NFTs have not escaped the crypto bear market, trading data shows.
The summer of 2021 marked an explosion of interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
Photo Credit: Reuters
Interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) saw a massive surge throughout the summer of 2021. After a year, the NFT market's trading volume has plummeted. Due to the lowest trading volumes in a year and the growing epidemic of NFT hacks, interest in NFTs has decreased along with the overall cryptocurrency market. Data from top NFT trading marketplaces such as OpenSea reveals that trading volumes have fallen off a cliff in recent months, now at their lowest levels since July 2021.
According to crypto analytics community Dune data, OpenSea's trading volume hit a peak of around $5.8 billion (roughly Rs. 46,408 crore) in January. However, trading on the platform has steadily declined throughout the first two quarters of the year, sliding to $3.1 billion (roughly Rs. 24,805 crore) in May.
June saw the most significant drop in the exchange's history compared to earlier months as trading volumes plummeted a whopping 74 percent to $826 million (roughly Rs. 6,610 crore). Extending the slide, OpenSea has seen $456.9 million (roughly Rs. 3,655 crore) so far this month with three full days remaining.
OpenSea's daily trading volume also shows a steep decline in activity. The platform registered $543 million (roughly Rs. 4,345 crore) worth of trades on May 1, days after Yuga Labs' highly-anticipated Otherside drop went live. Daily volumes throughout June and July have come in closer to $20 million (roughly Rs. 160 crore). The number of unique NFT transactions on OpenSea also reinforces the decline in interest. In May and early June, transactions regularly exceeded 150,000 per day. Now, they haven't managed to break past 75,000 in over a month.
While OpenSea has faced strong competition from other newer exchanges, it's clear that overall trading volumes are still in decline. The recent trading volumes from X2Y2 and LooksRare, the top two exchanges behind OpenSea, are not nearly enough to make up the difference.
A separate analysis by Be[In]Crypto also reveals that Solana's NFT volumes have also seen a dip in June with sales volume figures of $91.52 million (roughly Rs. 732 crore) in June, down by 64 percent from $261.07 million (roughly Rs. 2,089 crore) in May 2022.
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