Bored Ape Yacht Club, Other Ethereum NFT Prices Plummet as Crypto Market Crashes

By Andrew Hayward

While NFT market activity has at times appeared to be uncoupled from crypto prices—particularly when NFTs have surged as the crypto market declined—that’s not the case right now. With crypto prices in the red nearly across the board this week, the prices for top NFT collections are likewise falling fast.

The floor price—the cheapest available NFT listed on a marketplace—for many of the most valuable NFT projects has fallen by 20% or more in terms of U.S. dollars over the past 24 hours. Even when denominated in ETH, most major projects are down significantly. That includes the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Moonbirds.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen significant volatility over the last few weeks. On April 29, the floor price for a Bored Ape hit an all-time high of 152 ETH (about $429,000 at the time). A few days later, it was 105 ETH, or about $292,000.

As of this writing, the cheapest-available Bored Ape is listed at 86 ETH at the LooksRare marketplace—just over $194,000 right now with Ethereum at its lowest point since July 2021. That’s a nearly 55% decrease in floor price, in terms of U.S. dollars, in just 10 days. The floor price has dropped nearly 23% today alone, per data from NFT Price Floor.

Meanwhile, CryptoPunks are down 21% today to a floor of nearly $114,000 (50 ETH), Moonbirds are down more than 34% to a floor price of $39,000 (17.1 ETH), and Azuki NFTs are down over 23% to nearly $40,000 (17.45 ETH).

The entry-level price for Otherdeed NFTs—virtual land deeds for the Bored Ape creators’ upcoming Otherside metaverse game—has fallen 52% over the last week, according to NFT Price Floor, and nearly 32% over the past 24 hours. Currently, an entry-level Otherdeed is priced at under 2.5 ETH, or about $5,650.

Since April 30, Otherdeed NFT sales have already generated over $1.15 billion to date between the initial mint and secondary market sales—despite widespread criticism of the launch.

An NFT acts as a proof of ownership for a digital item, and is often used for goods like profile pictures, digital artwork, and sports collectibles. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Moonbirds are notable profile picture projects that have collectively generated billions of dollars’ worth of NFT trading volume to date.

Despite the latest declines, the wider NFT market saw a nearly 45% rise in month-over-month trading volume in April. Furthermore, the NFT market is well on pace to beat 2021’s total of $25 billion in trading volume, per data from DappRadar, with nearly $16 billion worth of organic volume generated through April.

Ethereum NFT trading volume at OpenSea, the leading marketplace, has also fallen sharply in recent days, reaching just $52.3 million on Sunday, per data from Dune. That’s exactly one week after OpenSea set a new daily record of $476.1 million worth of Ethereum NFT trades. Yesterday was the marketplace’s lowest single day on that mark in two months.

It’s not just Ethereum NFTs that are feeling the apparent impact from the crypto market crash, either. Top Solana collections are down today, per data from Solana Floor, with Okay Bears’ price floor down 28% and DeGods’ floor down 15% when measured in SOL. The price of SOL has dropped nearly 15% itself over the past 24 hours.

The wider crypto market has fallen more than 11% over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin and Ethereum both down about 20% in total over the past week. Both leading cryptocurrencies have now lost more than 50% of their respective value since setting all-time high prices in November.

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