NFT marketing is the work of getting a non-fungible token collection in front of collectors, building a community around it and turning that attention into mints and secondary sales. In 2026 it is a much smaller discipline than it was in 2021. NFT sales tracked by CryptoSlam came to about $5.63 billion in 2025, down roughly 37% from $8.9 billion in 2024.
We should be clear about where we stand. Emergence Media does not take on NFT promotion work. We follow the category because NFT projects tested most Web3 growth tactics first, and they did it in public.
Token launches, points programs and KOL campaigns in 2026 still repeat what NFT marketers learned between 2021 and 2023. This guide covers what NFT marketing is, how the market changed, what worked, what failed and what those lessons mean for token and Web3 marketing today.
What is NFT marketing?
An NFT is a token on a blockchain that stands for one specific item. That item can be an image, a game asset, a membership pass or a ticket. Unlike Bitcoin or a stablecoin, each NFT is distinct, so you cannot swap one for another one to one.
NFT marketing covers everything a project does to create demand for those tokens, before and after the mint. In 2021, most NFT marketers ran some version of this playbook:
- Allowlists: a list of wallets allowed to mint early, usually earned through community activity.
- Discord as home base: roles, bots, daily announcements and holder-only channels.
- X campaigns: Spaces, KOL posts and “raid” groups that boosted each other’s posts.
- Roadmaps: promises of future utility, from games to merchandise to live events.
- Collection collabs: two projects swapping allowlist spots to share audiences.
- Secondary market support: floor price updates, holder perks and treasuries funded by royalties.
Most of this was community management and narrative work. The product behind the token was often an afterthought, and that is a large part of why so little of it lasted.
How has the NFT market changed since 2021?
In 2021 NFTs went from a niche to a headline category. Reuters reported that CryptoSlam counted $18.3 billion in NFT sales that year. DappRadar, which tracked a different set of chains, put the total at $24.9 billion.
The money spent on NFTs has since fallen well below the 2021 level, while the number of tokens has kept growing. CryptoSlam’s 2025 data shows more NFTs in circulation than ever, selling at lower prices.
| Period | NFT sales (CryptoSlam) | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $18.3 billion | Breakout year. Mints sold out on hype and allowlist scarcity. |
| 2024 | $8.9 billion | The baseline the 2025 decline is measured against. |
| 2025 | About $5.63 billion | Average sale price fell to $96 from $124. Supply passed 1.34 billion NFTs. |
| Week to 24 October 2026 | $76.56 million | Bitcoin led all chains with $31.07 million in weekly sales. |
The latest weekly figures, reported by crypto.news from CryptoSlam data, show $76.56 million in NFT sales for the seven days to 24 October 2026. Bitcoin ranked first, ahead of Ethereum at $24.64 million. NFTs still trade every week, and Bitcoin-based collections now compete with Ethereum for volume.
What happened to the Pudgy Penguins ETF
In March 2025 Canary Capital filed with the SEC for an ETF that would hold both the PENGU token and Pudgy Penguins NFTs. NFT promoters, including the earlier version of this post, cited the filing as a sign of institutional interest.
The fund never listed. The SEC extended its review twice and opened formal proceedings in September 2025. The SEC’s record for the Cboe BZX listing proposal shows it was withdrawn on 23 January 2026, with no approval issued.
For marketers, the lesson is about headlines. A regulatory filing gets coverage on the day it lands. That coverage tells you nothing about whether the product will ever exist, so it is a weak base for a campaign narrative.
What worked in NFT marketing?
Distribution outside crypto
Pudgy Penguins is the clearest example. From 2023 the team sold physical Pudgy Penguins toys through Walmart in the US, and it later launched the PENGU token on Solana. The toys put the brand in front of ordinary shoppers in physical stores.
The NFT collection became the source of a consumer brand, and the brand was sold through ordinary retail. That gave the project an audience that did not depend on NFT prices.
Allowlists as a demand signal
Allowlists let projects measure demand before the mint. If far more wallets competed for spots than there were spots, the team knew it had an audience. If the list stayed thin, it knew to delay or rethink the launch.
Token projects run the same mechanic today through waitlists, points and testnet quests. The idea of proving demand before you launch held up well.
Communities with a job to do
Communities held up better when holders had something to do. A game to play, an event to attend or a vote that changed the project gave people a reason to come back. A Discord that only posted floor price updates went quiet when the price fell.
Creators who already cared
Creator partnerships worked best when the creator already used or liked the project and said so openly. Paid posts from accounts with no history in the space moved mint numbers for a day and built no trust. The same rule applies to crypto KOL campaigns today, where audience fit and disclosure matter more than raw reach.
What failed in NFT marketing?
Roadmaps funded by royalties
Many 2021 roadmaps were paid for by creator royalties on secondary sales. In August 2023 OpenSea made creator fees optional and retired its royalty enforcement tool. Projects whose plans depended on that income saw it shrink as trading volume fell.
Big brand programs
Starbucks closed its Odyssey NFT rewards beta in March 2024, after launching it in late 2022. Nike announced in December 2024 that it would wind down RTFKT, the digital sneaker studio it bought in 2021.
