The Fetishizing Language behind the NFT Craze

Abstract

This chapter explores the speculative nature of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the complementary perspectives of critical linguistics, cultural studies, and propaganda studies. I argue that the mainstream normalization of an idea, during the peak of the NFT rush (2021), that purely virtual objects could be worth millions of dollars was both reflected in and aided by the fetishizing and propagandistic conceptualization of NFTs as virtual assets, and that this conceptualization is best understood and transcended from the lenses of a semiotic and semantic critique. First, I examine the fetishization of NFTs as the signifier at the expense of NFT as a signified, resulting in self-referentiality. Second, I examine the detachment between signifier and signified as propagandistic with a focus on its catalyzation in a mass campaign of social media with a speculative economic agenda. Third, I argue for the need to rebridge the signified and signifier in the post-bubble phase of NFTs, disentangling the metaphorical and literal meanings of NFTs as digital assets.