So far, 2024 has not been overall a great year for the NFT market, but in recent weeks we are witnessing a comeback in prices.

The best collections like BAYC, Crypto Punks, and Pudgy Penguins are experiencing an increase in both their respective floor price and total sales volumes.

Is it a signal of a restart for the NFT sector? Let’s delve deeper below.

The negative performance of the top NFT collections in 2024

Although in recent weeks we are about to talk about a price recovery, we must point out that throughout 2024 the NFT market has been in constant decline.

Since the burst of the bolla in 2022, after the value of the cryptographic JPEG industry reached 417 billion dollars, this market has not recovered.

Both the market capitalization and the sales volumes have gone through a long bear market up to the present day.

Since January 2024, there has been an acceleration of the bear trend, according to the data from Coinmarketcap in the section “Highest Price NFT Stats” (data up to July 2024).

In particular the capitalization of NFTs has decreased by approximately 48% going from 51.7 billion at the beginning of the year to the current 26.8  billion dollars.
Sales have literally plummeted in the same period going from 3.7 billion to 819 million dollars.

Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/categoria/nft/

The depression of 2024 mainly affected the major NFT collections on the market, such as the famous “Crypto Punks”, born in 2017 from the invention of Larva Labs.

Based on the data reported by the site “NFTPriceFloor,” these collectible pieces have almost halved their price (denominated in ETH) since January.

Their floor price has dropped from 52.9 ETH to the current 28.5 ETH, while the value in dollars has fallen from 128,000 dollars to approximately 70,000 dollars.

Think that at the height of their splendor, the Crypto Punks had reached a valuation per token of over 110 ETH.

Source: https://nftpricefloor.com/it/cryptopunks

The recent rally in NFT market prices

If we shorten the time horizons by focusing only on the last few weeks of trading, we notice that there is a price recovery in the NFT market

Starting from the Crypto Punks, which boast the primacy in the capitalization of the sector, we see a strong increase in quotations from August 20 onwards.

The floor price of the collection in just 8 days has increased by over 20%, going from 22.8 ETH to 28.5 ETH. Some sales in these days have even exceeded the price of 30 ETH.

This is a signal of strong return of interest for a market that has been completely abandoned in recent years.

The international tensions and the uncertainties on the macroeconomic front have not favored the emergence of this speculative asset class, but now the time for the comeback has arrived.

Source: https://nftpricefloor.com/it/cryptopunks

Not only for the Crypto Punks, the increase in prices in the NFT market has also affected other collections.

As reported by the marketplace Blur, almost all the top collections (some more, some less) have seen an increase in the floor price in the last 7 days.

Pudgy Penguins increased by 14.78% bringing the selling price to 10.79 ETH, while Bored Ape Yacht Club rose only by 2.18% to 13.09 ETH.

Excellent numbers for Azuki, which despite losing appeal, records an increase of 7.2% in price, rising to 4.91 ETH.

Mutan Ape, Lul Pudgys, Baby Bears e Doodle also offer positive performance despite the slight decline on the last trading day.

Only Milady is bucking the trend, marking a drop of 7.26% in 7 days: however, the collection has grown throughout 2024 contrary to the rest of the market, doubling its value in 8 months.

Source: https://blur.io/

Sales volumes on the rise in August

The recovery of NFT market prices that we are witnessing in recent days is accompanied in parallel by an increase in sales volumes.

Within decentralized platforms like Blur, OpenSea, Magic Eden and Element Market, trades have intensified rapidly.

As reported by the site “CryptoSlam”, almost all the top collections have had an increased sales volume in 30 days,

To highlight in particular the great success of Crypto Punks, Guild of Guardians, and DeGods, which during the period recorded a boost in sales of 134%, 185%, and 259% respectively.

The recovery of the NFT market is also visible on Sorare, coinciding with the start of the 2024/2025 football season, and on the famous BAYC managed by Yuga Labs.

Numbers still negative instead for the DogeZuki and Solana Monkey Business collections, as well as for NodeMonkes.

Source: https://www.cryptoslam.io/

Overall, the global sales volume of the NFT market has grown by 14% in 7 days, reaching 100 million dollars.

In total, there have been over 1.8 million on-chain transactions in this context, with an average of 55 dollars per sale.

The buyers were significantly more than the sellers, with 546,000 users who bought from another 257,000 individuals.

