Is the whole thing a real-world manifestation of a large group of people's inability to subconsciously accept infinite abundance of digital goods?
I don't know if that's true, but it's interesting.
Book that introduced the phrase.
1. Speculation. People just see it as another asset class that can be blown up and sold to the greater fool.
2. Artists trying to monetize their digital work this way. Up until NFTs arrived, digital art had very little market value (due to ability to make indistinguishable copies of the original at zero cost). Some artists hope that the NFTs will be the vehicle which allows them to cash on their digital work.
3. Money laundering and similar usual suspects.
I think you've sharpened the interestingness, not removed it.