NFT NYC 2025 is dead and sad. For hundreds of dollars you can enjoy empty halls, loveless atmosphere and talks less relevant than some free Twitter Spaces. I have been attending for years, and want to call it out because I care, not to aimlessly dunk on it. This was a rare irl event in this industry helpful in onboarding US artists, sparking discussions with physical galleries and brands, providing an excuse to get distributed community members into one spot for side events (which were always the true magnet). Before you throw “Karma you idiot, no one goes to NFT conferences” at me - we cannot dismiss this problem from a high horse of OGs in CT bubble… I am standing here next to a group of young art students who came because they are interested, wanting to meet people in the industry. They approached me asking about directions because they could not believe this “was all there is to see here” 😰 “Karma, so how is your fudding going to make it better?” - this is not FUD, it’s accountability. If someone takes hundreds of dollars off of people (399$ - 599$ regular admission ticket!!!!!) and delivers them a limp excuse of a conference, we lose these newcomers forever. If you put your hard work into bringing your brand here or speaking - I am not trying to put you down. The quality of this event is simply not worthy of being sponsored in good faith anymore, and someone needs to call it out. Example: OS promotion girls I met were lovely (you can mint an @opensea x @AbstractChain nft which is super cool!) but have never used blockchain before it seemed - when a transaction failed for another person, I had to explain to them what happened 😭 @TheSandboxGame lounge? Looks like it cost thousands to put on, without a single person ever entering it while i was there. With the experience and connections that the organizers of @NFT_NYC have in this industry, they could have considered dwindling interest, pivoted to a digital event, building tracks aimed at newcomers, artists and builders, and making the entire thing available at very approachable price. At the very least, if wanting to keep the irl event, downsizing and NOT organising this in an overpriced, Times Square location (across two entirely disconnected floors!), would have been a minimum to improve the vibes. Without a pivot, I will be surprised if there is ever a NFT NYC 2026.