Ethereum Domain Names Top NFTs as Most Traded Asset on OpenSea

ENS domains have taken the top spot as the number one collection on the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Driven by a 170% jump in sales over the past 24 hours, the Ethereum Name Service flipped the Bored Ape Yacht Club in seven-day volume.

In the past week, ENS trading volume surpassed 2,305 ETH or $3.76 million, representing a 43% week-over-week increase. The Bored Ape Yacht Club saw a parallel 43% drop to 2,126 ETH.

Nearly 9,000 ENS domains changed hands in the last seven days, compared to 16 BAYC NFTs. But the ENS floor price—the lowest price for an item in a collection—is less than $16, or less than 0.01 ETH, whereas the lowest price of a BAYC NFT is 76 ETH or about $124,000.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are cryptographically unique tokens linked to digital and physical content, showing proof of ownership.

ENS domains can be linked to a cryptocurrency wallet, meaning that instead of providing a sender with a typical Ethereum address—a long string of characters—users can specify their .eth domain name to receive a transaction. ENS domains can also be sold as NFTs.

According to OpenSea, there are over 508,000 owners of ENS NFTs with a total trading volume of 56.3k ETH, representing around $86.2 million.

Last month, ENS reported its third highest month of revenue, with 2.17 million domain names created on the service, accounting for 99% of the domain name sales volume on OpenSea.

“With the upcoming merge and recent market downturn, gas prices on Ethereum have dropped, making it more affordable to register an ENS,” Khori Whittaker, ENS executive director, told Decrypt.

Whittaker believes that with more attention drawn to Ethereum because of the merge, it’s likely that users are gearing up for a post-merge world. “[Users] registering their personal ENS is a staple for every Web3 user heading into this new chapter of Ethereum’s life,” he said.

Scheduled for September 15, the merge will switch the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work to a proof of stake consensus algorithm, a move expected to lower the energy consumption of the top blockchain for dapps, DAOs, and NFTs by 99.95%, according to the Ethereum Foundation.

“ENS is the only place where users can register a .eth domain,” Whittaker said. “Since our launch we’ve steadily grown in tandem with Ethereum.”