The blockchains of Ethereum, Solana and Bitcoin are the most chosen by users to trade NFTs with over 60% of the market share of volumes.

The hope for NFT traders is that the recovery of the last week can trigger a prolonged rally in market prices, and that it does not fade from here on out.

The NFT market is still in deep crisis, with prices far from those of the boom. 

Although July is not over yet, only two days are left, so the first conclusions can already be drawn. 

The collapse of volumes and prices in the NFT market

The boom of the NFT market occurred during 2021, with the peaks reached in January 2022. 

According to the data from CryptoSlam, in January 2021 the total monthly trading volumes of NFTs on the market surpassed 100 million dollars for the first time.

A year later, in January 2022, they had risen to over six billion dollars, or sixty times as much. 

After this amazing growth, which lasted a year, a very long bear-market followed, which is still ongoing. 

The minimum peak of monthly trading volumes in 2022 in the NFT market was recorded in October, with less than 600 million dollars, which is a drop of more than 90% in less than a year.

However, 2023 went even worse, with a drop to 300 million dollars in September. 

At the end of 2023, it seemed, however, that it was recovering, with a rise above 1.7 billion dollars in December, but at that point, a new decline began that brought the monthly volumes back around 400 million. 

Therefore, although the worst post-bubble month for now remains September 2023, the approximately 400 million dollars this July are significantly lower than the worst month of 2022. 

The end of 2023 turned out to be just a flash in the pan. 

Buyers and sellers

Crypto Slam also measures how many active public addresses are on the NFT exchange market. 

In January 2021, there were very few, so much so that those data must now be considered absolutely outdated. 

In April 2021, however, there were just under 500,000 active addresses both in buying and selling. 

At the peak, in January 2022, the active addresses of sellers had risen above one million, while those of buyers had approached one and a half million. These, despite being all-time highs, still do not seem particularly significant numbers. It means that even during the last major bubble this was still just a niche market. 

Also in this case, the post-bubble minimum peak was reached at the end of 2023, with fewer than 500,000 sellers in November, and fewer than 540,000 buyers in October. 

In this case, however, the rebound in 2024 occurred, and it seems to be holding. 

In February of this year, the sellers rose above 800,000, with the buyers rising to over 1.2 million. The even more curious thing, however, is that in July, for now, there have been only just under 370,000 active addresses of the sellers, while those of the buyers have remained just under 980,000.

The current prices of the NFT market

Despite the sharp drop in sellers, and the relative stability in the number of buyers, prices have returned to being low. 

The point is that, probably, retail sales have decreased, but those of the original producers have remained high. 

The buyers have decreased much less from the annual peak in February, but they have still decreased. And that’s why the volumes have remained low, despite the high number of buyers. 

While on one hand such a picture does not seem to be comforting at all, on the other hand, the resilience of the number of buyers suggests that there might eventually be room for a new rebound. 

It is worth noting that during the second quarter of 2024, ending in June, volumes decreased by 45% compared to the first quarter of the year, dropping from 4.1 billion dollars to 2.24 billion.

At the beginning, to tell the truth, there was a significant increase, particularly in the number of transactions, which rose from 5.7 million in June to 9.9 million transactions. This further certifies that the average price has dropped. 

The future of the NFT market

Despite everything, the NFT market still seems to have a future. 

In a recent interview, the founder of CryptoSlam, Randy Wasinger, stated that NFTs are not dead, and that, just like all digital assets on blockchain, they are here to stay.

The key point at this stage is the rotation between different sectors.

Wasinger in fact believes that some applications of NFTs, fueled by previous cycles of hype, might indeed never return, but other use cases could reach new peaks and bring this market back to previous levels.

One of the use cases that might disappear are the picture-for-profile (PFP), which might never again regain the level of adoption they had a year or two ago.

Instead, other use cases, such as those within Web3 apps, could continue to evolve positively. 

Wasinger said: 

“I don’t know if this will necessarily be reflected in large sales volume numbers like in the past, at least in the short term, but I foresee that it will manifest in perhaps greater transaction volumes”.

It seems that there may be an inverse correlation between the memecoin market and that of NFTs, with the prices of these two types of assets moving in opposite directions. 

In particular, the memecoin market could at this moment be the cause of the strong suffering of the NFT market. 

