In Brief
- The Tezos art ecosystem saw more than half a million NFTs sold during 2025.
- Museums, fairs, and festivals used Tezos to introduce digital art to tens of thousands of visitors.
- Education and institutional adoption expanded through long-term programs and partnerships.
The Tezos art ecosystem concluded 2025 as one of the most active environments for digital art, showcasing a unique blend of institutional adoption, artist participation, and education at a scale rarely seen in blockchain-based art. Throughout the year, over half a million NFTs were sold, demonstrating ongoing demand and growing confidence from artists, collectors, and cultural organizations.
A significant factor driving this growth was the expanded collaboration between the Tezos Foundation and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. This partnership transformed the museum’s Herbert S. Schlosser Media Wall into a sustained space for blockchain-based experimentation. Since the first exhibition in mid-2024, more than 243,000 visitors have engaged with digital artworks, many of whom created blockchain wallets for the first time using a free minting station inside the museum.
In 2025, the collaboration evolved into a year-long commissioning program involving 12 artists who are creating new works that directly integrate FA2 smart contracts into their artistic process. Additionally, the FA2 Fellowship was launched to educate artists and developers on how Tezos smart contracts can be creatively utilized, rather than merely serving as infrastructure.
Tezos also maintained a visible presence at major international art events. At NFT Paris in February, digital art pioneer Kiki Picasso demonstrated live work using an original Quantel Paintbox from the 1980s, a machine historically used for early digital art and television graphics. This activation became part of the Paintboxed Tezos World Tour, which took the device to New York, Miami, Paris, and Basel, connecting the history of digital art with contemporary blockchain-based creation.
The largest gathering of the year was Art on Tezos Berlin, a three-day festival that made the city a focal point for digital art. More than 700 international visitors attended, alongside over 500 participating artists and dozens of exhibitors. The event featured live performances and installations that explored generative art, interactive works, and the increasing role of AI in creative practice.
Throughout the year, Art on Tezos activations at events such as Paris Photo and other global festivals reached tens of thousands of visitors. Many participants minted digital artworks for the first time through interactive installations. At Paris Photo, a curated booth showcased works by artists including Niceaunties, Grant Yun, Reuben Wu, Shavonne Wong, Emi Kusano, and Genesis Kai, several of whom released their works on Tezos for the first time. Sales through the marketplace Objkt one attracted new collectors and first-time buyers to the ecosystem.
Education remained a central focus. In addition to the FA2 Fellowship at MoMI, the Tezos Foundation announced a partnership with the Processing Foundation to produce an in-depth tutorial series for p5.js 2.0. This program aims to expand access to creative coding education worldwide. These initiatives build on prior efforts like WAC Labs, which delivered blockchain education across more than 40 institutions, and Newtro in Argentina, which emphasized hands-on artist onboarding through workshops.
Several notable sales and institutional acquisitions marked significant milestones for the ecosystem in 2025. The Francisco Carolinum museum acquired TeleNFT works first shown at Art on Tezos Berlin, representing a significant institutional addition of fully on-chain digital art. Artist qubibi’s live-coded generative piece, “hello world,” sold for 62,000 tez following its presentation in Berlin, while Mario Klingemann’s early AI-based work, “Triggernometry,” sold for 43,000 tez earlier in the year during the Digital Art Mile.
With the Museum of the Moving Image partnership extending through early 2027 and additional programs already planned, Art on Tezos enters the next year with a strong foundation built on sustained institutional interest, artist engagement, and educational outreach.