Both programs had strong brands and real budgets behind them. Both closed after interest in NFTs dropped across the market.
Price as the main message
When the floor price is the headline, the marketing stops working the day the price falls. Holders who bought for the price sell, and the community channels go quiet. Many 2021 collections had no other story to tell.
Inflated engagement
Raid groups, giveaway farming and bot followers made projects look bigger than they were. They also taught audiences to ignore NFT promotion altogether. Airdrop campaigns face the same problem now, where reward farmers can swamp real users.
| NFT tactic | Role in 2021 | What happened | Lesson for token marketing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allowlists | Gate early mints | Became waitlists, points and quests | Measure demand before launch and filter out farmers |
| Royalties | Fund the roadmap | Made optional on OpenSea in 2023 | Build revenue that does not depend on trading volume |
| Floor price posts | Main marketing message | Lost their audience as prices fell | Lead with what the product does |
| Retail and IP deals | Rare | Pudgy Penguins toys reached Walmart shelves | Reach people outside crypto feeds |
| Raid groups and bots | Inflate reach | Audiences learned to tune them out | Pay for real audiences and report real numbers |
The free promotion tactics that lasted
This page now includes our older guide on promoting an NFT drop without paid ads. We no longer publish it as a how-to. A few of its tactics still hold up as general lessons for any Web3 launch:
- Know who the audience is before you post. Collectors, gamers and traders want different things.
- Pin one clear post that explains who built the project and why.
- Give each community channel on Discord or Telegram a specific purpose.
- Co-host X Spaces and cross-promote with projects that share your audience.
- Own a direct channel, such as an email list or wallet notifications, so one platform cannot cut you off.
The tactics that aged badly were drop calendars, raid groups and “best meme wins an allowlist spot” contests. They produced activity, and very little of it came from buyers.
What NFT lessons mean for token and Web3 marketing
Most of the NFT playbook still runs under new names. Allowlists became points programs, and holder perks became staking rewards and loyalty tiers. The risks carried over with them.
Separate users from farmers
Any reward a wallet can claim will attract wallets that only want the reward. Design quests around actions that take real effort, such as using the product. Then track how many wallets stay active after the reward ends, because that is the number that tells you whether the campaign worked.
Lead with what the product does
A token marketed mainly on its price chart has the same weakness as a 2021 profile picture collection. Products with a clear use case are easier to market in any cycle. We ran a campaign at $22 CAC for a crypto card product, against an $80+ industry benchmark. A card has a use that people understand without looking at a chart.
Earn third-party credibility
In the NFT market, every project promoted itself, so self-promotion carried little weight. Coverage in trusted media and creators who explain the product in their own words carry more weight. That is the job of crypto PR and well-matched KOLs.
Plan the launch as a sequence
NFT mints that went well were planned in stages: audience research, allowlist, community build, mint day and post-mint support. Token launches need the same order. Our TGE marketing guide walks through it step by step.
Reach outside the crypto feed
Pudgy Penguins grew its brand through retail shelves. Most Web3 products cannot sell toys, but they can reach people through fintech, gaming and creator channels that are not built around token prices. Our Web3 marketing playbook covers the channels we use for that.
If you are planning a token launch or a Web3 growth campaign, see how we work across KOL, PR, UGC and paid creative. We have run 200+ campaigns for exchanges, payment products and iGaming brands.
FAQ
What is NFT marketing?
NFT marketing is the work of promoting a non-fungible token collection so that people mint it and trade it. It usually covers community building on Discord and X, allowlists, creator partnerships, roadmaps and holder perks. Since 2021 the market has shrunk sharply, so most of what NFT marketers learned is now applied to token launches, points programs and other Web3 products.
Is NFT marketing still worth it in 2026?
The market is far smaller than it was in 2021. CryptoSlam recorded about $5.63 billion in NFT sales in 2025, against $18.3 billion in 2021. Collections still trade every week, but the average sale price fell to $96 in 2025. For most projects, the lessons from NFT marketing are more useful than the tactics themselves, especially for token and Web3 launches.
What do NFT marketers do?
NFT marketers plan launches, run community channels on Discord and Telegram, manage allowlists, brief creators and KOLs, and write the project’s story and roadmap. After the mint they support holders with updates and perks. Many of the same people now work on token launches, where the skills carry over to waitlists, quests and community management.
What is a good NFT marketing strategy?
The strategies that lasted gave holders a reason to stay beyond price. That meant clear utility, communities with a purpose, honest creator partnerships and distribution outside crypto, as Pudgy Penguins did with retail toys. Strategies built on floor price posts, raid groups and royalty-funded roadmaps mostly failed once trading volume fell.
What happened to the Pudgy Penguins ETF?
Canary Capital filed for an ETF holding the PENGU token and Pudgy Penguins NFTs in March 2025. The SEC extended its review twice and opened formal proceedings in September 2025. According to the SEC’s filing record, the Cboe BZX listing proposal was withdrawn on 23 January 2026 without being approved, so the fund never began trading.
