Sophia Bennett
Crypto Analyst
The NFT market has been through a brutal few years. But according to the man now running Yuga Labs, the selloff went much further than the fundamentals ever justified.
"It's clear from the numbers that for some time, as far as blue‑chip digital collectibles go, it was oversold," Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge told CoinDesk in an interview. "You had this huge compression in price, but if you actually look at an overlay graph, unique holders were actually up."
It is a striking claim, and one backed by on‑chain data that most people were not paying attention to during the downturn.
BAYC Floors Are Moving Again
The numbers on the ground are starting to reflect that recovery.
Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices have climbed from around 5 ETH to over 10 ETH over the past month, while ApeCoin, the ecosystem's governance token, has also rallied from below $0.10 to about $0.16 with a sharp increase in trading volumes.
That is a doubling of floor prices in a single month, the kind of move that catches the attention of collectors, traders, and institutions who had written the collection off entirely.
Figge acknowledged the sceptics directly. "A cynic will say prices doubled and the unique holder count didn't double," he said. "But that's really just recovery from a period where things fell disproportionately."
New Leadership, New Direction
Figge took over as CEO last month, bringing a product‑first mindset to a company that has had its share of turbulent leadership transitions.
Figge, previously the chief product officer, joined Yuga in 2021 and brings a background in film and animation to the role. His appointment coincides with new ecosystem plans including a proposed Yuga Grails over‑the‑counter desk, aimed at boosting ecosystem confidence ahead of the Bored Ape Yacht Club's fifth anniversary.
Yuga Labs has also shifted its focus back toward community‑building efforts, including more than 30 in‑person meetups worldwide over the past month. "A lot of what made Bored Ape work in the first place, the social layer, hasn't really been serviced in recent years," Figge said. "We've gone back to basics."
Speculation Is Still Part of the Story
Figge is not pretending NFTs have outgrown their speculative nature. He is just being honest about it.
"It would be naive to say financial speculation isn't a huge driver," he said. "Whatever happens in this cycle will rhyme with the last one, but it's never going to be exactly the same."
The broader revival extends beyond BAYC. Pudgy Penguins has also rallied strongly in recent weeks, while traders speculate that OpenSea, the marketplace synonymous with the 2021 NFT boom, could reignite activity through a long‑rumoured token launch.
NFT‑Backed Lending Returns
One of the most telling signs of renewed confidence is what is happening in NFT financial markets.
A $2.8 million NFT‑backed loan tied to a CryptoPunk circulated widely on social media last week, with the lender set to earn roughly $138,000 in interest over 90 days, described by traders as one of the largest NFT‑backed loans to date.
DeFi Struggles Are Helping NFTs
Figge also pointed to something unexpected driving renewed interest: growing distrust of DeFi.
"With one well‑planned hack, you can lose it all," he said. "That has to be solved in DeFi, but it's definitely made people rethink the idea that it's the only use case. NFTs offer something different, they're tied to communities that persist beyond just price action."
A broader reassessment of digital art and on‑chain ownership is also underway, with analysts noting that while the speculative mania surrounding NFTs largely collapsed after 2021, institutional adoption of blockchain‑based art has continued to grow quietly in the background.
The market wrote NFTs off early. The holders, apparently, never left. And now the price is starting to catch up.
