This paper proposes a new theoretical framework to understand the failure of the NFT market (2021-2023) through a synthesis of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of The Field of Cultural Production [1] and the theological concept of apostolic succession. The central thesis of this argument is that the collapse of NFT value is not merely a phenomenon of a bursting financial bubble, but a manifestation of a more funda- mental institutional failure—namely, the inability to create a chain of legitimacy required for the transubstantiation of digital objects into valuable works of art. NFTs attempted a ”Protestant Reformation” of the hierarchical structure of the art world (by decentralizing the authority of curators, galleries, and muse- ums) without first building an alternative mechanism to produce collective belief. Without a traceable chain of legitimacy—conceptualized in this paper as apostolic succession—value fails to undergo ontological transformation and remains lifeless digital data, despite technological claims of blockchain-verified artificial scarcity. Through a comparative analysis between consecration mechanisms in tradi- tional art institutions (”The White Cube Church”) and legitimacy practices in the NFT ecosystem (”The Digital Heresy”), this paper demonstrates that cryp- tographic technology, however sophisticated, cannot replace the sociological and temporal infrastructure required to maintain symbolic value [7]. The concept of ontological debt—the collector’s psychological debt to historical narratives—is introduced as a key variable explaining the behavioral differences between traditional art collectors and NFT speculators.