Hic et Nunc Offline: What Happened and What Owners Can Do

Hic et Nunc, Latin for "here and now" and usually shortened to HEN, was an NFT marketplace built on Tezos. It launched in early 2021 and was created by a Brazilian developer, Rafael Lima. It grew quickly during the 2021 NFT boom, but its appeal had little to do with the price-driven side of that boom.

Several things set it apart:

• Low cost to mint. Tezos uses proof-of-stake, so minting and trading fees were a fraction of what artists paid on Ethereum at the time. That mattered to artists who wanted to publish many small works.
• Minimal design. The interface was sparse. There were few filters or curation layers, and it relied on feeds of recent mints and individual artist pages.
• Open community. Many artists from outside the usual crypto circles used it, including illustrators, animators, photographers, glitch and generative artists, and meme makers.
• Simple trading model. Artists minted an edition, then swapped it for sale at a fixed price. Collectors could resell the same way.

The platform also drew criticism. A lack of moderation meant copyminted work, where someone mints another artist's piece without permission, was a persistent problem. The same openness that welcomed newcomers made it easy to exploit.

HEN is best understood as both a marketplace and an informal art scene. When the website stopped operating, the effect was felt mainly by that community of artists and collectors.

In mid-November 2021, the founder announced that the Hic et Nunc website would be taken offline. The announcement came with little warning, and the site went dark shortly afterwards. For many users the first sign was simply that the familiar address no longer loaded.

The immediate effects were practical:

• Artists lost their storefronts. Profile pages, feeds and sales listings that had been reached through the site were no longer reachable from there.
• Collectors lost their gallery view. The place where people browsed what they owned was gone.
• Open listings were stranded. Artworks that had been put up for sale through the original marketplace contracts could not be managed through the original interface.
• Confusion spread. Users asked whether tokens and funds were safe, and rumours moved faster than facts.

What the shutdown did not do is delete anything held on the blockchain. A website is only one way to read and write data on a chain. Because the project's contracts live on Tezos, the records of who minted and who owns each token stayed in place.

The community responded quickly. Developers and artists who wanted to keep the scene alive worked on replacements, and the project's code had been published openly, which made that possible. That response is covered in a later section.

If you need to know the current state of any official HEN website, check it yourself, since this can change.

The founder's public explanation centred on stepping away. Reporting at the time described a project that had grown very fast and become a heavy burden for a small team, with pressure from the volume of users, copyminting disputes, and public attention. Treat any detailed account of motives with caution, since it is mostly second-hand interpretation.

What can be said more firmly is structural:

• A single point of control. Although the contracts were on-chain, the website that most users depended on was run and hosted by a very small group. When that group stopped, the main way in disappeared.
• Domain and hosting dependence. A conventional web address and server can be switched off by one person or one decision, whatever happens on the blockchain.
• Moderation pressure. Platforms that allow anyone to mint face recurring problems with stolen art. Handling those reports takes time and judgement.
• No formal organisation. HEN was not a company with staff, legal structure and a succession plan. It was closer to a popular open project.

This is why the episode is often cited in discussions of decentralisation. The ownership layer was decentralised, but the interface was not. That distinction explains most of what followed: tokens persisted, while the place where people met did not.

If you read older coverage, check dates and sources, because early reports mixed confirmed facts with speculation.

The short answer is no, but there is a nuance that every NFT owner should understand. An NFT has two parts:

1. The on-chain record. This states which wallet owns which token ID and holds a pointer, called metadata, to the artwork.
2. The off-chain media. The image, video, audio or 3D file the token points to.

Hic et Nunc tokens followed the Tezos token standard, and the on-chain ownership record does not depend on any website. That record stays as long as the Tezos network does.

The media was commonly stored on IPFS, a content-addressed file network. IPFS identifies a file by a fingerprint of its content instead of a server location. That helps, but it has a catch: a file stays reachable only while at least one node keeps it available, which is called pinning. When a platform stops operating, whatever pinning it did for its users may stop too, depending on how it was set up.

So the risk is not that ownership disappears. The risk is that a token could point to a file that nobody hosts any more, leaving you with a valid token and a blank image.

What to do about it:

• Keep your own copy of any original files you can obtain.
• Check that your tokens' media still loads on more than one viewer.
• If you are an artist, pin your own files, or use a pinning service, rather than relying on a platform.

You do not need the old site to see what you hold. Follow these steps.

1. Identify your wallet address. Tezos addresses begin with tz1, tz2, tz3 or KT1. Open your wallet app and copy the address you used on HEN.
2. Look it up in a Tezos block explorer. The explorer lists token balances and transfers directly from the chain. This is the most reliable source of truth.
3. Open it in a community marketplace. Tezos NFT platforms such as Teia and objkt.com index tokens by wallet address and typically show HEN-era works with their artwork and history.
4. Connect your wallet only when needed. Viewing a profile usually needs no connection. Connect only to list, transfer or cancel something.
5. Verify the platform first. Confirm you are on the correct site through the platform's own verified channels, not through a search result or an unsolicited message.

If you had a listing still active under an old HEN marketplace contract, some community interfaces were built to work with those older contracts so listings could be managed or cancelled. Whether this still works for a given listing depends on the platform, so test with care and check current documentation.

If a token's image does not load, that points to the storage issue from the previous section, not to lost ownership. Check the token's metadata in the explorer to see where the file is supposed to be.

