Objkt vs Hic et Nunc: How Tezos' NFT Marketplace Crown Changed Hands

The idea that objkt.com is "coming for the throne" of Hic et Nunc made sense in 2021, when the two names were tangled together. Today the picture is simpler. Hic et Nunc, often shortened to H=N or HEN, is no longer an operating marketplace. Objkt.com is a live Tezos marketplace that indexes the tokens HEN created and lets people buy, sell and make offers on them.

So the real story is not a rivalry that one side won in a head-to-head fight. It is a handover that happened when the original site disappeared and traders, artists and collectors needed somewhere to continue. Objkt.com, along with the community-run Teia, filled that gap.

This guide covers:

• what Hic et Nunc was and why artists cared about it
• what happened when it shut down
• how objkt.com, Teia and other front ends relate to each other
• where your old Hic et Nunc NFTs are and how to find them
• how to trade on Tezos more safely

One note on naming. HEN called each minted item an "OBJKT". The marketplace called objkt.com uses a similar word, which is why people mix them up. They are different things: one is a term for a token, the other is a company-run marketplace.

As with any NFT market, prices, volumes and fees move constantly. This article explains structure and process, and points to where you can check live numbers yourself, rather than quoting figures that would be out of date quickly.

Hic et Nunc launched in early 2021 on Tezos. Its creator, Rafael Lima, built a stripped-down interface that let anyone mint and sell an NFT with minimal friction. Tezos used proof-of-stake and had low transaction costs compared with Ethereum at that time, which mattered to artists who could not justify paying high network fees to mint work that might not sell.

Several things made HEN stand out:

• Low barrier to entry. Minting was quick and the interface was deliberately plain.
• A strong experimental art scene. Generative work, glitch art, small animations, zines and odd internet-native pieces flourished there.
• Community culture. Artists swapped work, collected from each other and shared tips in public channels, so the scene felt like a collective, not a storefront.
• Open, simple tooling. The interface was built around the idea that a front end is replaceable and the chain is what counts.

That last point turned out to be important. Because ownership records live on the Tezos blockchain, the tokens did not depend on one website staying up. HEN's design made it possible for others to read the same contracts and rebuild a way to view and trade them.

HEN also made Tezos known to a new audience of collectors who had never touched the network before. Many of today's Tezos NFT habits, such as small editions, open collecting and artist-to-artist support, trace back to that early period.

In November 2021 the original Hic et Nunc site went offline after its creator announced he was shutting it down. For a short period, artists and collectors were unsure what would happen to their work.

The key fact that settled most worries is simple: the NFTs were not deleted. Token ownership and the main contracts sit on the Tezos blockchain. What disappeared was one website, not the underlying records. Artwork files themselves are usually stored on IPFS, a decentralised file system, so media can still be retrieved as long as someone keeps hosting ("pinning") those files.

The community responded quickly:

• Teia. A community-run project set up to keep the HEN-style experience going, with a DAO-style structure and a front end that reads the same contracts. A Tezos Commons article from 2022 describes Teia's origins and role for readers who want the community account.
• Other front ends. Several interfaces and indexers appeared or expanded their support for HEN-era tokens.
• Objkt.com. An existing Tezos marketplace that listed HEN tokens as a collection and became the main place for secondary trading.

Some people only learned about the shutdown much later. One thread in a HEN community forum shows a user who regained access to an old Tezos wallet and was surprised to find hicetnunc no longer existed. The tokens were typically still in the wallet. They simply needed a different front end to display them.

That gap in awareness is why this topic remains worth searching in 2026.

Objkt.com is a Tezos NFT marketplace with its own website, search, profile pages, collection pages and trading tools. It is independent of the original Hic et Nunc project, which is why it kept running when HEN's site stopped.

Pages on objkt.com for HEN-era works carry a line such as "Part of collection: hic et nunc" along with the creator's wallet address. That shows how it works: HEN tokens were minted into a shared contract, so a marketplace that indexes that contract can group everything under one collection and display each token's creator, history and listings.

Common features on objkt.com include:

• fixed-price listings and offers
• timed auctions, depending on the token and seller
• open editions and collection drops from artists
• profile pages that show what a wallet created, owns and has sold
• activity feeds that record sales, transfers and listings

Why did it end up as the default? Mainly through timing and function. When HEN went away, collectors needed liquidity, and liquidity follows where buyers and sellers already are. Objkt.com already had working listings, offers and search, so artists and collectors moved there without needing to build anything new.

That does not mean it is the only option. A marketplace is a front end, and the chain is the source of truth. Check each platform's current features and fee policy on its own site before you trade, because these details change.

The three names below are often confused. This table sets out the practical differences as they stand for readers in 2026, based on how each was set up. Check each site for current status.

	Hic et Nunc	Teia	Objkt.com
Status	Original site offline since November 2021	Community-run front end	Independent, active marketplace
Origin	Created by Rafael Lima in early 2021	Formed by the community after the shutdown	Separate Tezos marketplace that indexes HEN tokens
Main role today	Historic contracts and tokens remain on-chain	Keeping the HEN-style minting and trading culture going	Primary hub for buying, selling and offers
Tokens it shows	Created the HEN token set	HEN-era and newer tokens	HEN collection plus many other Tezos collections
Governance	One creator	Community-led	Company-run
Best for	Understanding the history	Artists who value the community ethos	Collectors who want liquidity and search

The important point: the three do not each hold a separate copy of your NFT. They are different windows onto the same Tezos blockchain data. If you own a token, it is in your wallet no matter which site you use to look at it.

Some differences do affect your experience, though. Listing visibility, offer tools, fee structure and the way creator royalties are handled can vary between platforms. A listing on one site is not automatically a listing on another, so compare before you buy or sell.

