The market for crypto collectibles sold as NFTs cooled down in recent months following the spring boom, but a recent flurry of high-dollar sales and staggering levels of trading volume suggest that NFTs are gaining momentum again.
NFTs exploded in popularity in early 2021, with some $1.5 billion in trading volume in the first quarter alone per DappRadar—a 2,627% year-over-year increase. Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot helped introduce NFTs to the mainstream, CryptoPunks cracked seven figures apiece, and celebrities made millions while brands like Taco Bell and Charmin jumped in on the trend. Whether it was a still image, video clip, tweet, or some other digital item tokenized on a blockchain, NFTs were selling like hotcakes.
But then the momentum seemed to fade. Critics called NFTs a fad and complaints about the environmental impact of Ethereum minting got louder, Top Shot prices fell off a cliff, and attaching a celebrity or athlete to an NFT drop was no longer a guarantee of success. Still, transaction volumes hit $2.5 billion for the first half of the year, suggesting a dip in interest from the first quarter but still plenty of activity happening… albeit with less fanfare than before.
Today, NFT marketplace OpenSea put an exclamation point on the last week of movement, as CEO Devin Finzer tweeted that it had processed some $95 million worth of transactions within just two days. By contrast, OpenSea had about $21 million of volume in all of 2020 alone. The popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection hit a new peak average price point on OpenSea over the weekend, all the while, and currently sits at about 11 ETH (about $29,000).
In 2020, OpenSea did about $21M in total transaction volume.
On top of all of that, play-to-earn Ethereum game Axie Infinity has put up incredible numbers in recent weeks. According to data from its marketplace that runs on the Ronin sidechain, Axie has moved $875 million worth of NFTs in the last 30 days, with about $197 million of that happening within the last seven days.
Last month, Axie Infinity was making more money in fees than either the Bitcoin or Ethereum protocol in a seven-day span, based on all of that NFT volume—and the game’s AXS native governance token is up more than 550% in value over the last 30 days, as well. The latest data shared by developer Sky Mavis earlier today points to more than 900,000 daily active users for the leading crypto game.
OpenSea, a popular marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), generated roughly $95 million in trading volume over the past weekend—nearly five times more than during the whole year of 2020.
“In 2020, OpenSea did about $21M in total transaction volume. In the last two days, we did $95M. The growth curve for NFTs is insane,” tweeted OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer today.
While impressive in its own right, the latest record is hardly surprising for a crypto company that became a unicorn after it raised...
Before the last week or so, Axie’s recent surge seemed to be detached from the overall NFT market movement. But now, amidst rising volume elsewhere, soaring price floors for top collections, and more and more top-dollar sales in the mix—all perhaps driven by the recent upswing in cryptocurrency prices—it looks like NFTs are hot again. Whether this latest buzz continues longer-term, however, remains to be seen.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
NFT Revolution
NFTs are provably unique crypto tokens that are quickly becoming increasingly popular among digital artists, gaming companies, and investors. Track the NFT revolution here.
Gaming giant Square Enix, the firm behind Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, announced this week that it is expanding its blockchain game Symbiogenesis to Sony’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Soneium.
Symbiogenesis originally launched on Ethereum scaling network Polygon, and is currently wrapping up what’s slated to be its final season of content. But that imminent conclusion isn’t stopping Square Enix from a further affiliation with Sony on the blockchain.
The initiative connects Symbiogenesis with...
Doodles took its next major step forward Friday after switching CEOs in January, launching its ecosystem token—DOOD—on Solana with an airdrop for NFT holders.
The initiative is the first critical launch since Scott Martin, better known as Burnt Toast, assumed the project’s chief executive role, beginning an era in which he planned to introduce more risk while doing away with its previously “extractive corpo” initiatives.
Martin, who is also the artist behind the Doodles brand, previously spoke...
Adidas and the makers of Sui-based game Xociety announced a collaboration this week to release limited edition NFT mystery boxes containing in-game character skins, marking the athletic apparel brand's latest move in the blockchain world.
The collection, launching May 16, will offer 2,600 mystery boxes priced at $129 each, each containing Adidas-themed virtual clothing and accessories for player avatars in Xociety—a "pop shooter" game built on the Sui blockchain.
Each mystery box contains Adidas...