Crypto Art Timeline

As of mid-2026 the space remains quiet after years of contraction — surviving "bedroom artists" and core collectors carry the work forward as the market searches for new footing.

At the December Town Hall the community describes 2025 as the year crypto art "as we knew it" receded — activity scarce for weeks at a time and survival hinging on weathering the volatility.

After nine months of "datamancy" by Daïm Al-Yad and 260,000+ API calls, MOCA completes the Codex — 105.5 million words of biography, lore, and metadata for the 10,000 Deos — and derives ElizaOS agent profiles from it, bringing the characters online as AI participants in the crypto art movement.

MOCA starts compiling the Codex, a per-Deco compendium of biography, cultural affiliations, favorite crypto artists, and writing style — the foundation for turning all 10,000 PFPs into AI-driven agents.

The 10,000-piece Art DeCC0s PFP collection launches at 0.0242069 ETH, with free mints pre-whitelisted for holders of any MOCA Collection (Genesis, Permanent, DaïmAlYad), MOCAIC 2023 Fundraiser contributors, and MOCA ROOM / ROOMPass owners.

MOCA unveils the 10,000-piece Art DeCC0s collection as "an entirely redefined vision for PFPs" — every character and background imbued with uniqueness to push digital identity toward greater expression.

Group show at CEM Can Felipa, Barcelona, running through January 2025, featuring Agustine Zeguers, Daniel Llaría, and Nazario Díaz.

Over the spring and summer the team refines and curates the project across hundreds of thousands of artworks and over a terabyte of raw data, evolving a simple graphical interface into an intricate generative pipeline.

MOCA founder Colborn Bell names the project in the groupchat; the casual brainstorm begins to take on a life of its own.

A groupchat started by Julian Brangold — following a session with founders Colborn Bell and Rene Schmidt and artists Anubis3100, DaïmAlYad, and Untitled.xyz — seeds the "hare-brained, high-octane, half-baked idea" that becomes MOCA's first PFP project.

AI Generated Nude Portrait #7, Frame #166 trades for 150 ETH on SuperRare's secondary market.

The Paris conference is markedly smaller and more intimate than 2022's hype-era crowds — a gathering of the movement's remaining faithful.

A landmark $1.6M judgment against Ryder Ripps sets precedent for trademark and copyright enforcement around NFTs.

Activity spreads multi-chain: Bitcoin Ordinals surge (ripcache's swarm_, Harto's The Golden Ratio), Ethereum's 1/1 market revives, and Solana draws its own scene.

Under market pressure, OpenSea stops enforcing artist royalties on secondary sales — a major blow to the on-chain creator protections artists had fought to establish.

A New York jury rules against the MetaBirkins NFTs, affirming that buyers acquire tokens tied to their associated content, not deeds divorced from the art.

DADA gathers pioneers of NFTs and crypto art at the Reial Cercle Artístic in the Gothic Quarter (28–30 October).

After 2021's highs the market begins a long contraction, as speculative euphoria gives way to a more sober reality.

Weeks after the Beeple sale, NFT trading sees its first volume dip of the year — later read as the start of the comedown from the speculative peak.

Serverless, on-chain marketplace built on Flow that stores images directly on the blockchain.

Curated NFT marketplace focused on personalities and brands, built on Tezos.

Micah Dowbak's conceptual work sold at Phillips for $4.2M and generates 220 further versions.

Ethereum crypto art exhibition curated by Kenny Schachter for Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne.

Sotheby's and Nifty Gateway auction anonymous artist Pak's work exploring conceptual scarcity.

Curated by Daniel Heiss and Margit Rosen at the ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.

First institutional crypto art exhibition, at UCCA Lab in Beijing, hosted by BlockCreateArt.

Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sells EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS for $69,346,250.

Christie's selects Beeple's EVERYDAYS as its first standalone digital-art auction lot.

Community-driven Tezos marketplace that became a hub for the clean-NFT movement.

Metapurse's B.20 explores social tokens and DAOs, backed by Beeple's collection.

Generative art platform creating deterministic on-chain works on Ethereum.

Async.art partners with Christie's; the painting + NFT exceed estimate sevenfold.

WOCA's "She Art" in CryptoVoxels featured works from over 30 artists.

Original NFT animation sells for $55,555 to the Museum of Crypto Art founder.

Digital art marketplace addressing price fluctuations using the DAI stablecoin.

Experimental platform for programmable, layered digital art on Ethereum.

The Museum of Crypto Art begins its rapidly growing collection, fueling creators and creations.

Ethereum tokenization platform with a decentralized team across Moscow, LA, and New York.

Ethereum tokenization platform for digital art and collectibles, founded in Berlin.

Platform for digital originals and limited editions on Ethereum, San Francisco.

On-chain generative artwork tokens issued for charity by Larva Labs.

Simon de la Rouviere's conceptual piece, perpetually for sale via Harberger taxes.

Conceptual work exploring museum ownership; enables 50 people to become donors.

Artist Bnoiit.C creates the first virtual museum commemorating the crypto art movement.

The $323.1M Ebsworth sale documented on-chain with Artory.

New Zealand-based virtual world that became a primary exhibition space for crypto art.

Platform for digital originals and editions on Ethereum, by Manchester's BlockRocket.

Platform for single-edition digital artworks on Ethereum, by Brooklyn's Pixura.

A Valentine's Day work, fractionalized via the GIFTO gifting protocol.

Homer Pepe sells for $38,500 at the emblematic New York City festival.

First decentralized exchange and marketplace for digital collectibles enters alpha.

Founded 2014, launches with Creeps & Weirdos, its first rare digital artworks collection.

Collectible cats on Ethereum by Dapper Labs, popularizing the ERC-721 standard.

10,000 limited digital collectibles issued free on Ethereum by Larva Labs.

Rare digital art cards — one of the first Ethereum-based NFT art projects.

The first user- and artist-issued trading cards on Counterparty — arguably the first crypto art.

Cyrus Adkisson launches the first decentralized virtual world at Devcon1 in London.

First art museum to purchase a digital artwork (by Harm van den Dorpel) with Bitcoin.

An artwork-backed currency challenging the economics of the art world.

Conceptually tokenized on DogeCoin and Counterparty.

A smart contract that nominates itself as art with a click.

Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash build Monegraph in a day, minting what is widely cited as the first NFT.

An early personal/artist token on Counterparty, funding an album.

A limited-edition book collating 500 Bitcoin public/private key pairs.

Yoni Assia introduces Colored Coins to represent other assets — an antecedent of NFTs.

Mike Caldwell issues physical metal Bitcoins with holographic private keys.

Dan Kaminsky embeds the first tribute and ASCII image, honoring cryptographer Len Sassaman.