Been thinking about whether NFTs are actually worth anything in 2024, and honestly, it's way more nuanced than the hype cycle suggested.

Remember when everyone was losing their minds over digital art? Christie's sold Beeple's work for $69.34 million back in 2021. Sotheby's had BAYC collections going for $26.2 million. Then the market absolutely tanked — trading volumes dropped 97% by September 2022 after hitting $17 billion at their peak. Pretty brutal.

But here's what's interesting: there have been some meaningful sales recently. CryptoPunk 3100 went for 4,500 ETH (around $16 million) in early 2024. Could signal something's shifting.

The real question though isn't just whether NFTs are worth anything — it's what you're actually buying into. Some experts I've seen quoted argue the market is moving past pure speculation. Lani Dizon from Zenza Capital points out NFTs are extending beyond digital art into gaming, real estate, and digital identity. That's actual utility, not just FOMO trading.

Shiti Manghani, who runs STEPN, makes a solid point: the value lies in the utility itself. If you're buying based on pure price speculation? That's not investing, that's gambling.

That said, not everyone's convinced there's a real comeback. Ilya Stadnik at Zent thinks 99.9% of NFT projects aren't worth considering. The flood of low-quality images probably won't return, but the tech could transform gaming and entertainment sectors.

Then there are the skeptics who never bought the narrative. Robert Johnson, a finance professor, distinguishes between speculation and actual investing — and most NFT activity falls into the speculation bucket. Speculators can make serious money, sure, but they're also taking on serious risk.

So are NFTs worth anything? The answer depends entirely on what you're looking at. Quality collections with real-world applications? Possibly. Random PFP collections? Probably not. The volatility and liquidity issues are real concerns too.

The market's definitely different now than it was in 2021. Less hype-driven, more focused on actual use cases. Whether that makes them a solid investment depends on your risk tolerance and how carefully you're selecting projects.