Hic et Nunc Shut Down: What Happened and Where Your NFTs Are

Hic et Nunc, usually shortened to HEN, was an NFT marketplace on the Tezos blockchain. It launched in 2020 and was built by a Brazilian developer who goes by Rafael Lima. It was known for a stripped-down interface, very low minting costs compared with Ethereum, and a culture that attracted many independent and experimental artists.

Tezos uses proof of stake, so minting an NFT cost a small amount of tez rather than the large gas fees that were common on Ethereum at the time. That made it practical for artists to mint many works, and thousands of creators did. The site worked as a front end: it let you connect a wallet, mint tokens, and list or buy them through smart contracts on Tezos.

That split matters for everything below. The website was one layer. The tokens, the ownership records and the smart contracts lived on the blockchain, and the artwork files were generally stored on IPFS, a decentralised file network. When people say HEN is offline, they mean the website and its marketplace interface, not the blockchain records themselves.

In mid-November 2021, the creator announced that he was stopping work on the project, and the website went offline. The announcement came suddenly, and artists and collectors who had used the site daily lost access to it within a short time.

It was a deliberate shutdown by the operator. It was not caused by a hack of user wallets or by a routine hosting failure. This distinction is worth making because a flood of general website outages, such as CDN or cloud provider incidents that show 500 or 502 errors across many sites, can look similar at first glance. Those outages are temporary and affect many unrelated sites at once. A single marketplace going dark after a public announcement is a different situation.

After the shutdown, the original marketplace did not return to operating as it had. If you are checking the current state of any domain connected to the old project, treat its status as something to verify yourself, and be cautious about any lookalike site.

The creator said publicly that he was stopping, and he pointed to the stress and pressure of running a fast-growing platform. The project had grown quickly into a large community, and with that came disputes over moderation, copyminting (people minting other artists' work without permission), and heavy expectations on one developer.

The full picture is not documented in detail, and it is easy to find speculation that goes beyond what he actually said. A careful summary is that the project depended heavily on one person and his decision to stop ended it. That single-operator risk is the main lesson of the episode, and it applies to many NFT marketplaces.

It also explains why the community reacted by organising. Rather than waiting for the original site to return, developers and artists moved quickly to keep the NFTs accessible, which led to the creation of new front ends and a community-run alternative.

In most cases, yes. NFT ownership is recorded on the Tezos blockchain. Your wallet holds the token, not the website. Nothing about the site going offline moves or deletes tokens from your wallet.

The weaker point is the artwork file. An NFT usually points to metadata, and that metadata points to the media file on IPFS. IPFS content stays available only while at least one node keeps it pinned. HEN used IPFS, and after the shutdown, community projects and indexers worked to keep content accessible. Even so, you should not assume every file is guaranteed to load forever.

To check your own holdings:

• Open your Tezos wallet and look at your collectibles.
• Look up your wallet address on a Tezos block explorer to confirm the tokens are there.
• Search your address on a Tezos NFT marketplace that indexes older tokens.
• If an image does not load, note the token ID and contract so that you or the artist can re-pin the file.

Never share your seed phrase to get help recovering HEN NFTs. No legitimate recovery process requires it.

Several places let you view and trade Tezos NFTs, including works that were minted through HEN.

• objkt.com: The largest Tezos NFT marketplace. It indexes tokens from many contracts, including HEN-minted ones, and supports buying, selling and minting.
• Teia: A community-run marketplace that grew out of the HEN ecosystem after the shutdown. It was set up with a governance model rather than a single operator.
• Wallets and explorers: Tezos wallets show collectibles directly from the chain, and block explorers let you verify contract and token details independently.

Fees, supported features and governance details change over time, so check each platform's own documentation before listing or buying. If you are comparing options, look at who operates the marketplace, how decisions are made, whether the contracts have been audited or widely used, and how the platform handles copyminting reports.

NFT trading carries risk of loss, and prices can fall to zero. Only spend what you can afford to lose, and be aware of the tax rules where you live.

Teia is the best-known successor to the HEN community. It was launched by community members soon after the shutdown, with the aim of continuing the open, low-cost minting culture without relying on one person. It reused the idea of an open-source front end that talks to the same underlying Tezos contracts.

Teia is not the original company or developer returning. It is an independent community project, and it should be judged on its own current track record. Points to check:

• Who maintains the site and how decisions are made.
• How it treats artist reports about stolen work.
• Whether the contracts it uses are the ones you expect.
• Whether its listed domain matches what the community officially publishes.

Because tokens live on-chain, you do not have to move anything to use Teia. You connect the same wallet that holds your HEN NFTs and your tokens show up. Always check the address in the browser bar before connecting a wallet.

A high-profile shutdown creates ideal conditions for scams, so some defensive habits are worth building.

• Fake relaunch sites: Be skeptical of any page claiming to be the returning HEN or offering a migration. A real migration does not need your seed phrase.
• Wallet approvals: Only sign transactions you understand. Read what the wallet prompt says before confirming.
• Lookalike domains: Type addresses yourself or use bookmarks you created from a trusted source, rather than clicking search ads or social media links.
• Direct messages: Ignore support offers from strangers who say they can restore your NFTs.
• Hardware wallet: If you hold valuable pieces, consider keeping them in a wallet that supports hardware signing.

A temporary outage looks different from a shutdown. Outages usually come with an error page and recover within hours, and large providers publish incident timelines. A shutdown comes with an announcement from the operator and does not reverse on its own. If you cannot tell which one you are seeing, check the project's official social accounts and community channels, not public reporting alone.

If you collected on HEN, make a simple inventory. Export a list of your token IDs and contract addresses, and save screenshots or downloads of works that matter to you, where the artist's license allows it. Confirm that your tokens appear on at least one current marketplace and one block explorer.

If you are an artist, keep original files and metadata in your own backups. Consider pinning your IPFS content with a pinning service or running a node, because relying on someone else to keep it available is a risk. Check that your works are credited correctly on current marketplaces, and report copyminted copies through each platform's process.

If you plan to mint again, consider spreading your presence across more than one marketplace so that no single operator controls your access. Check each platform's royalty settings, because royalty enforcement differs between marketplaces and has changed across the NFT industry.

This is general information, not financial advice. NFTs are volatile and can be illiquid.

The Hic et Nunc shutdown is a clear case study in platform risk. The blockchain kept ownership records intact, but the interface, discovery tools and file availability all depended on a single operator and on volunteers who stepped in.

When you judge any NFT or dApp marketplace, ask these questions:

1. Who can switch the front end off, and what happens if they do?
2. Are the contracts open and readable by other front ends?
3. Where are the media files stored, and who pays to keep them available?
4. Can you export or independently verify your holdings?
5. Is there a governance process, or does one person decide everything?

None of these questions guarantee safety, but they help you spot single points of failure before you commit money or work to a platform. HEN showed that the strongest part of NFT infrastructure is on-chain ownership, while the weakest parts are often the website and storage around it.