The drop in NFT prices: is it the fault of the memecoin market?

Comparing the trend of the last few months of the memecoin market with that of NFTs, there actually seems to be an apparent inverse correlation. 

Using the chart of monthly NFT sales volumes from CryptoSlam, it is noted that starting from June 2022 there has been a real collapse.

Since then, the lowest point was recorded in September 2023, with only 300 million dollars in monthly trades.

In particular, after a brief and contained peak in December 2023, during 2024 the daily trading volumes of NFT remained above 25 million until April, then plummeted between May and June to just over 10 million.

In fact, the monthly trading volume for the recently concluded June was only 462 million dollars, which is much less than the 1.7 billion of December 2023.

In other terms, the monthly volumes over the course of the year went from 1.7 billion dollars in December 2023 to 462 million in June 2024, with an almost constant decline of 74%, concentrated mainly in the last two months. 

The memecoin market pushes NFT prices down

Many memecoin instead in 2024 have performed well.

Taking as a reference the gains or losses from December 31, 2023, for example, Dogecoin is at +40%, Shiba Inu at +66%, Pepe even at +725%, and Floki at +363%. 

Even the new WIF (dogwifhat) has recorded a sensational +1.300%, while Bonk stops at +77%.

These numbers as a whole seem to indicate a possible capital flight from the NFT market to that of memecoins. 

However, if only the last 30 days are taken into consideration, the inverse correlation does not seem to be there. 

The market prices of all six major memecoins in June lost between 21% and 35%, with overall movements decidedly similar to each other. 

The monthly trading volumes on the NFT market in June decreased by 25% compared to those in May, which is a decline of the same order of magnitude as the prices of memecoin. 

Prices and volumes

However, one should not compare prices with volumes, because they are two different things. 

However, it is possible that a decrease in NFT sales volumes corresponds to a decrease in prices, given that volumes are calculated by multiplying prices by quantities. 

So if on one hand there doesn’t seem to be a direct correlation, the circulating hypothesis is that in the second quarter of the current year, taken as a whole, a wave of new memecoins on VIP, politics, and animals may have diverted capital from the NFT market, and the decline of the crypto market did the rest. 

It is worth noting that the overall volumes of the NFT market in June were even lower than the lowest monthly peak of 2022, the year of the bear-market, and this suggests that there might be a sort of delay between this market and that of the memecoins. 

On the other hand, for example, the historical peak of the monthly trading volume of NFTs was recorded in January 2022, a good two months after that of the crypto market. 

The hypothesis of the co-founder of Animoca Brands

In a recent interview the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, stated that he believes the NFT market could recover. 

He stated that a new speculative bubble should not be necessary to see this market recover, because NFTs can also be used in games, for intellectual property rights, and for many other things, and this could generate demand. 

From his words, however, it is clear that the boom in the NFT market has already occurred, and there do not seem to be the conditions for a new true and proper boom in the short term. 

On the other hand, however, he considers it illogical that the monthly trading volumes are so low, blaming it mainly on the summer period. In fact, he believes that when market activity resumes, more volumes, trades, and activity will be seen. 

This hypothesis could also explain why even the main memecoins performed poorly in June. 

The recovery of the market

A recovery of the memecoin market, after the general decline in June, is expected by many. 

It is not certain that the usual memecoins will always perform well, as new ones are constantly being created that sometimes manage to make a splash and attract capital that does not flow towards other memecoins. 

It is also possible that during periods when memecoins – especially new ones – attract a lot of capital, this is also drained from the NFT market, and it is possible that summer is not a particularly brilliant period for financial markets as a whole. 

For example, even in June 2021 there was a drop in the monthly volumes of NFTs, but in July there was the first big boom. June 2022 was a bloodbath, but there had been the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem. In 2023 the drop lasted for a full eight consecutive months, from March to October. 

All this makes it possible to imagine that sooner or later this market may recover, even if perhaps, as Yat Siu says, we will have to wait for a broader and more massive use of NFT technology even beyond the art market. 

In the last week, the NFT market has seen a 25.48% decrease in sales compared to the previous week. Dominating the scene in terms of blockchain is still Bitcoin, followed by Ethereum and Solana, although all three have seen a decrease in Non-Fungible Token revenues. 

