TL;DR
- The trading volume dropped from $1.4 billion in April 2022 to $60 million this week.
- OpenSea’s active users fell 12% to 126,000 in August — the lowest since July 2021.
NFT Trading Volume Hits The Lowest Point Since The 2021 Boom
Ethereum NFT trading volumes saw their most significant slump in August in two years. Marketplaces like OpenSea, Blur, LooksRare, and X2Y2 experienced a sharp drop in activity.
Data from The Block indicates that the trading volume plummeted to $407 million in August, Marking a 32% decrease from July’s $599 million. This makes August the weakest month since June 2021.
The trend continued in September, with weekly trading volumes of only $60 million compared to the $1.4 billion registered in April 2022.
OpenSea, once a dominant force in the NFT marketplace with investment valuations reaching $10 billion, recorded its steepest user count drop since July 2021. Dune Analytics reported that their active users declined by 12%, settling at 126,000 in August.
Among the marketplaces, X2Y2 witnessed the most significant dip, dropping 40% month-over-month. Meanwhile, Blur saw a decline of 38%, OpenSea by 18%, and LooksRare by 8%.
Interest in Blue-Chip NFTs and Solana-Based Collections Declines
The wider crypto market has seen notable drops in trading volume, but NFTs have faced even sharper declines since their peak in 2021.
The Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Collections Index, which includes major NFT collections like CryptoPunks, BAYC, Azuki, and DeGonds, has plummeted 37% year-to-date. Conversely, Ether has grown by 37% during the same timeframe.
Similarly, Solana, another blockchain favored for creating and trading NFTs, hasn’t shown promising results either.
Daily trading volumes for NFTs on Solana have dipped below $1 million, marking the first such instance since September 2021.
While Ethereum remained the NFT king for a long time, the increasing popularity of Solana NFTs was interpreted by investors as the start of a new trend.
However, the spark of Solana-based NFTs didn’t start a bull market in the NFT world, killing the hope of thousands of investors.
Worrying Times For the NFT Sector
This month, the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated its first NFT-related lawsuit, targeting the podcast studio Impact Theory.
Adding to the concerns, a prominent NFT platform, Recur, announced its closure despite securing $50 million in a Series A fundraising round less than two years ago.
Rarible also declared it would stop gathering NFT orders from OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2 in light of the current dispute over royalties in the crypto domain. The volume of NFT royalties also recently plunged to a two-year low.
Could this be the doom of the NFT sector, or is it just another bear market we’ll successfully get over?
Who knows, but for now, the trading volumes and floor prices indicate a significant decline in investor attention toward massive NFT collection and small-budget NFT startups…
Michael Healy
Michael, an entrepreneur, and co-founder of Unit, is a full-stack, mobile, and blockchain developer with extensive experience in the crypto and blockchain industry since 2010. A leading token builder, Unit powers the token economy using the Polkadot-powered Unit Network blockchain. Michael has built a diverse portfolio with multiple successful exits, including encrypted P2P video conferencing, a large UK student social network, and the Wikileaks Android app. He has experience working with top organizations like Wellington Partners, Founders Forum, Google, KPMG,...
