The emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has significantly disrupted the contemporary art market, sparking debate about their long-term impact and true value. While proponents highlight their democratizing potential by enabling direct artist-audience engagement and bypassing traditional intermediaries, critics view NFTs as a speculative bubble lacking the cultural cachet of physical art. The meteoric rise and subsequent fall of NFT prices in 2021-2022 further fuel this uncertainty. High-profile sales, like Beeple's '$69 million' artwork and a '$532 million' CryptoPunk transaction (technically a flash loan), underscored the initial hype before a dramatic market crash in June 2022. This study aims to fill the existing knowledge gap by examining how influential art market institutions frame and position NFTs within the broader discourse. It addresses the research question: How are NFTs framed and positioned within mainstream art market discourse, and what are the implications of this framing for their integration, valorisation, and the tensions surrounding their emergence in the contemporary art world? The study employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining critical discourse analysis (CDA), corpus linguistics, and the political economy of art to analyze three key 2023 art market reports.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged as a multidisciplinary approach to studying language, communication, and power. It examines how language shapes social power relations and ideologies, focusing on discourse, intertextuality, power, and ideology. CDA methodologies encompass textual, linguistic, semiotic analysis, and critical reflection. In art studies, CDA has been applied to art criticism, interpretation, education, visual culture, and social activism, analyzing how language constructs and challenges social norms. Emerging trends involve intersectionality, new media, globalization, and environmental concerns. The study also leverages the political economy of art to examine the relationship between NFTs, the art market, and broader economic systems, highlighting the capitalist framework within which the art market operates and how this impacts the perception and value of art.

This study uses CDA supplemented by corpus linguistics tools to analyze three key 2023 art market reports: The Art Market 2023 (Art Basel & UBS), The 2022 Global Art Market (Artprice and ARAA), and Sotheby's Insight Report (Sotheby's and ArtTactic). These reports comprise a 105,993-word corpus, offering a substantial dataset for analysis. The methodology involves several steps: 1. **Frequency Analysis:** This examines the frequency of the term 'NFT' and related terms (e.g., 'digital art') across the reports to determine discursive prominence. 2. **Concordance Analysis:** This identifies the context words surrounding 'NFT' to understand its usage and connotations within each report. 3. **Collocation Analysis:** This investigates frequent word combinations with 'NFT' to reveal common associations and meanings. 4. **Sentiment Analysis:** This assesses the emotional tone (positive, negative, neutral) of statements containing 'NFT' to understand the overall sentiment expressed towards the concept. 5. **Structure Analysis:** This examines the placement and prominence of discussions regarding NFTs within each report's overall structure. Specialized software (MAXQDA) assisted with quantitative and qualitative data processing. The analysis considers the specific discursive strategies used in economic reports—technical language, figures of speech, quantitative data, passive voice, nominalisation, euphemisms, causality, persuasive tone, and logical structure—to understand how the authors present information and shape the reader's interpretation.

Frequency analysis reveals a high prominence of 'NFT' across all three reports, significantly higher than its superordinate term 'digital art', and often higher than other established art categories (e.g., 'contemporary art', 'Old Masters'). This suggests NFTs are gaining primacy as a form of digital art in art market discourse. Concordance analysis shows that the term 'NFT' is most frequently associated with words like 'sales,' 'art,' 'platforms,' and 'digital,' indicating a strong association with commercial transactions and market mechanisms. Collocation analysis reinforces this finding; common collocations include 'NFT sales,' 'NFT platforms,' 'NFT auctions,' and 'NFT market,' strongly emphasizing the commercial aspects of NFTs. Sentiment analysis shows predominantly positive framing of NFTs in two reports, with Report 1 exhibiting a more neutral sentiment, partly due to a dedicated section discussing negative aspects like fraud and copyright infringement. Structure analysis highlights significant structural prominence given to NFTs in two of the reports (Reports 1 and 2), with Report 3 showing lower prominence, suggesting a still-evolving status in the high-value segment of the market. The overall findings demonstrate that the concept of NFTs is highly valued in the reports, highlighting its commercial and financial importance within the art market, while also noting some skepticism.

The findings address the research question by showing that NFTs are significantly prominent in mainstream art market discourse, particularly in reports targeting a broader audience. However, this prominence is tempered in the high-end market, reflecting a slower rate of integration. The overwhelmingly positive sentiment in two reports, despite acknowledging certain risks and ethical concerns, indicates a generally optimistic institutional outlook on the potential of NFTs within the art market. This contrasts with the more cautious and balanced approach seen in Report 1. The commercial emphasis in the language used surrounding NFTs suggests that their artistic and cultural value are sometimes overshadowed by their financial significance. This aligns with the political economy of art perspective, which emphasizes the role of capitalist structures in shaping art markets and the value of artworks. The study demonstrates how seemingly neutral, factual reporting can subtly promote or endorse specific ideologies or perspectives. The high frequency of 'NFT' compared to 'digital art' highlights a prioritization of NFTs within digital art discourse, reflecting the current market dynamics.

This study provides novel insights into the discursive framing of NFTs within the mainstream art market. The interdisciplinary approach using CDA and corpus linguistics offers a robust method for analyzing evolving art market trends. Findings reveal a complex interplay of acceptance, valorization, and ongoing tensions. The increasing institutional validation of NFT art, coupled with ethical considerations, provides important insights for researchers, policymakers, and art world practitioners. Future research should further explore the evolving discourse around NFTs, considering intersecting factors like race, gender, and class, as well as investigating the long-term environmental implications of blockchain technology within the art market.

The study's focus on three specific art market reports constitutes a limitation. While these reports are highly influential, they may not fully represent the entire spectrum of opinion within the art market. Furthermore, focusing solely on textual data ignores other forms of communication that might influence discourse on NFTs. However, the consistency of findings across the three reports strengthens the conclusion that the identified patterns reflect significant trends within mainstream institutional discourse. The rapid pace of change in the NFT market also means that the findings reflect a specific moment in time.