NFT Market news: sales drop by over 25% as Bitcoin dominates the scene

According to the data from cryptoslam.io, the NFT market is experiencing a sales drop of over 25% in the last week, compared to the previous week.

Specifically, yesterday’s data showed that weekly revenues from Non-Fungible Tokens decreased by 25.48% compared to the previous week, for a total of approximately $236.96 million.

So far, Bitcoin’s blockchain continues to dominate the NFT market with total sales of $108.02 million, a decrease of -38.41% compared to last week.

On the podium of blockchains, there are Ethereum with 49.63 million dollars in NFT sales, down by -20.53% and Solana with 33.72 million dollars but also down by 22.9%.

The only Blockchains to reverse the trend and have recorded increases in NFT sales in the last week seem to be Polygon in fourth place, with $14.85 million and an increase of 18.52%. Also Flow and Cardano have seen increases of +19% and +94% respectively. 

NFT Market news: Uncategorized Ordinals on Bitcoin is the best-selling collection of the week

When it comes to NFT collections, Uncategorized Ordinals on Bitcoin continues to dominate the scene in the last week, with $33.56 million in sales. However, the revenue from the weekly NFT collection is down by -40% compared to the previous week. 

Continuing with the ranking of the most sold NFT collections in the last week, there is WZRD BRC20 with 19.88 million dollars. Here, sales are increasing by a whopping 105% compared to the previous week.

The third highest-grossing collection was PUPS BRC20, which achieved $13.91 million in sales, marking a 68% decrease compared to last week. 

Anyway, except for the NFT collection by DMarket developed on the Mythos blockchain and ranked fourth for total sales in dollars, the top 6 collections are all instead developed on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

BitBoy One: the new Web3 game sold out in two minutes

On April 17th, the sale of the new Web3 game, BitBoy One, launched by Ordz Games (of Bitcoin Ordinals) took place. It is a portable gaming device and wallet, of which the entire stock of 1,000 units sold out in just two minutes.

BitBoy One is inspired by the iconic Nintendo Game Boy from 1989, with the aim of capturing a wide audience of players, from nostalgic ones who grew up in the 80s-90s to modern digital collectors. 

Basically, BitBoy One incorporates advanced Web3 functions that allow players to play and interact with the Bitcoin blockchain, earning BTC through the game. 

Not only that, each unit of the BitBoy One is not just a gaming device but also a collectible piece of art, equipped with a digital NFT rendering that increases its value and makes it more attractive. 

Donald Trump has recently made several profits in the NFT market, a factor that has fueled the discussion about Ordinals and more. 

The former President of the United States has indeed integrated his iconic mugshot photo into his NFT collection in August and has gradually earned profits in the Ordinals market in December. Let’s see all the details below. 

The debate on Ordinals heats up: latest developments in the NFT market context

As anticipated, recent news has emerged that former United States President, Donald Trump, is converting a considerable amount of Ether (ETH) obtained from the sale of his NFTs.

His affiliate portfolio has indeed transferred 1,075 Ether (ETH) to Coinbase starting from December 8th.

The revenue from ETH comes from its NFT collections, recently enriched by its famous mugshot photo taken during its delivery to the Georgia authorities last August.

According to data provided by the blockchain intelligence platform Arkham, the wallet associated with Trump has moved 1,075 ETH, equivalent to about 2.4 million dollars.

These have been deposited on Coinbase through thirteen different transactions since December 8th. Most of these withdrawals have been made in blocks of 100, 125, and 200 ETH.

Trump’s ETH balance has been steadily increasing since October, reaching a peak of $4 million before the start of the recent selling wave.

Despite his past statements in 2021, when Trump criticized cryptocurrencies as “fake” and “a disaster waiting to happen,” defending the US dollar as the key to the country’s economic success, he now appears to be actively involved in the cryptocurrency market.

We also remind you that Trump will take part in the 2024 presidential elections. However, his campaign has recently suffered a setback due to his exclusion from the ballot in the state of Colorado decreed by the local Supreme Court.

Heated controversy over Bitcoin Ordinals: the details 

Since its launch in January, Bitcoin Ordinals has generated a heated debate among supporters and critics regarding its impact on the Bitcoin network. This time, however, the debate seems to be even more intense.

Tomer Strolight, editor-in-chief of Bitcoin Swan, used an analogy to describe the conflict: comparing the situation to someone defecating on the street, encouraging others to follow suit, leading to road congestion with “fecal matter”. 

