NFTs and the Spectacle of Accumulation

Abstract

Are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) an extreme genre of synthetic assets, free-floating signifiers of speculative capital? Or does the same disconnection color many of the instruments of financialization? These questions are central to explaining why the NFT market experienced a significant decline in the second half of 2022. In early 2022, $17 billion worth of NFTs changed hands, but by November that figure had fallen to $400 million, a collapse of 97%. The fall in demand was catalyzed by a slump in the cryptocurrency market which wiped almost $9 billion from the combined value of all NFTs in circulation. This collapse has not dissuaded advocates from suggesting that these notes will revolutionize the global trade of digital assets by using blockchains to create jurisdiction-agonist notary functions. This chapter evaluates the merit of this view by looking at the current landscape in cross-border data flows in global digital capitalism. It reviews how NFTs are constructed upon underlying layers of digital data, blockchain, and cryptocurrency to try to place them beyond the jurisdiction of national regulators. Thereafter we assess how the “NFT phenomenon” might be a compressed case of the broader features of digital capitalism and the financialization of public administration.