After the shutdown, the Tezos art community did not disperse. Two kinds of destinations took on most of the activity.

Teia. This is a community-run fork of the HEN interface. It was set up so artists and collectors could keep the familiar way of minting, swapping and collecting, and it is organised as a DAO instead of belonging to one person. It is not the original project, and it has its own rules, moderation approach and governance. Check its community channels for the current state of both.

objkt.com. This is a Tezos marketplace that already existed during the HEN period. It indexes a wide range of Tezos tokens, including works minted on HEN, and gives collectors search, filtering and collection pages. Many artists used it alongside or after HEN.

Other Tezos-based projects, including generative-art platforms, drew artists too, though each has its own focus.

How they compare:

Feature	Teia	objkt.com
Origin	Community fork of HEN	Independent Tezos marketplace
Feel	Close to the original HEN	More filters and discovery tools
Governance	DAO	Run by its operators

The fork was possible because the HEN code was public. That is the reason the scene could be rebuilt in days instead of being lost entirely.

Features, fees and policies on all of these change, so read each platform's current documentation before you trade.

If you made or collect HEN-era art, a few habits protect it regardless of which marketplace survives.

For artists

• Keep the original files, with their exact formats, in at least two places.
• Record each token's ID, contract and metadata address in a simple spreadsheet.
• Pin your files yourself or use a reputable pinning service, instead of assuming a platform will keep them available.
• Keep proof of authorship, such as work-in-progress files, dated posts and sketches. This helps if someone copymints your work.

For collectors

• Download the media for pieces you care about, where the artist's terms allow it.
• Note the token ID and contract so you can look the piece up on a block explorer later.
• Check periodically that your tokens still display in more than one viewer.
• Store your wallet recovery phrase offline and never photograph it or save it in cloud notes.

Why this matters

Content addressing means a file keeps the same identifier wherever it is hosted. If you re-pin a file that matches the token's metadata, the token resolves again. That makes personal backups genuinely useful, not just cautious.

None of this changes ownership, but it keeps the artwork visible in the way the artist intended. A token with no reachable media is still yours, but it is much less meaningful.

Whenever a well-known platform disappears, people search for it, and scammers notice. Searches for a defunct marketplace are a reliable way to land on imitations.

Watch for these patterns:

• Look-alike sites. Pages copying the HEN look, asking you to connect a wallet to "restore" or "migrate" your NFTs.
• Seed phrase requests. No legitimate marketplace ever needs your recovery phrase. Anyone who asks for it wants to empty your wallet.
• Fake support accounts. Direct messages offering help with a lost collection are almost always scams.
• Surprise airdrops. Unrequested tokens or NFTs that link to a claim site can be bait.
• Urgency. Messages that say you must act now or lose your assets are a pressure tactic.

Defensive habits:

1. Reach platforms through the project's own verified channels and bookmark them.
2. Use a separate wallet with a small balance for experimenting with new sites.
3. Read every wallet prompt before approving. A request to sign or permit something you did not expect is a reason to stop.
4. Review and revoke old permissions on Tezos tools if you no longer use a service.
5. Keep your valuable NFTs in a wallet that is rarely connected to anything.

If you think you have connected to a malicious site, move your assets to a new wallet created on a clean device and stop using the old one.

The Hic et Nunc shutdown is a useful case study for anyone buying NFTs. These questions apply to any marketplace.

Questions to ask before you buy or mint

• Who runs the interface? Is it a team, a company, a DAO, or one person? A single operator is a single point of failure.
• Where does the media live? Is it on IPFS, other decentralised storage, or a company server? Is anyone committed to keeping it available?
• Is the code open? Public code lets a community rebuild a service, as happened with Teia.
• Can you export what matters? Check whether you can download your files and read your holdings without the platform.
• What is the moderation approach? Understand how copyminting and takedown reports are handled.
• Is there a succession plan? Projects with governance structures are more likely to outlast their founders.

A practical rule

Assume any website can disappear and ask whether your records would survive. If your ownership is on-chain, your media is backed up, and you know your token IDs and contracts, a shutdown is an inconvenience instead of a loss.

NFTs also carry real financial risk. Values can fall to nothing, and nothing here is advice to buy or sell. Treat purchases as something you could lose entirely.

Because the situation after a shutdown can change, avoid relying on a single article, including this one, for anything time-sensitive.

Use these sources:

• A Tezos block explorer. It shows what your wallet holds and the history of each token. It does not depend on any marketplace.
• Official project accounts. Check the verified social profiles of the Hic et Nunc founder and of Teia for announcements. Be sceptical of unverified accounts.
• Marketplace documentation. Teia and objkt.com publish their own help pages covering fees, supported features and how to handle older listings.
• Artist communities. Many Tezos artists share updates about where they now publish and which links are authentic.
• Your wallet app. It shows your balances and recent activity directly.

Things worth checking now rather than assuming:

1. Whether any official Hic et Nunc website is live.
2. Whether your older listings can still be managed.
3. Whether your tokens' media still loads.
4. Which marketplaces currently support Tezos tokens.

A note on conduct: this guide concerns collecting art and is not a gambling topic, but if you move into any area involving wagers, you must be 18 or older and should check the laws where you live first. For NFTs generally, keep records of your transactions, since tax rules vary by country and are worth confirming with a qualified adviser.