Published on: 07/11/2022
NFTs remain high in demand despite decrease in sales, report shows
Although the trading volume of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) fell in October, analytics firm DappRadar reported an 18 percent increase in the monthly number of NFT traders, indicating that NFTs remained in high demand.
According to their November 3 data, individual NFT merchants totaled 1.11 million in October, an 18 percent increase from the 950,000 figure reported in September. However, as mentioned above, the gross sales of NFTs dropped by 30 percent to $662 million in October, the lowest in 2022.
“Even though the NFT trading volume and sales count decreased this month, the unique trader count increased by 18%, reaching 1.11 million,” the report read.
“The rise in the unique trader count indicates that new people are entering the NFT market, and it is still in great demand.”
This October was a busy month for the NFT community. At least two more NFT marketplaces adopted an optional royalty model, namely the Ethereum-based LooksRare and Solana-based Magic Eden.
However, Ethereum’s NFT trading volume tumbled 21 percent in October to $324 million, the lowest since June 2021. Similarly, Solana’s trading volume dropped by 49 percent to return to its August and July averages. CryptoPunk became the most valuable of these sales, selling for a staggering 475 Ether ETH on October 27.
The report also showed that Yuga Labs had sustained its dominance in the NFT market, with CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club accounting for seven of the top ten monthly sales.
“Looking at the top 10 sales of this month, we could observe how the Yuga Labs projects dominate the NFT market,” the report continued.
Good news
According to the report, Polygon’s NFT trading volume increased 770 percent last month due to the popularity of Reddit NFT collections. Since their release in July, more than 2.9 million Reddit avatars have been minted, making their way into more than 2.8 million wallets.
According to data from analytics firm Dune, Reddit NFTs had a sales volume of $10.1 million by the end of October. The trading volume for Polygon is likely to rise over the coming month, with Meta introducing on November 2 that the layer-2 solution would be its partner for its new NFT tools on Instagram.
The report also showed Dogecoin (DOGE) had the most outstanding result in October. Due to news of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, the meme cryptocurrency closed the month with a 50 percent increase from its October opening price.
The average number of active wallets increased by 6.84 percent over the previous month. DappRadar attributed the increase to marking provider Lido’s integration into Arbitrum and Optimism and the collaboration between the Near Foundation and Google Cloud.
The report explained how the NFT market constantly evolves and gives rise to new endeavors and marketplaces. According to DappRadar, the competitive rivalry in the NFT market had recently upped due to the new marketplaces that recently entered the space.
The report also highlighted that Blur, a new Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, recently started its beta version.
“Although all markets are experiencing heightened volatility at a time when interest rates and inflationary factors are uncertain, wars and global conflict continue, and other factors influence the markets,” the report read.
“NFTs and their underlying marketplaces are showing strong signs of enduring regardless of fluctuations.”
