The non-fungible token community has suffered a huge blow this week after Benoit Pagotto passed away. Pagotto was the co-founder of the digital asset incubation studio ‘RTFKT,’ which was later acquired by Nike, an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation. In response to this sad news, Clone X, an NFT collection from RTFKT, has tanked more than 51% from its initial daily sales volume.
RTFKT Co-founder Dies At 41
In an October 12 blog post, the RTFKT NFT team confirmed the sudden death of Benoit Pagotto. Benoît Pagotto was a French entrepreneur and the co-founder of the digital asset incubation firm RTFKT, a prominent figure in the NFT and digital fashion space. He was recognized for his role in bridging high fashion and gaming with blockchain technology and was named one of the few people shaping the global fashion industry on the Business of Fashion’s BoF 500 list in 2022. He passed away suddenly at the age of 41.
Today I framed and hung up the original signed poster of the late Benoit Pagotto’s CloneX.
I was a dedicated RTFKT collector and we met a few times in Tokyo, Paris and New York – Benoit was a visionary ahead of his time!
My sincere condolences to his family, friends and all… pic.twitter.com/igD66f8clp
— Artiom (@ArtiomS) October 13, 2025
In response to Benoit Pagotto’s death, Clone X has tanked both in trading sales volume and floor price value. In the past 24 hours, the Clone X NFT collection has raised a trading sales volume of just 7.74ETH. During this period, the Clone X NFT trading sales volume has shrunk by over 50% from the previous day. Its floor price has also dropped by 5% to 0.18ETH in the past 24 hours.
CloneX is an NFT collection of 20,000 anime-style 3D avatars created by Pagotto’s RTFKT Studios in collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami. These unique digital avatars are designed for use in the metaverse, gaming, and augmented reality, and each has a specific DNA type that determines its rarity. These NFTs are built on the Ethereum blockchain, with each one serving as a unique digital certificate of ownership.
Benoit Pagotto NFT Journey
Pagotto co-founded RTFKT Studios with Steven Vasilev and Chris Le in 2020. The digital asset company quickly gained prominence in 2021 by creating next-generation virtual sneakers and collectibles for the metaverse, merging elements of fashion, gaming, and crypto culture. Under Pagotto’s leadership, RTFKT collaborated with influential digital artists and designers, including Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami, on the Clone X NFT collection and sneaker designer Jeff Staple.