If you held NFTs on Hic et Nunc and cannot find them, the first thing to know is that they are probably still in your wallet. Work through these steps.

1. Find your wallet. Tezos addresses start with tz1, tz2 or tz3. Look through old browser extensions, mobile apps and saved notes for the wallet you connected to HEN.
2. Restore it if needed. If you only have a recovery phrase, restore it inside the wallet app itself, not on a website. Anyone who asks for your phrase online is trying to steal from you.
3. Open a Tezos marketplace profile. On objkt.com you can search for your wallet address or connect the wallet to see what it owns.
4. Check the HEN collection. Look for the collection labelled "hic et nunc". Tokens you collected or minted through HEN should appear there.
5. Try Teia as a cross-check. Connecting to Teia shows the same on-chain holdings through a different interface.
6. Check other addresses. Many people used more than one wallet. If something is missing, try your other addresses.

If an item shows but the image fails to load, the file may have lost its IPFS pinning. The token record still exists on-chain, but the media may take effort to recover. Artists sometimes re-pin files for their own work, so contacting the creator can help.

Never pay anyone who claims they can "recover" NFTs for you. Recovery of a wallet you control needs only your own recovery phrase, entered into a trusted wallet.

Buying on objkt.com follows the usual pattern for Tezos marketplaces. Here is a defensive walk-through.

1. Set up a Tezos wallet. Use a well-known wallet app or browser extension. Write down the recovery phrase on paper and store it offline.
2. Fund it with XTZ. Buy Tezos through an exchange you trust and withdraw to your own address. Send a small test amount first.
3. Connect the wallet to the marketplace. Approve only the connection request. Read what each wallet prompt says before confirming.
4. Research the token. Open the token page and check the creator address, collection, edition size, listing history and royalty setting.
5. Compare listings and offers. The same work may be listed at several prices by different holders. Look at recent sales in the activity feed.
6. Check the total cost. Review the price, any marketplace fee and the network fee shown in the wallet prompt before you sign.
7. Confirm and verify. After the transaction, check that the token appears in your wallet and in the activity feed.

Selling is similar: choose a listing type, set a price and confirm in your wallet. If you are an artist, check how royalties are set at minting and what each marketplace does with them.

NFT markets can be illiquid. A token you buy today may be hard to sell later at any price. Only spend what you can afford to lose, and treat purchases as collecting for enjoyment first.

Fees on NFT marketplaces typically fall into three groups: a marketplace fee on sales, a creator royalty set by the artist, and a network fee paid to the blockchain. Each can change, and each platform can set its own policy, so do not rely on a number from an old article.

What to check before you trade:

• The checkout breakdown. The marketplace usually shows what you pay and what the seller receives. Read it line by line.
• The royalty on the token. Creators set a percentage when they mint. Some platforms enforce it and some give sellers more flexibility, so confirm how your chosen site handles it.
• Network fees in your wallet. Tezos fees are usually small compared with many other chains, but the prompt in your wallet shows the actual amount.
• Edition mechanics. Open editions, timed drops and auctions can have different rules for price and supply.

Where to check live data: the marketplace's own help or fee pages for current rates, the collection page for floor price and volume, and the activity feed for recent sales. Third-party analytics sites also track Tezos NFT volumes, but treat their figures as estimates, since they can differ in how they count wash trades or transfers.

If you are an artist, royalties are part of your income. Consider where you list first, and whether the platform's royalty handling matches what you expect, before you mint a large edition.

The openness that made Hic et Nunc creative also made it easy to abuse. Copied work, impersonators and cheap spam tokens have long been part of the Tezos NFT landscape, and they did not disappear when the original site did.

Practical defences:

• Verify the creator. Compare the creator's wallet address on the token page with the address the artist posts on their own official profiles. A matching display name is not proof.
• Watch for copymints. A copied image minted by someone else will have a different creator address and often a later mint date. Check the history.
• Ignore unsolicited airdrops. Random tokens sent to your wallet may link to scam sites. Do not connect your wallet to pages they point to.
• Guard your recovery phrase. No marketplace, support agent or community moderator will ask for it.
• Review every signature prompt. If a wallet asks for something you do not understand, reject it.
• Use a separate wallet for experiments. Keep long-term holdings in a wallet that rarely connects to new sites.
• Be careful with media. Some tokens link to external files or scripts. Open unknown tokens in a limited environment, not a browser holding sensitive logins.

Also keep expectations realistic. A token that existed in 2021 has no guarantee of future value, and older, lightly traded items can be hard to sell. The sensible approach is to treat NFTs as collectibles or art you want to own, not as an investment you can count on.

With the original site gone for years, the throne language says less about the present than it did. What exists now is a layered Tezos NFT scene: a set of on-chain contracts, several front ends, and a community of artists who still mint, trade and collect.

What readers can do now:

• If you held HEN NFTs: locate your wallet, connect it to objkt.com or Teia, and check the "hic et nunc" collection.
• If you are curious about the history: browse the HEN collection page on objkt.com to see early works, creator addresses and sales histories, and read community accounts of Teia's origins.
• If you want to collect: start small, learn how editions, offers and royalties work, and study an artist's track record before buying.
• If you are an artist: compare minting and listing options across platforms, and keep your own copy of your files.

Tezos is not the only chain with an art-focused marketplace scene, and trading venues elsewhere run on different rules and risks. The marketplaces in this site's dApp directory cover other kinds of NFT activity, such as domain trading and automated NFT strategies, but they work differently from Tezos art platforms and carry their own risks. Read each one's documentation before using it.

The lasting lesson from Hic et Nunc is about design. When ownership lives on a blockchain, a website going dark does not erase what you own. It just means you need another window to see it.