It's starting to look like New World's honeymoon phase is over already. Players are discovering a ton of problems with New World, including a lack of functional end-game content, AFK-tracking that kicks players for taking part in trades too long, and an invincibility glitch that makes New World's PvP mode a cinch.
And to top it all off, New World's economy is crashing because of rampant deflation. The opposite of inflation, deflation is when the prices of goods keep going down rather than up. This is most often caused by people hoarding money because of a restricted money supply--which is exactly what's happening in New World.
In New World, players can gain money (or "coins") from completing quests, killing mobs, and salvage, but the money they get isn't enough to counter the money being taken away. Property taxes, crafting costs, and repairs all cost way more coin than players gain--especially after high-level players hit the level cap and exhaust the game's supply of quests.
Prices for raw crafting materials have plummeted in recent days, with ore going for mere pennies. It's gotten to the point where players have resorted to a sort of barter system to avoid spending coins at in-game traders. Exchanging required goods directly with other players allows you to save some cash, but it also greatly reduces overall market activity.
Besides making trades annoyingly difficult, deflation has a lot of negative effects on an in-game economy. Anything with a fixed money cost becomes way more expensive because there's just no easy way to get back coins. It's often cheaper to buy an all-new weapon rather than repair an old one unless you're at an incredibly high level, and even then you'll probably be inclined to use a cheap throw-away weapon for anything but the most important battles.
Deflation is also bad for the overall health of a game as it disincentivizes play. Why bother with an in-game profession if you can't make any money? Why bother grinding for an end-game weapon if you can't afford to repair it? Why bother taking over enemy territory if you can't afford the property taxes or the cost of rebuilding all those crafting stations?
The solution here is relatively straightforward: lower taxes, decrease repair and crafting costs, and provide more sources of gold for end-game content. Until Amazon makes these fixes, players will keep hoarding money, prices will keep dropping, and New World might just die before it has a chance to truly flourish.