Last week, the popular Tezos-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Hic et nunc discontinued its services after climbing into the top 20 NFT marketplaces by sales volume. Founder Rafael Lima announced on Twitter that Hicetnunc.xyz was now “discontinued,” leaving users confused and speculating about the future of the platform.
Community Cloning and DAO Transition
Days later, the Tezos community rallied around a clone of the original marketplace called “Hicetnunc.art.” Statements shared with Bitcoin.com News reveal that founder Rafael Lima decided to step back and leave the project in the hands of the community. The original website remains unavailable and under the control of the founder. Teztools, a Tezos infrastructure provider, has stepped in as the temporary “caretaker” of the Hic et nunc smart contract until a fully functional decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is established.
Furthermore, Lima has reduced the platform’s fee to 1%, the lowest level the smart contract permits. “Hic et nunc founder Rafael Lima has been in communication with some of the admin team and reduced the existing HEN contract fee to 1%,” the hicetnunc-community Twitter account wrote. “In turn, DNS.xyz have transferred the ownership of the mirror Hicetnunc.art to the community care of Teztools.”
The Merits of Web3
Generative artist and creative coder Matt DesLauriers published a blog post on November 13 titled “Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web3.” He explained that despite the original Hic et nunc website shutting down, “its users and their content are able to transition seamlessly to alternative platforms and online spaces, because the website was merely acting as a thin interface atop the decentralized blockchain contracts and peer-to-peer file hosting.”
This episode highlights the resilience of decentralized platforms: even when a founder abandons a project, the community can preserve assets and governance through smart contracts and open-source frontends. The Tezos community’s swift response not only saved the existing NFT assets but also paved the way for a more robust DAO-driven future.