Almost all of the media coverage around web3 was concerned with the hype cycle around crypto and NFTs during the pandemic, from Beeple's $69 million NFT sale to traders losing their savings speculating on cryptocurrencies. The flurry of activity here is what got the art world's attention, but it's the reason why many people at cultural institutions have been wary of getting involved.
At this early stage, there's still work to be done to educate institutions and audiences about this technology. For example, museums need to understand how to manage hardware crypto wallets to protect their collections from theft. One challenge is understanding where and how NFT data is stored if they're going to collect it from platform failure, as well as developing their own processes for collecting NFT-based work for long-term storage and presentation.