The idea is that, despite the positive claims, this practice has increased overall costs.

Another commentator, “GregZaj1”, has compared the artists of Ordinals to people who pay to “start defecating in the pool”. 

This comment seems to be a criticism of Taproot Wizards, a collection of digital art affiliated with Bitcoin Ordinals, accused of negatively impacting the ecosystem.

Still, Eric Wall, Bitcoin developer and co-founder of Taproot Wizards, responded to the criticism, stating that it is amusing to see legitimate bitcoiners feeling powerless to stop what they perceive as a deterioration in the quality of Bitcoin.

In essence, the interest and obsession for Bitcoin Ordinals continue to provoke heated debate in the cryptocurrency community. 

Critics, like Luke Dashjr from OCEAN Mining, argue that Ordinals registrations are “spam” and represent a threat to the security of Bitcoin Core, while supporters claim that they contribute to economic traffic and incentivize miners to stay for higher rewards.

Jana Bertram’s perspective on NFTs from the RARI Foundation 

Recently, Jana Bertram, strategy manager at the RARI Foundation, shared her perspective during The Agenda podcast, emphasizing that the application of NFTs goes far beyond the scope of digital art.

Despite its rapid rise since 2021, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has experienced a decline in 2022, with decreasing minimum prices especially for projects focused on digital art. 

During that period, several experts had even declared the end of NFTs. Despite a recovery in sales in 2023, volumes have not yet reached the peaks of previous enthusiasm.

However, as highlighted by Jana Bertram, the technology behind non-fungible tokens remains robust, with many innovators seizing the opportunity of the cryptocurrency downturn to develop products, platforms, and use cases without the media pressure of a bull market.

An example of an NFT ecosystem that has thrived during this period is Rarible, which includes the Rarible protocol, the Rarible marketplace, the RARI token, Rarible DAO, and the RARI Foundation, with the imminent arrival of a new “layer 3” mainnet, RARI Chain.

In the twenty-sixth episode of The Agenda podcast, hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond discuss with Jana Bertram from the RARI Foundation, exploring what makes Rarible unique, 

Not only that, they also talk about how the NFT market can become sustainable, the future prospects of non-fungible tokens, exciting use cases, and much more.

The month of November has been good not only for the crypto sector but also for the NFT sector.
Many of the parameters used to track the market have started to move in the right direction, giving signals that give hope for a recovery.
However, let’s not forget that we still don’t have strong signals, we will need to wait a little longer before we can say with certainty that the market is recovering.

The American company NFT18 has prepared an analysis of the NFT market that gives hope for a market recovery.

• The profit and loss ratio among non-fungible token traders has returned to the same level as May 2022, with approximately 41% of traders in profit.
• The floor price of the top 500 collections has increased by about 42% in just one month
• The period of “holding” has drastically decreased, on average traders now hold their NFTs for about 18 days compared to 100 days, which was the calculated period in October.
• the average price has dropped by 42% since October, reaching about $150.

As we can see from this data, we have some positive signals, but since we are still at the beginning of this Bull run, there is still a long way to go.

November records

The month of November started with the sale of a cryptopunk for about $1.1 million, a remarkable recovery for one of the most popular NFT collections.

In the same week, other cryptopunks were sold for a few hundred thousand dollars.
Strangely absent is yuga labs, the creator of the infamous collection Bored ape yacht club (BAYC).
Another work that has gained considerable success is “ETHboy” created by Alotta Money and Trevor Jones, sold for about 392 thousand dollars.
There have also been significant sales in the primary market, such as Jack Butcher Trademark, with 10,000 NFTs sold for a total of 690 ETH generated and a trading volume exceeding 3,000 ETH.

Another notable sale is that of Herbert W. Franke with his Zentrum collection, which has also seen remarkable success selling 222 NFTs at a variable cost between 2.49 and 5 ETH, generating a total of 613 ETH.

However, the price on the secondary market has seen a decrease of 45% in less than a week.

One of the biggest events in November was the second round of airdrop from the Blur project.
On November 20th, the airdrop took place despite the fear of wash trading resulting from the airdrop itself.
Also in the same month, approximately 4% of wash trading was detected, which is definitely a low number and therefore a good sign of the project’s health, but there were also 20% of suspicious sales.

