Are NFTs Back? Sales Increase 32% In October, Led By Ethereum
JPEG’s cryptocurrency market is showing signs of life, despite Friday’s massive write-offs on the popular OpenSea market, as NFT trading volume rose to $99 million in October compared to the previous month, according to a report published by crypto data company, DappRadar.
“The one-year downward trend in NFT trading has been broken,” DappRadar wrote, noting that NFT trading volume increased by 32% from $306 million in September to $405 million last month. The company described these as sales levels not seen since August.
NFTs are unique digital tokens that represent ownership of an object, usually digital art. While the NFT market is growing in 2021 and early 2022, this year has been difficult for many profile picture projects (PFP) so far, because the excitement of collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC ) of Yuga Labs has cooled off amid a prolonged cryptocurrency winter.
However, new signs of market heat may be playing out. The surge in NFT trading volume came as the price of Bitcoin returned above $35,000, hitting its highest price in 16 months, on the possible approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the US, according to analysts. .
The DappRadar report highlights Solana as a prominent network in terms of growth. The volume of NFT trading in fast layer-1 grew by 15%, increasing from $24 million to $27.6 million, DappRadar reported. Meanwhile, the price of Solana itself increased by 65% in October, rising from approximately $23 to $38, according to CoinGecko.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, has the highest NFT trading volume, with a 50% increase, compared to others, according to DappRadar.
While the flow of JPEGs increased in October, the minimum price or the cheapest NFT listed on a secondary market for some popular PFP projects also increased. For example, the minimum price of NFTs from the aforementioned Bored Ape Yacht Club went from $40,000 in Ethereum to $55,000.
Recently, the rising price of PFP projects boasting large market caps was discussed by Punk9059, director of research at NFT startup Proof. “Uptober has arrived,” said the identifying researcher a Twitter last week.
While the DappRadar report will raise WAGMI-like hopes among some NFT traders, the $405 million in NFT trading volume in October is a pittance compared to the $2 billion in JPEG images traded in March . Additionally, NFT sales continued to decline last month.
Despite the increase in trade value, the total number of NFTs traded in October decreased by 5%, from 3.58 million in September to 3.4 million last month, as reported by DappRadar. However, the decline was less severe than in August, when NFT sales fell to 290,000.
Edited by Andrew Hayward