Nike Quietly Exits the NFT Game, Selling Off Digital Sneaker Brand RTFKT

Nike has officially closed the book on its blockchain venture, selling off RTFKT its once-hyped virtual sneaker subsidiary to an undisclosed buyer this past December. The quiet transaction, finalized on December 17, 2025, marks the end of what turned out to be a rocky four-year experiment in digital collectibles and the metaverse.

The sale didn't come as a total shock. Nike had been signaling its retreat from the NFT space for over a year, part of a broader company reset under CEO Elliott Hill. Since taking charge in late 2024, Hill has been laser-focused on what he calls a "Win Now" strategy stripping away side projects and refocusing the company on what it does best: making top-tier athletic gear and strengthening ties with brick-and-mortar retail partners like Foot Locker.

For Hill, the pivot is personal. His vision is a return to Nike's roots innovation in performance, not speculation in pixels. That means less metaverse, more sneakers you can actually lace up.

Nike kept details of the sale close to the vest. In a brief statement, the company framed the move as a "new chapter" for the RTFKT community, but wouldn't reveal who bought the brand or what they paid for it. The secrecy feels fitting for a deal that's more about damage control than celebration.

The timing is also telling. The NFT market has been in freefall, and Nike's blockchain ambitions became a legal liability earlier this year. In April 2025, a group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of pulling the rug out from under them when it began winding down RTFKT's Web3 operations. The suit claimed their digital assets lost significant value as a result an accusation Nike has been eager to put in the rearview mirror.

By selling RTFKT outright, Nike is making a clean break. No more digital collectibles drama, no more courtroom battles over devalued NFTs. Instead, the company is betting big on the playbook that built the Swoosh in the first place: real shoes, real innovation, and real retail relationships.

Rare Azuki Nft Sells For A Record $1.4 Million

A rare Azuki NFT recently sold for over 420.7 ETH, equivalent to approximately $1.4 million USD, on OpenSea. The sale marked the highest price recorded for the collection. The NFT in question is Azuki #9605 and is considered the second-rarest member of the Azuki NFT collection. According to OpenSea, the piece was bought by user “jdizzles” and the seller, “trevault,” is a member of RedBeanDAO and frequently purchases Azuki NFTs. The collection was first launched this January by a Los Angeles-based startup called Chiru Labs.

It features 10,000 unique anime avatars that give owners access to The Garden, described as “a corner of the internet where art, community and culture fuse to create magic.” Azuki quickly became one of the most sought-after NFT collections on the metaverse and recently surpassed the $500 million USD sales volume on OpenSea, becoming one of the first anime-themed projects to go mainstream.

The previous record for the highest-selling Azuki was 204 ETH, approximately $560,000 USD, which sold two months ago. The rarity of Azuki #9605 is determined by the cool gray background, eyes and mouth. The same buyer of the Azuki is also the same who paid a record-breaking price for Invisible Friends #1125. Azuki NFT’s top-selling pieces range between $353,000 USD and $1.4 million USD.

GameStop Is Working On an NFT Marketplace

GameStop has hired a team to build an NFT marketplace and establish crypto partnerships, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. People familiar with the plans told the outlet that the video game retailer has already hired more than 20 people to run the department, which is creating a digital hub for NFTs and metaverse wearables.

The marketplace will launch later this year, they said. In addition, the brand will soon close deals with two crypto companies to share technologies and develop blockchain games and it plans to invest tens of millions of dollars into similar agreements with other crypto firms in the future. Shares in the company jumped by over 22% following the news. GameStop has seen a resurgence over the last year, largely thanks to Reddit‘s r/wallstreetbets. The retailer’s stock skyrocketed when members of the forum banded together to boost its value, cementing its place as a meme stock. The company quietly announced that it was working on NFTs in May and teased the new project through a website dedicated to the blockchain asset. It also created its own GME token, though there have been no transactions yet.

Axie Infinity Dominates Non Fungible Token

There is always a bull market somewhere. While the crypto market might seem boring now with its rangebound bitcoin (BTC, +1.56%) trading, the non-fungible tokens (NFT) space continues to buzz. One lesser-known coin coming out of the NFT industry has charted a triple-digit price rally in two weeks. Axie infinity shards (AXS) isn’t an NFT per se but the governance token of the Axie Infinity platform, an Ethereum-based digital marketplace for the game Axie Infinity. AXS has nearly quadrupled in price to $11 since June 22, according to data source Messari.

 

Such gains have given the AXS token a market value of $638 million. While bitcoin’s dip to $28,800 observed on June 22 was short-lived, buyers largely remain on the sidelines, leaving the cryptocurrency locked in the range of $30,000 to $40,000. But in the search for yield, buyers are turning elsewhere. “AXS has been on a tear,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Synergia Capital, said. “With all the yield compression in bitcoin futures and decentralized finance, the hot money is now flowing into NFTs.” Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based trading and battling game that allows players to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade token-based creatures known as “axies,” which are digitized as their own NFTs. Per Startups Zone, new players need to buy at least three axies, while existing players are rewarded for breeding new axies. Players can trade axies with their AXS tokens, stake their coins for weekly rewards and participate in governance voting. AXS tokens can be purchased, traded, or earned through playing the game, and their maximum supply is capped at 270 million. These tokens can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies. The gaming-NFT economy has boomed in recent weeks. With a 30-day trading volume of $185 million, Axie Infinity has surpassed NFT heavyweights including NBA Top Shots, OpenSea and CryptoPunks to become the world’s biggest digital marketplace, as ranked by their average daily volume over the past seven days, according to DappRadar. What’s more impressive is that Axie Infinity has generated more revenue than Aave, Compound, Uniswap, and other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols over the past 30 days, data tracked by Token Terminal shows. Axie Infinity generates revenue from axie sales, land sales, axie breeding fees and marketplace fees. With a cumulative volume of $30 million, Axie Infinity leads PancakeSwap, ranked number two, by a margin of 48%. Curve, Ethereum’s biggest DeFi protocol by total value locked, has generated only one-tenth of Axie’s 30-day revenue. The boom in the play-to-earn economy comes amid falling yields in the bitcoin and DeFi markets. For example, borrowing rates for tether (USDT, -0.03%), the largest stablecoin by market value, have declined to 2.84% on Compound and 1.43% on Aave, from over 10% three months ago, according to LoanScan. Lending rates have also seen a similar decline, converging with the current 1.41% yield offered by the U.S. 10-year Treasury note. “With the speed at which money appears to be entering the space, the increased stablecoin supply may make it so DeFi never quite sees the consistent 10% plus yields of the last year, a trader told The Defiant. Therefore, the search for yield could continue to drive demand for Axie Infinity and other play-and-earn setups. “All things NFT will likely be the main beneficiaries of the said hot money flow,” Vinokourov said, adding Rarible, also an NFT marketplace, as a likely contender for upside along with Axie Infinity. According to Dapp Radar, NFT sales rose to $2.47 billion in the first half of 2021 – a staggering 17,900% year-on-year growth from the first half 2020.