Unconventionalized intermediation and the paradoxes of NFT markets for cultural goods

Abstract

Markets for cultural goods require intermediaries who construct the shared conventions, quality signals, and reputational infrastructure through which cultural value is assessed and stabilized. Non-fungible token (NFT) platforms assumed intermediary functions without this institutional apparatus, a condition we term unconventionalized intermediation. Drawing on cultural production scholarship and paradox theory, we analyze Reddit discourse related to NBA Top Shot, a prominent NFT platform, to examine how NFT cultural markets persist under this structural condition. Our analysis reveals three aggregate paradoxes structuring collector participation – precious precarity (disrupted value construction), enslaved freedom (disrupted governance), and resonant isolation (disrupted meaning circulation) – each arising from a specific failure of the cultural production processes that conventionalized intermediaries normally perform. We further identify six management mechanisms through which collectors and platforms collaboratively navigate these tensions. Our findings extend strategic marketing scholarship on digitally mediated cultural markets and offer practical implications for artists, art market institutions, and platform operators.