This week’s featured collector is Nabu
Nabu’s motto is “True wisdom lies within ourselves.” Take a look at their collection at lazy.com/nabu
Last week’s poll asked: How do you feel about OpenSea shifting from NFTs to all-token trading? Half of respondents said the platform is “losing its soul,” while nearly a third took a “wait and see” stance. Only a small minority backed the move or felt indifferent.
The results highlight a real divide in the NFT community — between those who see OpenSea’s pivot as a betrayal of digital art’s cultural foundations and those who view it as a pragmatic evolution in a memecoin crypto environment. Collectors, it seems, still want marketplaces that stand for more than just trading volume. The message to OpenSea and others chasing the next token trend is clear: innovation is welcome, but not at the expense of identity.
What NFT Collectors Can Learn from the 2025 Art Basel and UBS Global Collecting Survey
Each year, the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting offers one of the clearest snapshots of how the world’s wealthiest collectors are thinking — what they’re buying, how they’re spending, and what motivates them. This year’s 2025 report, authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, is especially relevant for anyone in the digital collecting space, including NFT enthusiasts who see themselves as part of a broader cultural movement around ownership, technology, and value.
And the big takeaway? Despite economic headwinds, collecting is alive and well — just more diversified, younger, and more digital than ever before.
Younger Collectors Are Reshaping Taste
Millennial and Gen Z high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) made up 74% of the survey sample, and they’re clearly changing what counts as “collectible.” While Boomers still lead in total spending on fine art and antiques, younger collectors are outspending older peers in lifestyle-driven categories — from design and jewelry to sneakers and digital art.
In fact, digital art saw the sharpest year-on-year growth, with more than half of surveyed collectors purchasing at least one digital artwork in 2025. It now accounts for nearly as much spending as sculpture — a signal that tokenized creativity and digital ownership are moving from speculative bubbles to mainstream asset classes.
For NFT collectors, this is validation. Even if the NFT market itself has cooled, the cultural impulse behind it — owning unique digital expressions — is now embedded in how a new generation defines art.
The Rise of the Female Collector
One of the most striking findings is the surge in female participation and spending. In 2024, women outspent men by 46% on average, especially among Millennial and Gen Z segments. These women aren’t just collecting more — they’re collecting differently. They’re taking more risks, exploring new mediums, and buying from emerging and unknown artists at higher rates than men.
Interestingly, female collectors also prioritize representation, with nearly half of the works in their collections created by women artists (and over half in the U.S. and Japan).
For the NFT world — which has faced ongoing criticism for gender imbalance among creators and investors — this trend offers both a warning and an opportunity. As wealth and influence shift toward female and younger collectors, platforms and projects that champion inclusivity and cultural depth may capture the next wave of serious attention.
Digital Art as a Bridge Between Traditions
The study also shows that cross-collecting is now the norm. Younger HNW collectors aren’t siloed — they mix fine art, design objects, digital art, and even collectibles like sneakers or sports assets in one portfolio.
For NFT collectors, that mindset feels familiar. It’s the same impulse that sees one wallet holding a Beeple and a memecoin. The line between collecting and investing is blurring, but so too is the line between art object and cultural artifact.
Digital art — NFTs included — may not replace painting or sculpture, but it’s becoming a shared language between the art world and Web3.
Values, Risk, and the Future of Collecting
Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty of the past year, collectors are still allocating more wealth to art — an average of 20% of their portfolios in 2025, up from 15% in 2024. Gen Z collectors lead the way, committing 26% on average, showing both confidence and long-term belief in art as an asset and an identity marker.
What’s more, the survey reveals a subtle but meaningful shift: collecting isn’t just about returns — it’s about values. UBS Chief Economist Paul Donovan notes that many next-gen collectors are motivated by art that “speaks to identity, community, and purpose.”
For NFT collectors, this resonates deeply. The early days of NFTs were fueled by community identity — owning a piece of the culture. What the Art Basel survey makes clear is that this impulse isn’t fading; it’s expanding across the broader art ecosystem.
The Takeaway for NFT Collectors
If the traditional art market is catching up to the digital one, the lesson for NFT collectors may be this: stay patient, stay curious, and stay cross-disciplinary. The trends shaping tomorrow’s art landscape — youth, risk tolerance, digital engagement, and cultural meaning — are all areas where NFT collectors have already led the way.
The art world is evolving, and for once, it’s not leaving digital creators and collectors behind. Instead, it’s starting to look a lot more like them.
Learn more at Art Basel.
What trend from the 2025 Art Basel x UBS report will shape the future of collecting most?
We ❤️ Feedback
We would love to hear from you as we continue to build out new features for Lazy! Love the site? Have an idea on how we can improve it? Drop us a line at info@lazy.com