Some crypto projects are abandoning terms like NFTs, which became associated with unsavory get-rich-quick scams, in favor of terms like “digital collectibles”
We just finished another week, where we saw Bitcoin briefly hitting the 24k mark … Tweets: Ed Zitron / @edzitron : This is like when Charles Ponzi changed his name to Charles Ponci https://twitter.com/... @bitbenderbrink : This, from @decryptmedia, is EXACTLY what I have been saying for a while. I even went on a little tirade on @itsmidnightshow the other day about this. The name “crypto” is so incredibly poorly chosen it almost seems intentional. https://decrypt.co/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The renaming is a reputational triage move arriving after two years of accumulating damage to the NFT label: gamers had already turned on the token model over developer monetization (backlash from gamers), and crypto more broadly was accused of buying an illusion of respectability through high-status associations. With 'NFT' now shorthand for get-rich-quick scams, projects are reaching for 'digital collectibles' — a term that describes the same asset while stripping its history.
The reaction captured in Decrypt's own comment section frames why this matters: critics read the rebrand as a name change rather than a substance change — the same instinct behind jokes about Ponzi rebranding as Ponci. Whether the new label survives contact with skeptical buyers and regulators is the live question.
First-order effects
- Projects and marketplaces adopting 'digital collectibles' immediately split the category's vocabulary: marketing materials, storefronts, and press coverage will use different words for identical tokens, forcing journalists and buyers to track assets by contract rather than label.
Second-order effects
- Platforms and brands that stayed out of NFTs because of the scam stigma gain a lower-friction entry point under the softer name, while holdouts who keep saying 'NFT' risk being coded as the sketchy segment of their own market.
Third-order effects
- If relabeling works, it institutionalizes a cycle where each tainted term gets retired and replaced — but regulators focused on conduct rather than naming can cut through it, making the durability of the rebrand depend on whether scrutiny targets the word or the underlying sales mechanics.
The trend: Crypto's branding is entering a laundering loop in which discredited labels like NFT are swapped for friendlier ones faster than the underlying products or practices change.