Even though crypto prices are going up, the NFT market is looking strong, and the Bored Ape Yacht Club is leading the way.
Are NFTs back?
Are NFTs Back? Latest signs of improvement in the NFT market resulted in a considerable increase in market activity in January, as organic trading volume increased by 38% compared to December, according to data from DappRadar.
Last month, sales of NFT assets reached $946,7 million, according to the analytics firm that analyzes data from various blockchain networks and marketplaces. This marks the highest market-wide total since June 2022, and a considerable boost from the December figure of $683,9 million.
DappRadar excludes data from deals suspected to be wash trades or sales that have been manipulated. In wash trading, a user often sells an NFT at an inflated price between his or her own wallets, generally in an attempt to manipulate a marketplace rewards model or raise the profile of a lesser-known initiative.
In January, both the organic trading volume and the total number of NFTs traded rose. In January, DappRadar recorded over 9.5M sales of NFT, the largest amount recorded since February 2022. This is a 42% increase compared to the total of about 6.7 million NFTs sold in December.
According to DappRadar, every major blockchain protocol had NFT sales increase in January, with Ethereum sales volume rising from almost $558 million in December to over $772 million in January and Solana rising from $69.5 million to almost $86 million. Even Flow, the platform underlying Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, rebounded from $6.8 million in December to $7.8 million in January.
According to DappRadar, OpenSea was the largest NFT marketplace in January with $495 million in trade volume, up from $297 million in December. The platform surpassed its Ethereum NFT volume total with more than a week left in January, indicating a market-wide resurgence. Although a slow second half of 2021, the market had $25 billion in organic trade volume in 2021 and 2022.
Sewer Pass’s release’s impact
The release of Yuga Labs’ Sewer Pass, an NFT access pass available to existing Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners, contributed to the market’s increase this month. Due to creator royalty disputes, Yuga Labs prevented marketplaces such as Blur and LooksRare from selling the pass.
Bored Ape Yacht Club and its collections drove NFT sales expansion in January. CryptoSlam data shows a 45% boost in Bored Ape trading volume over last month with market-leading $71 million in sales. The Sewer Pass has traded over $58 million since mid-January.
Sales rose for Bored Apes and others. Azuki rose 89%, Art Blocks 62%, and Solana project DeGods 113% in the past 30 days, among other top CryptoSlam projects.
Most of these numbers are way down from the same time last year. With $5.36 billion worth of trades in January, the NFT market reached a new peak. But as the crypto market fell in May, momentum, sales, and NFT prices fell sharply.
However, the significant increase in NFT trading volume and asset sales in January follows smaller month-over-month rises in December and coincides with rising crypto prices in recent weeks.
A number of skeptics of NFTs emphasized the market dead after several months of diminishing returns, but data indicates a rebound in activity and prices for large projects.
source: www.decrypt.com
