The chief executive of OpenSea, the world’s leading non-fungible token marketplace, has sought to distance NFTs from cryptocurrencies as the sector is hit by the aftermath of a series of scandals.

Devin Finzer, 32, told the Financial Times that the crypto industry has seen “some setbacks lately,” citing the case of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that went bankrupt in November and helped spark a plunge in the value of digital assets .

OpenSea rose in value as online collectibles and digital art called NFTs, based on the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies, became a hype-driven market over the past two years.

But the head of the New York-based company insisted NFTs have a bright future as he believes consumers will continue to spend real money to acquire digital images and display them in their homes and in online virtual spaces .

“It’s not necessarily the case that NFTs will always be bought and sold in cryptocurrency, as is the case today,” he said. “There are a variety of reasons why this makes sense in the current ecosystem, but as we become broader and more accessible, there’s no reason NFTs couldn’t at least be denominated in US dollars.”

OpenSea has seen its monthly trading volume in cryptocurrency ether fall 95 percent from a peak of $4.9 billion in January last year to $253 million in November, according to data from a user named “rchen” on Dune Analytics. The daily number of NFTs sold on the platform in ether has fallen 68 percent from a peak of 2.3 million in January to 740,000 last month.

“NFTs don’t exist in a vacuum, there is the overall macro climate that has changed dramatically, affecting consumer spending and the broader crypto climate, which is experiencing a winter,” Finzer said.

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The company cut 20 percent of its workforce in July, with Finzer anticipating a “prolonged downturn,” leaving OpenSea with about 300 employees.

Finzer claims the company has a “healthy catwalk” having raised $423 million in multiple funding rounds since 2021 in which venture capitalists Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz have invested. Angels, including Reddit founder Alex Ohanian, actor Ashton Kutcher, and singer Shawn Mendes, also participated in previous rounds.

OpenSea raised the majority of its capital, $300 million, during its latest funding round announced in January this year, valuing the company at $13.3 billion.

NFTs use blockchain technology to certify ownership of a digital asset, which is recorded in an immutable ledger. They use the same technology that underlies cryptocurrencies and are typically bought and sold in cryptocurrencies such as ether.

This year, the crypto market has suffered a number of scandals, including the collapse of stablecoin terraUSD and a market-wide crash that saw the price of popular tokens like bitcoin plummet. A series of laws are being introduced to regulate the volatile industry, including the UK Financial Services and Markets Act and the EU Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation.

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Governments and law enforcement agencies around the world are also making decisions about whether to register and disclose NFTs as financial collateral.

“It’s really important that regulators and government officials understand that this is not the same as in the broader crypto industry, where there is a heavy focus on financial use cases,” Finzer said.

He said the value of NFTs should be decided by how people engage with them, whether that’s by using tokens to attend exclusive events, play games or display digital artworks in their homes.

“It is already the case that people are using Instagram [to share NFTs] with her friends,” said Finzer. “[In future] more and more of your property can be digital as opposed to physical art. . . Right now it might be early adopters who are exhibiting NFTs in their homes, but that could be something that’s happening more and more.”