My theory is that not many people at all ever actually thought art NFTs had value beyond something to gamble on. But the idea that they did was used to create the plausible impression that there were a lot of “greater fools” out there who would buy the bags of said gamblers, and this idea was also attractive to people who despised the whole thing and like the idea of stupid people to look down on, so both groups collaborated to signal boost it.
My theory is that not many people at all ever actually thought art NFTs had value beyond something to gamble on. But the idea that they did was used to create the plausible impression that there were a lot of “greater fools” out there who would buy the bags of said gamblers, and this idea was also attractive to people who despised the whole thing and like the idea of stupid people to look down on, so both groups collaborated to signal boost it.