NFT Sales Drop by Almost 50% in the Last Week Alone

Some of the data available for NFT’s certainly suggests the hype is dying. Just in the past week, we have seen a decline from 78m in total NFT sales to 44m. Nonetheless, NFT figures are impressive—and suggest the new asset is here to stay. Yet, one has to wonder, is the current market downturn just a temporary bump in the road?

Data Suggests NFT Interest is Declining

NFT’s have been exploding since 2019, with Beeple selling his famous piece for over $69 million and Pak raising almost $17 million recently, it looks like the NFT hype is just beginning. But data says something different.

According to monthly statistics from NonFungible, the total sales of the NFT market as of April 21 was approximately $193 million, a decrease of 23.8% from the 239 million US dollars a month prior (March 23). 

Aligning with this, we can see a decrease in the number of NFT’s sales that took place. One month ago this number was almost 180k, and now it is hovering around 126k, representing a 42.8% decrease in the amount of NFT’s that were sold.

The downtrend continues to follow into the unique buyer’s chart too, which peaked at almost 39k a month ago. Yet now, that figure is hovering just above 29k.

One thing to keep in mind with these stats is the rate of new NFT’s emerging over the past month has been exploding amidst all of this decline. Representing an explosion of supply and declining demand. This may be a factor in the decline of the NFT hype due to the oversaturation of “junk” NFT’s making it harder to source the unique, high-quality NFT’s.

A Look to the Future of NFTs

The NFT market is still very new as many celebrities and famous individuals are getting into the industry—and newcomers are still trying to grasp the concept of Crypto Art. Despite the short-term decline, some NFT enthusiasts continue to build out subcultures in the niche space. Plots of ‘virtual land’ have been selling for over half a million dollars, and there are even leasing options emerging for owners of virtual land.

The future of non-fungible tokens looks to be interesting, as many anticipate a lot more use cases for them outside of the popular categories of collectibles, games, DeFi, art, utility, metaverse, and sports in the years to come.

An issue some creators have been talking about is the cost to deploy NFT’s on the blockchain, which may also be a factor contributing to the decline of sales over the past month. For example, at press time, average ETH transaction fees were more than $30. This too will most likely only be a short-term issue due to the advancement of sidechains and the emergence of layer 2 solutions.

To be frank, the crypto space has witnessed a number of wacky NFTs in the midst of all the hype. A decline in NFT activity could actually bring further legitimacy and validation to the novelty of NFTs.

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Despite the data, what do you think about the current state of NFT’s? Have you purchased some? Let us know in the comments below!