NFTs have a variety of use cases that market analysis analyzes in the form of main segments:

• Collectibles – $269 million / 75%: Slightly losing market share compared to October (-4 percentage points), collectibles remain the dominant segment in terms of trading volume in USD.
• Games – $17 million / 5%: This segment is increasingly moving towards Ethereum side-chains and specialized networks (not covered in this report), such as Immutable X, Ronin, or Solana.
• Art – $42 million / 12%: With a 5 percentage point increase, art is one of the segments with the best performance. The interest in this sector probably stems from discussions about on-chain art following a statement by Elon Musk regarding how media is hosted in NFTs.
• Virtual Worlds – $9.4 million / 2%: Despite a tripled volume in USD this month, virtual worlds (or metaverse) still represent only 2% of the traded dollar volume. The average price has doubled, but the “ownership” period remains at 98 days.
• Utility – $22 million / 6%: The “Passes” that grant rights to air drops or other privileged accesses have been popular this month, especially with the Redbull Velocity Pass that provided access to Art On Internet (AOI) Engine drops.

For further information, visit the link below to access the full report: https://nft18.com/reports/monthly-report-november-2023/

Recently, dappGambl conducted an in-depth study on the current state of the NFT market in response to numerous headlines claiming that NFTs have become ‘useless’. 

This study provides a detailed analysis and clarifies the dappGambl experts’ position on the NFT market and its future prospects. According to the experts, there is still a lot of potential for NFTs and gaming to be a ‘perfect match’. Let’s have a look at the details. 

NFT market: non-fungible tokens combined with gaming 

Predictably, following dappGambl‘s report which revealed that 95% of so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have zero market capitalisation, there is growing attention on where the future of NFTs might lie.

In an ever-changing environment that encompasses technology and entertainment, NFTs have emerged as a revolutionary innovation with the potential to transform multiple industries.

Although they have been widely recognised for their association with digital art and collectibles, interaction with the gaming world is proving to be a much more promising use case.

Beyond JPEG images and digital art, NFTs have the potential to revolutionise the way gaming fans connect and interact with media. 

By 2022, the global gaming industry is estimated to be worth nearly $347 billion, with the mobile gaming sector accounting for approximately $248 billion.

NFTs in gaming: a revolution in the gaming industry 

Josip Putarek, expert and crypto analyst at dappGambl, shares his views on how the potential of NFTs could be fully exploited in the lucrative world of video games: 

“Back on September 21st, ‘Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera’ was shut down by producers, leaving millions of players’ cosmetics behind locked doors. Players earned skins through gameplay challenges like Call of Duty’s Battle Passes, spending real money on a product that is now gone forever. Could this have been avoided? Absolutely!” 

Not surprisingly, Putarek argues that the introduction of NFTs to the video game industry offers a number of exciting opportunities for players, developers and investors: 

“NFTs grant players true ownership of in-game assets, allowing them to buy, sell and trade with transparency and security. These assets are scarce and unique, contributing to their inherent value. Even if the game gets shut down, gamers will retain ownership.” 

We also know that because NFTs are cross-platform compatible, players can take their virtual items from one game to another, creating a sense of continuity in the virtual world.

In addition, players can now generate value in the real world through in-game activities such as trading, crafting or competing in tournaments. This allows players to monetise their skills and investments, reversing the trend of traditional game economies.

Finally, NFTs help to create a decentralised virtual landscape where players have more control over the direction, governance and economics of the game. 

This will allow the gaming community to shape their own digital environments and ensure high quality gaming content for future generations.

NFT in crisis? Projects seeking a new path

In the midst of a market downturn, NFT-related projects are exploring creative ways to reframe their purpose and strengthen their benefits. As we know, NFTs have been the subject of much debate in recent years. 

In 2021, NFTs experienced a huge increase in public interest and generated unprecedented revenues. 

However, the sector has recently gone through a difficult period, characterised by a general decline in sales and item prices, which has led critics to question its long-term sustainability.

In early July, OpenSea data revealed a significant drop in the minimum price of one of the most popular digital collections, Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). 

This collection dropped from 38 ether (ETH), equivalent to $73,000 at the time, to less than 28 ETH ($53,500).

Will Clemente, co-founder of digital asset research firm Reflexivity Research, pointed out in a July 2 post on X that this drop was part of a broader 90 percent drop in the BAYC collection.

