Markets
Ethereum and Polygon lead the rally despite declining buyers
The non-fungible token, or NFT, market saw a 7.68% increase in sales volume this week, reaching $109 million, with notable activity on Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) blockchains.
However, this increase occurred against a backdrop of a drastic drop in the number of NFT buyers and sellers, which fell by 68.00% and 67.78%, respectively.
Interestingly, even as the number of market participants dropped, NFT transactions witnessed a substantial increase, shooting up nearly 21% to reach 2,435,539 trades, according to data from CryptoSlam.
Here is a comprehensive overview of the key events and trends that have shaped the NFT landscape in the last seven days.
Ethereum, Polygon lead load
Blockchains by Weekly NFT Sales Volume | Source: CryptoSlam
Among blockchains, Ethereum maintained its position as the leading blockchain for NFT sales, generating $32,711,790, despite the prevalence of wash trading.
However, the battle for second place heated up throughout the week. Polygon surpassed Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SUN) after seeing a 90% increase in NFT trading volume.
Data shows that Polygon’s weekly NFT sales surpassed the $24 million mark, with an additional $3.1 million coming from wash trading.
What’s worth noting is that Polygon’s improved performance came despite a 78.98% drop in the number of NFT buyers on the blockchain.
Solana, Bitcoin’s downfall
In third place was Solana, which sold $22.7 million worth of digital collectibles. That number is a 2% drop from what the network raised the previous week.
However, Solana’s wash trading numbers increased by over 32%, which translates to a slight 0.37% improvement in the network’s total NFT sales numbers.
Additionally, despite a 70% drop, Solana had the highest number of unique buyers among the top 5 blockchains: 88,090.
Traditionally known for its store of value proposition, Bitcoin has continued to struggle for relevance in the NFT space.
The network earned around $15.1 million in NFT sales during the week, a drop of almost 5% from the previous week’s figures. This caused Bitcoin to fall further to the #4 position in terms of weekly sales volume.
However, it was still much better than the fifth-placed blockchain, Mythos (MYTH), which recorded sales worth US$4.16 million.
Top NFT Collections: DMarket, DogeZuki Shine
The DMarket collection on Mythos topped the charts this week among NFT collections, generating $3,915,145 in sales across 166,053 transactions.
While this performance marks a 3.83% drop from the previous week’s figures, it still underscores the growing appeal of Mythos Chain as a platform for NFT trading.
The DogeZuki Collection on Solana has also been a hit, raising $3,038,960 from 71,566 transactions. Market observers suggest that the collection’s popularity may highlight Solana’s ability to attract high-profile projects and maintain high buyer engagement.
Other notable collections include Base Ape Polygon, which saw $2,809,791 in sales, and Froganas, also on Solana, with $2,759,532.
However, the biggest jump of the week came from another Solana collection called “Send it,” with sales soaring by 1752.43% to $2,723,251.
High-end NFT sales
This week also saw several high-value NFT sales that made headlines:
- TokenVestingPlans #582 on Ethereum sold for $360,611.
- Bitcoin Punks’ Punk #3100 sold for $115,430.
- gUSDC Deposit blocked #205 at Arbitrum (ARB) was sold for $88,908.
- DeezNode #045 on Solana sold for $75,548.
Additionally, fan tokens, which are a growing frontier in NFTs, also made a significant splash this week, especially on Chiliz (CHZ) blockchain:
- Galatasaray fan token sales soared 70,149% to reach $280,537,908.
- FC Barcelona had a sales volume of US$50,162,146.
- Paris Saint-Germain recorded a sales volume of US$46,709,324.