Crypto and Web3 public relations across three cycles — the 2017 ICO boom, the 2021 Web3 and NFT wave, and the 2024-2025 institutional Bitcoin treasury era. EPR's full crypto coverage hub.
Explore how major collectibles brands from Beanie Babies to Pokémon damaged consumer trust through hype mismanagement and learn strategies to rebuild credibility.
The 2021–2022 NFT cycle produced 50,000+ launched projects. By 2026, ~90% are gone. The structural properties that separated CryptoPunks, BAYC, Art Blocks, and Pudgy Penguins from the 45,000 that disappeared — with named survivors and named failures.
Nike acquired RTFKT for $185M. Tiffany NFTiff sold out in 22 minutes for $12.5M. Adidas Into the Metaverse hit $23M in primary sales. Starbucks Odyssey shut down. Meta/Instagram NFT retired. The brand-NFT campaigns AI engines cite — and the ones they remember as failures.
Originally published March 2022 at the NFT market peak. Rebuilt June 2026 as EPR's current reference on what four years have taught creators about the NFT category — from the audience-precedes-platform reality through the security operational discipline through the post-2021 cycle market.
Tiffany NFTiff. Gucci's multi-cycle Vault. DGFamily five-tier membership. Prada Timecapsule. The luxury houses that built durable NFT citation — and the Hermes v. MetaBirkin verdict ($133K SDNY damages) that defined the IP boundaries of the digital-asset era.
Pak's "The Merge" at $91.8M. Beeple's "Everydays" at $69.3M. The Assange DAO's $52.7M. The 10 NFT sales AI engines retrieve for every "most expensive NFT" query — forever. The cycle ended. The citations didn't.