Celebrities, including the famous singer Justin Bieber, were affected by the drop in value. As we know, Bieber, captivated by the excitement surrounding the 2021 NFT, had purchased a piece of BAYC for nearly $1.3 million. 

The disappointing devaluation not only affected the BAYC, but also its sister collection, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). 

Other NFTs, such as Azuki, Moonbirds, Cool Cats, Doodle, DeGods, Pudgy Penguins and CryptoPunks, have also suffered significant devaluations in recent months.

To make matters worse, NFT-related start-ups are facing significant challenges. 

Some, including video platform Glass Protocol and decentralised social network Voice, have been forced to halt development due to lack of interest and regulatory hurdles.

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One of the latest studies conducted regarding the NFT market found that 95% of NFT collections have a market capitalization of 0.

The study that highlighted the low market value of NFTs 

The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market, once the shining star of the cryptocurrency world, is undergoing a profound transformation. 

A recent study conducted by dappGambl cast a spotlight on the current state of the NFT market, revealing a staggering revelation: a remarkable 95% of NFTs now have a market cap of zero Ethereum. 

In this article, we will delve into the findings of this study, examining the factors behind this downturn and the future prospects for the NFT ecosystem.

The boom of NFTs and their current status

In recent years, NFTs have experienced a rapid rise in popularity within the cryptocurrency sphere. Monthly trading volumes peaked at $2.8 billion in August 2021, attracting everyone’s attention and enthusiasm. 

However, the NFT market is going through a difficult landscape, with an alarming 114% increase in “Are NFTs Dead” searches in the past year.

dappGambl’s analysis focused on more than 73,000 NFTs listed on NFTScan, supplemented by an examination of the top 8,000 NFTs on CoinMarketCap. 

The study aimed to assess how many NFTs had a market cap and a minimum price of zero, shedding light on the extent of “dead” NFTs and unsold collections.

The harsh reality: 95% of NFTs are worthless

Of the 73,257 NFT collections examined by NFTScan, as many as 69,795 were found to have zero Ethereum market value. 

This discouraging revelation means that a whopping 95% of the current NFT market can be considered to have no discernible value. This is a daunting statistic that underscores the challenges facing NFT enthusiasts and collectors.

Moreover, among the collections surveyed, only 21% could boast 100% ownership, meaning that 79% of all NFT collections (or four out of five) remained unsold, adding a bleak picture to the NFT market.

Even the most prominent NFTs struggle to stay in the market

To get a more complete view of the market, dappGambl turned its attention to the 8,850 most important collections listed on CoinMarketCap. Even among these high-profile NFTs, 18 percent were found to have a minimum price of zero. 

This disturbing revelation indicates that a significant portion of the top NFT collections are struggling to maintain demand.

In addition, the study revealed that most NFTs have a value between $5 and $100, accounting for 41% of the market. 

Remarkably, less than 1% of these NFTs are priced above $6,000. This underscores the difficulty of establishing a tangible value within the NFT market.

The discrepancy between valuations and reality

It is important to note that the number of “dead” NFTs may be higher than reported. This is due to the fact that many NFTs are valued in the millions despite having recorded sales figures of less than $20. 

These glaring discrepancies between list prices and actual sales reveal inflated valuations that do not reflect genuine buyer interest or actual transactions, making them “dead” in another sense.

Despite these negative statistics, experts believe that NFTs have a future, provided they can evolve beyond their current status as collectibles. 

Vlad Hategan, dappGambl expert, commented on the future of NFTs, stressing the need for real use cases.

Hategan says, “Recent analysis of the NFT market revealed that 79% of all NFT collections remain unsold, and 95% of NFTs have a market cap of $0 ETH.

This is the daunting reality that potential buyers and investors are now looking for NFTs with clear use cases, compelling narratives, or authentic artistic value.”

As the NFT market matures, there is an increasing shift toward NFTs that offer tangible utility and cultural significance. 

Examples of such use cases include NFTs that preserve cultural heritage, enable in-game purchases, and even venture into real estate. These NFTs promise long-term value, in stark contrast to most of the current NFT market.

Conclusion

The NFT market has undergone a significant change from its heyday, with the vast majority of NFTs now having a market value of zero Ethereum. 

