This year, NFT collectors have already delivered more than $37 billion in value to NFT marketplaces. This is close to reaching the entire amount sent in all of 2021.
Throughout 2021, investors transferred $40 billion in cryptocurrencies to smart contracts related to NFT collections and marketplaces, according to Chainalysis.
NFT collectors activity inconsistent but strong
According to the report, NFT transaction volume fluctuates and has been declining since mid-February. As of mid-April, the NFT market had made a temporary resurgence. This is due to the recent excitement surrounding Moonbirds and the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s metaverse project, Otherside.
NFT transaction volume has increased significantly since the beginning of last year, but the industry’s overall growth has been erratic.
Despite short-term variations in NFT transaction volume, the number of persons purchasing and selling NFTs around the world remains high, with 950,000 unique addresses buying or selling NFTs in Q1 2022.
As of May 1, Q2 2022, 491,000 unique addresses have transacted with NFTs. This keeps the market on track to maintain its participation growth trajectory.
NFT’s global reach
Chainalysis discovered that NFTs attract users from all over the world by examining the online traffic of the largest NFT collectors’ marketplaces. Central and Southern Asia lead the way, followed by North America and Western Europe.
The report contradicts the conclusion of a recent Wall Street Journal story, which suggested that NFT sales had flatlined. The article claimed that “the NFT market is collapsing,” while the top five NFT collections alone sold over $1 billion in primary and secondary sales in the same week.
WSJ says that data from Nonfungible indicate NFT sales have dropped by 92% since an all-time high in September 2021. Wallets in the Ethereum (ETH) NFT market dropped approximately 88% since a peak in November 2021.
Chainalysis’ research comes just one day after Coinbases’ debut of its in-house NFT marketplace failed to spark much interest. According to on-chain data, only 150 transactions took place on May 4 — the first day of trading — with only $75,000 in volume moving through the platform.