Top marketplace OpenSea has already topped December’s Ethereum NFT sales volume total this month amid other good signals.
Is the bear market for cryptocurrencies about to end? Recently, the prices of cryptos went up, and there are now more and more signs that the NFT space is also coming back. OpenSea, the largest marketplace, has recorded consecutive monthly growth in Ethereum NFT sales for the first time in a year, with January sales volume already surpassing December’s total with a week to go.
Public blockchain data on the analytics platform Dune shows that OpenSea has processed more than $320 million worth of Ethereum NFT trades so far in January. This is already more than the $283.5 million that was traded in December. December was the first time since April 2022 that OpenSea had posted any kind of sales increase, climbing from $253 million worth in November.
It could be because the price of Ethereum is going up. The price of Ethereum has gone up 33% in the last 30 days, and it is now worth $1,620, according to data from CoinGecko. However, even when measured in ETH, OpenSea’s January sales of approximately 228,000 ETH only surpassed December’s total of 227,000 ETH, with this month’s total surpassing 228,000 ETH. OpenSea sold about 191,000 ETH worth of Ethereum NFTs in November.
Nevertheless, even though OpenSea’s recent increase is an encouraging signal for the industry after months of declining sales, the numbers demonstrate how significantly the market has deteriorated over the past year. OpenSea had its best month ever in January 2022, selling $4.86 billion worth of Ethereum NFTs.
Beginning 2022 with five straight months of at least $2 billion in NFT trading volume per month, OpenSea saw volatile ups and downs.
Price of top NFT collections rise
The OpenSea streak isn’t the only recent piece of information that shows that the NFT space might be coming back to life. Prices for top collections are going up. According to NFT Price Floor, the cheapest listed Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT went from $84,500 worth of ETH to almost $108,000 in the last 30 days. During the same time, CryptoPunks went from having $76,500 worth of ETH to having $108,000 worth.
According to data from CryptoSlam, sales of Bored Ape are up 45% over the last 30 days compared to the same time last year. Sales of Azuki NFTs are up 89% and sales of Art Blocks are up 62%.
The rise in the number of NFT trades doesn’t just seem to be happening on OpenSea. In general, CryptoSlam shows that the number of Ethereum NFTs sold went up by 33% during that time and that the number of Solana NFTs sold went up by 95%.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club and related collections are driving NFT trading volume recently, with pseudonymous Proof Director of Research Punk9059 indicating that Yuga’s projects made up almost fifty percent of all Ethereum NFT trading volume in the past week. However, the Apes were also prominent early-year drivers in 2022, so this is not a significant change.
BAYC ecosystem assets have done nearly 50% of total ETH NFT volume over the past week.
— NFTstatistics.eth (@punk9059) January 23, 2023
(includes BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, BACC, Otherdeed, Sewer Passes) pic.twitter.com/4Bk5TEOqHj
It’s not clear if these recent signs will lead to a long-term rebound in the NFT market, and it’s clear that the space has lost a lot of steam over the past year.
However, after several months of declining activity, any upward movement will be seen positively by traders and builders in the space.