NFT Market Boomed to $2 Bln in February Sales, Recorded Nine-Month High

The sales of Polygon NFTs increased by 147 percent around February this year.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Richa Sharma | Updated: 5 April 2023 19:12 IST

NFT Market Boomed to $2 Bln in February Sales, Recorded Nine-Month High

Photo Credit: Larva Labs

OpenSea NFT marketplace clocked $587 million in sales

Highlights

NFT sector recorded 16-month low in December 2022 sales
Non-fungible tokens are digital collectibles that are built on blockchain
The market dipped slightly in March but did not incur major losses

The sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) rose by a massive 117 percent in February 2023. Around March, the valuation of the global NFT market climbed to its nine-month high since June last year to over $2 billion (roughly Rs. 17,200 crore). NFTs or non-fungible tokens are digital collectibles that are built on blockchains and make for unique Web3 elements in the metaverse ecosystem. From animals to brands, music, art, or cartoon characters — NFTs can be inspired by anything. They also carry a value to them that could be liquated, if need arises, by re-selling or trading NFTs.

The sales of Polygon NFTs increased by 147 percent around February. Their sales managed to churn out $35 million (roughly Rs. 300 crore), a BeingCrypto report said, citing numbers from DappRadar.

The OpenSea NFT marketplace retained its position in terms of registered unique wallets. It clocked $587 million (roughly Rs. 4,800 crore) in sales during the second month of 2023.

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The sales of NFTs often mirror the market condition of cryptocurrencies. Most NFTs are only buyable in crypto. Hence, lows affecting the crypto market leave an impact on the NFT sales as well.

In February this year, the crypto market also reeled-in a significant recovery. The crypto market cap had spiked to $1.07 trillion (roughly Rs. 88,49,100 crore) by February 28 from its December 2022 valuation of $795 billion (roughly Rs. 65,87,835 crore).

Within the December 2022-February 2023 bracket, the NFT sales went from recording a 16-month low in December to rising by 16 percent in January.

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The March dip in the crypto sector, triggered by bank failures in the US and recession, had also pulled down the NFT sector along slightly. Around 5.8 million total NFTs were reportedly sold in March compared to almost 6.5 million NFTs in February.

While the overall recovery in the digital assets sector added sales numbers for NFTs, there were other developments in the space that drummed up the sector amongst the masses.

The category of ‘Ordinal NFTs', for instance, rose to make it to headlines after Yuga Labs minted $16.50 million (roughly Rs. 135 crore) by auctioning its TwelveFold ordinal NFT collection earlier this year. Ordinals are a relatively new category of NFTs that are inscribed on the smallest units of Bitcoin, called Satoshis.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, NFT, Non-Fungible Tokens, OpenSea, Blur

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More