messy, even. Even if people want so hard. that's why I'm like putting my bets on alts, altcoins where they don't have worry about that. You know, all that to speak. But anyway, you know, it's, that is kind of where crypto should be and how Satoshi originally imagined it. Right? He wanted to do a store of value system, as most the thing that's going to principles is going to be a market correction. And can happen. I think. I've been in previous cycles too. the best, stuff are down. You know that's just a of things. And then at some get recognized. And then people who are working hard on it while nobody was paying attention get rewarded. And then the cycle so forth. So the reason why I don't want this to be like a in particular. So I'm going to abstract terms. But as a whole, people like Tezos' art because it's more direct. People feel like more authentic. it's not treated commodity, right? Like in other chains. But at the same lot of the art that you find on is a very similar pattern to in history. Like the example I and modernism. It's sort of a forth throughout history, and is their technology, like as, if at objectively. so as a whole, be there. But the demand is to be different because as people sort of go into this new and they have different priorities, the things that they appreciate is going to gradually shift over time. And that includes the as well. But NFTs. May find its niche actually in the public sector, not just NFTs, but crypto as a whole, right. Because if you about it. What is a government, government, right, when it's functioning correctly? What is a government? A government is actually a decentralized entity to control mechanisms around society, right? If you think of powers, and that's for a reason. We don't want one guy. Right? And that's why we vote. And the technology itself is actually well designed for these use cases. And I have talked the possibility of using this sector because. Right. If you want, for that. You want to keep tabs is going. The blockchain is for that. Now, the problem is where the people in power don't that, right? I think I think, industry is pretty naive about a lot of those things that, are going on in the traditional industries right now. like teia.cafe is my project. It's a music project. But, you know, tell me that. Oh, yeah. the interesting idea, Ryan, about blockchain thing, but but they really want that, right? The music doesn't want transparency. They behind closed doors. And at the shock to me. But if you think about it, I'm like, yeah, why would they do that? Right? If they're and they don't want to give that do it right? So instead they, like some BS projects that they that they want transparency, but fund projects that don't go anywhere. And that's thing turned into. And we're as we speak. It's very to find out. Oh, the last few on nothing, right? Quite literally nothing. It was. You're set up be failed, right? You set up, and there's nothing you can do about that. Right. You took your home and then. Well, so yeah. So it's like something most people don't want to admit to. But I've worked at companies where I that out, you know. So it's so it's than later, honestly. And that is really now. So. All right. So there are some legitimate use cases for in the public sector. I was at of months ago. Basically that's like an expo where all the countries gathered. They had Osaka this year. But, you know, like the Olympics. They change it every year. But I saw, the public sector. There's a little section that talked about they might use NFTs to commemorate historical are no longer there. So, for been there for thousands of it either got destroyed or they reason or other. So one way to to have it in record, right? And you can do that with NFTs. And they're doing some pretty cool stuff, they were doing 3D modeling. So future like maybe use some VR or was there prior to when it was you know, and it's part of history. And what better than the blockchain. Because. Right. You store like historical records pretty much indefinitely if you in the right way. Now the issue is takes a lot. It's a big cultural shift, right? You're change their habits. And, you the right way. And so it's going take some time. But if the will do the sorts of things is there, it can happen. and I do think the public sector is kind of on because most of the attention for these technologies have happened in Silicon Valley or the private sector. But there's cases that can be used in, in the public. So one last point I wanted to make is the idea that tough times often people to sort of deal with their situation, right? It's not fun. But when the problems become so obvious and and it's kind of in your face, a lot of times people innovate. And like I said, right? The best things and that is true for everything. But you can similar sorts of patterns during the Great Depression where - Innovations in radio and TV and recording mediums started to happen very quickly. Mostly out of NFTs as being the next era of make sense, right? Because it the world in very, very meaningful ways. And NFTs quite there yet, but I still do it can get there if we focus on the right things. And I do think lot of that might happen after this market correction. and as I doing that already. but we're the next cycle because depending on how you look at it, days than it did back then. Right. internet is out very quick. So if we play our cards right, we could maybe able to get out of this, like, depression cycle and it last so long as, you know, prior points in history. But in order of stay optimistic, keep on the hopes that things will get better. But at the same look at the reality of the situation. And the truth happened in the last few years. Was it really necessary? It was mostly a bubble. Most normal agree with me. It's only a few us in the crypto bubble, so to speak, that believes otherwise. You was a bubble. We're like, what? What utility last few years? Not much. Cryptopunks hasn't really since I got involved, which is kind of sad, right? Like, then I look time they did any major updates system or anything? Did they add any utility like All I saw was from being a cryptopunk owner? Was that, can hang out with other cryptopunk owners in this meetup that was done through Web2. like what? You know, I didn't see any. The point. Right? It's just too floating around everywhere. And just money talking. But that's gonna change. And, I do a lot of interesting things are about to happen. We're just weather the storm. I think good things can come. So. Okay, well, one was a little bit more ranty and, less organized, but trying out different things, you know, different ways of doing this podcast. So let me what you think. But if you way of organizing the podcasts, like an unhinged rant like it is today? because they know I'm an artist. I'm a musician myself. It's very, important to me. So. So I care the same time, it's a really complicated thing. Right? It's place to be. You know, when off and losing their jobs and like very hard to talk about. Yeah, art, do art is the time. But I do really be even more interested in art, if anything. Because if nothing else, when art is done right way, it tells you a truth about the world, and that understanding is more valuable than anything else. So okay, see you in the next