NFT marketplace X2Y2 shuts down amid slump, plans crypto AI pivot

X2Y2, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, has announced plans to shut down operations on April 30, 2025.

The company is now pivoting toward artificial intelligence, but with a crypto lens.

Since its launch in February 2022, X2Y2 has quickly emerged as a strong competitor to OpenSea, even surpassing it at one point. The platform’s trading volume exceeded $5.6 billion, solidifying its status as the second-largest NFT marketplace.

However, its dominance waned as trading volumes plummeted—down 90% from their 2021 peak—while newer competitors like Blur made it increasingly difficult for X2Y2 to maintain its standing.

The founder, who has remained anonymous and is only referred to as TP, penned that the team was “battling really hard” to remain at the top but giving up on the NFT marketplace was ultimately necessary.

“Marketplaces are a rise and fall function of network effects,” TP said in the release. Even if they worked so hard to be the leading platform, he said they had no success after three years; it was better to move on.

The shutdown of X2Y2 suggests a broader trend in the NFT space, as many of these platforms struggle to stay afloat after the market’s boom and bust.

Users can still interact with smart contracts

X2Y2 smart contracts will still be operational after the platform is shut down. They will continue to be interactive and accessible to their users without the power to withdraw funds instantly.

The announcement immediately impacted X2Y2’s token price, which dropped 7% following the news and has plunged 89% over the past year.

While X2Y2 is moving away from the NFT space, the team is not abandoning the crypto space entirely. Instead, they embark on a massive pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI). 

Over the last year, the team behind X2Y2 has been investigating the power that AI could have on the crypto world and believes that it is the key to long-term victory.

TP noted that they had been intensely exploring AI over the past year, which he called the biggest paradigm shift of our lifetime and how it could change crypto.

NFT market is facing a tough ride as more platforms shutdown

Most of the NFT collections that were fad-status in 2021 are completely forgotten.

A former leader in the generative art movement, Art Blocks has seen a 95% drop in trading volume and an 88% drop in sales. SuperRare, renowned for unique digital artwork, has seen its trading volume drop by 94% and sales by 98%. 

Meanwhile, once a thriving marketplace, Foundation has all but imploded, with its trading volume down 99.8% and sales evaporating entirely.

Other sites, including MakersPlace and KnownOrigin—purchased by eBay in 2022—have shut down or announced closings. Comparing the 2021 top 20 most traded Art NFT collections regarding trading volume and sales shows that they have decreased, on average, by 95% from 2024.

Interest in art NFTs “is not dead,” Dapp Radar said, although “if these numbers may not inspire a reignition of the market, they will help provide some context.” On the contrary, that segment is merely transitioning from “hype-driven speculation to a more discerning, value-oriented marketplace.“

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