Why do many NFT artists adopt Bitcoin as a spiritual symbol?

Here's how you can think of it: Bitcoin is like the "elder statesman" or "spiritual totem" of the entire crypto world. Many NFT artists have a special emotional connection to it, primarily for the following reasons:

It's the pioneer, the progenitor. Before Bitcoin, anything in the digital world, like an image or a song, could be infinitely copied and pasted. This made it hard to distinguish an "original" and thus gave it little collectible value. Bitcoin was the first to solve this problem, creating the concept of "digital scarcity" and proving that something online could be unique and impossible to arbitrarily duplicate. The core of NFT art, the "non-fungible token," is built precisely on this foundation. So, artists are grateful to Bitcoin because it fundamentally made it possible for digital artworks to be traded as "assets."
It represents a spirit of rebellion and freedom. Bitcoin's very creation was a challenge to the traditional financial system (like banks and centralized institutions). It championed "decentralization," meaning "my money, my rules," without any intermediaries. This spirit resonates deeply with the ideas of many NFT artists. Artists also want to bypass traditional galleries and auction houses—these "middlemen"—and connect directly with their collectors. Therefore, the spirit of freedom, independence, and disruption that Bitcoin embodies is precisely what they seek, and they naturally view Bitcoin as their spiritual symbol.
Cultural identity. The people involved in NFTs are inherently part of the crypto culture. And Bitcoin is the earliest and most central cultural symbol of this community, filled with legendary stories and jargon (like "HODL"). For an NFT artist to express respect for Bitcoin is like a rock musician paying homage to Elvis; it's a form of identity, signaling, "I'm an insider, I understand the culture and history here."

In simple terms, for NFT artists, Bitcoin is more than just a digital currency; it's more like a flag, representing the birth of digital ownership, the ideal of decentralization, and a new cultural movement. What they respect is the era Bitcoin ushered in and the philosophy behind it.