{"id":12301,"date":"2026-03-11T13:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-is-launching-nft-art-for-its-150th-birthday\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:24:42","slug":"colorado-is-launching-nft-art-for-its-150th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-is-launching-nft-art-for-its-150th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado is launching NFT art for its 150th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado is hosting an NFT Art Auction to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its statehood, launching June 1. (Screenshot of ethdenver.org)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado plans to mark its 150th anniversary and the nation\u2019s 250th birthday with many special events and celebrations. But one of them \u2013 a digital art auction \u2013 is raising some questions.<\/p>\n

Last month, Gov. Jared Polis announced plans to auction 150 unique Colorado NFTs<\/a> \u2013 short for non-fungible tokens, or digital collectible art \u2013 at the ETHDenver conference<\/a>. It\u2019s the world\u2019s largest annual innovation festival focused on the cryptocurrency ethereum and other emerging technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Colorado,\u201d Polis said in a press release<\/a>, \u201cinnovation is part of our code. I am excited to announce the launch of 150 Colorado NFTs, a unique way to highlight artists and celebrate our great state, creating a collectible digital footprint for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

NFTs are digital assets recorded on a public digital ledger that tracks ownership and transactions. Buyers typically store NFTs in digital wallets and can resell them later. The NFT and cryptocurrency marketplace is considered volatile and as recently as 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department issued findings<\/a> that NFTs are highly susceptible to use in fraud and scams and regularly used to launder criminal proceeds.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office hopes the auction will be embraced as a celebration of Colorado\u2019s unique qualities and modernize the state\u2019s relationship with residents. The NFTs featured in the auction will depict a range of Colorado imagery, like iconic state lands, diverse landscapes and communities of Colorado. Some will feature original art from Colorado artists. A spokesperson said proceeds will benefit other celebrations tied to the state\u2019s 150th anniversary, though it\u2019s unclear exactly how the funds will be spent.<\/p>\n

While the governor\u2019s office says the NFTs are an innovative digital collectible for the state\u2019s 150th birthday, critics, including people in the blockchain world, say NFTs peaked in the cultural lexicon years ago and now carry baggage from scams, crashes and failed hype.<\/p>\n

Danny Newman, a Denver entrepreneur who works in the crypto and AI space, says NFTs were far more popular during their boom in 2021, and are an out-of-date form of blockchain technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith how other NFTs at the federal level with certain folks went, it feels a little icky at this point, I would say,\u201d said Newman. \u201cI think there was an interesting time for this. Now, I think the \u2018NFT as art\u2019 trend is a little behind current times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office wouldn\u2019t say yet what the auction price ranges for Colorado\u2019s 150 NFTs are, or what the art will look like. They added that the digital image NFTs are not being marketed as an investment and that the state makes no guarantees on their future value, emphasizing that they\u2019re merely a celebration of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Still, the timing of Colorado\u2019s project comes amid broader scrutiny of NFTs.<\/p>\n

Denver-area Buchalter attorney Doug DePeppe, who specializes in blockchain technology, said the governor\u2019s office may benefit from a rebranding of the auction. \u201cI think the use of the term NFT \u2013 they should revisit that from a marketing standpoint. If we think as a state that this is a legitimate initiative, what\u2019s the best way to message that? Because I think the connotations of NFTs are not necessarily positive,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you use the term NFT, a lot of people, I think, would agree it was or may still be a fad. In other words, it\u2019s got a bit of a bad rap because when it\u2019s the wild west, there\u2019s opportunity, but there\u2019s also some unscrupulous characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, DraftKings Inc. agreed to pay $10 million to settle claims<\/a> that its NFT marketplace sold unregistered securities to consumers, including Coloradans, who may not have understood the risks. In addition, many NFTs that sold for large sums during the boom of 2021 have since lost much of their value as the market cooled.<\/p>\n

One high-profile example of a major loss involves YouTuber Logan Paul, who bought a \u201cBumblebee\u201d 0N1 Force NFT for about $623,000 in 2021<\/a>. By 2026, the digital asset was reportedly valued at around $155.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone kind of referred to these as buying JPEGs. That was the meme for a while. And that\u2019s fairly accurate,\u201d said Newman. He explained that the moment when NFTs were widely promoted as collectible digital art has largely passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNFTs, I don\u2019t think, are inherently bad or scammy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more that this particular use of the technology had its peak, and I think that probably was the last cycle. But I could be easily proved wrong, and in the next hype cycle \u2013 they could be worth a ton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newman told CPR News that despite Colorado being the first state government to launch NFT art, its plan for the upcoming auction feels less like a technological breakthrough and more like a promotional effort.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office declined to interview with CPR News for this story but did provide responses to questions by email.<\/p>\n

They said the main purpose of the project is to celebrate Colorado\u2019s 150th anniversary, but that these NFTs in particular would be made more valuable by the perks that come with them. The spokesperson did not elaborate on what the perks might be, or how exactly they might be used, but said the experience would allow NFT winners to engage with the state in new and fun ways.<\/p>\n

Details on pricing will be decided closer to the auction\u2019s launch on June 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newman said blockchain technology itself still holds potential for governments, particularly in areas like record-keeping<\/a> or permitting systems.<\/p>\n

The city of Reno, Nev., for example, uses blockchain technology to store its register of historical places. But he says those kinds of applications are different from selling digital collectibles. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to get you know, \u2018silly things\u2019 confused with functional things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics say the idea isn\u2019t timely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[363,28,275,360],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-12301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts","tag-headlines","tag-internet","tag-technology-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12301"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18641,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12301\/revisions\/18641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12301"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=12301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}