Silicon Valley’s dreamers peddled NFTs as the future of ownership. Then came the metaverse, promised lands in digital realms. AI followed, bots to end all labor. Now? Silence. Volumes crash. Projects shutter. The bill arrives. Elizabeth Lopatto nailed it in The Verge . Tech elites, detached from daily life, chase visions that normal folks ignore. They rediscover old truths—knowledge in language, hands’ complexity—and brand them breakthroughs. Regular people knew this ages ago. Artists sketched fingers. Writers structured sentences. But Valley types act shocked, building empires on amnesia. NFTs peaked hard. Bored Apes sold for millions; CryptoKitties clogged blockchains. Fast-forward. Market cap dips below $1.5 billion, down 95% from 2021 highs, per IntelligentHQ . Monthly trading volume? A measly $106 million in March 2026, says CryptoSlam data there. Annual volume slid 37% to $5.5 billion by 2025. Average art NFT price? Under $100, from $462 peaks.…