This reality underscores the need for the NFT ecosystem to evolve beyond collectibles and embrace real-world use cases to withstand market downturns. 

As NFTs continue to adapt and innovate, their true potential may lie in their ability to deliver real value and utility to users, ushering in a new era for this transformative technology.

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Recent problems within the NFT market as strong and unexpected demand for the launch of the new Mad Lads NFT collection caused the Internet infrastructure behind the project to crash.

Below are the details. 

Mad Lads NFT and excessive traffic 

Mad Lads NFT is a project designed to be the first of a new twist on digital collectibles by Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver, two well-known figures in the Solana ecosystem.

As anticipated, after an unanticipated surge of interest in the NFT collection disrupted the Internet infrastructure behind it, Mad Lads gets postponed until Friday. Hence, the Mad Lads collection will open the public mint at 7 PM (ET) / 11 PM (UTC) on Friday. 

The nearly 24-hour delay of the launch was necessary for creators to buy them time and solve a problem they didn’t expect: too much Internet traffic. 

According to sources, as many as billions of requests routed through the Backpack cryptocurrency wallet, itself a product of Ferrante and Yver, have exceeded the platform’s capabilities, resulting in a DDoS attack for all intents and purposes. 

In this regard, on a Twitter space with about 9,500 listeners, Ferrante explained why the project was rejected, stating the following: 

“This is an order of magnitude crazier than anything we’ve tackled up to this point.”

However, it is worth noting that the strong demand for the collection of new JPEGs has probably already marked a boom in sign-ups for Coral’s portfolio app, Backpack.

That is, the only Solana wallet in which would-be owners can mint the Mad Lads collection, and also the only wallet that supports it. 

As a result, the situation that presented itself was the following: on the one hand, a palpable excitement among the Solana developer community and on the other hand, NFT traders who were looking for any advantage that could grant them access to the collection.

News in the NFT market: Mad Lads is the first xNFT 

But why all this interest in Ferrante and Yver’s collection? Based on what is known, the strong hype for the Mad Lads NFTs is largely due to their uniqueness, as they are called xNFTs and are more than just JPEGs on a blockchain. 

In fact, they also represent a tokenized code that in turn represents proprietary rights to its execution, according to the website of Blue Coral Inc. which is the duo’s startup that focuses on the development of Solana. 

Via the social network Twitter, Ferrante recounted step-by-step a series of cascading Internet outages that limited the public’s ability to access the project, first for an hour, then for a day. 

In addition, Ferrante said the high demand took out two RPC nodes, or access points to Solana’s blockchain, and also the user interface on Cloudflare, which, among other things, seeks to prevent DDoS attacks.

Some users even followed the advice of a Substack post that implied, erroneously, that buying custom RPC nodes from the Solana Helius development project could benefit would-be miners.

Enrollments in Helius’ $19.99 “hacker plan” grew so much on Thursday to the point that CEO Mert Mumtaz was forced to come clean about the situation, stating the following in Helius’ Discord server: 

“While I appreciate you thinking about us, it’s important to understand that this RPC won’t actually increase your chances of minting a Madlad that much, if at all.”

What is a DDoS attack?

According to the definition, a DDoS attack, whose acronym stands for Distributed Denial of Service, is an attempt to block the normal traffic of a server, service or network by overwhelming the surrounding infrastructure by flooding it with Internet traffic.

Furthermore, DDoS attacks reach their maximum effectiveness when they exploit multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack. Machines enslaved for such purposes can include computers and other network resources such as IoT devices.

Often compared to highway traffic jams, DDoS attacks are a major concern in Internet security today. It goes without saying that the most obvious sign of a DDoS attack is the sudden slowdown of a website. 

Thus, precisely what happened to the Mad Lads NFT collection. Moreover, generally, DDoS attacks are carried out with networks of machines connected to the Internet. These networks consist of computers and other machines that are infected with malware that allows them to be remotely controlled by a user with bad intentions. 

These individual devices are known as bots, and a group of bots is called a botnet. As a result, when the network in question is targeted by the botnet, each bot sends requests to the victim’s IP address, causing it to be overloaded resulting in a disruption of service from normal traffic.

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CMC spoke with Mo Patel, investor from Sfermion to provide a detailed overview of the performance of NFT market and growth during a challenging 2022. As well as what Sfermion considers the market’s prospects for 2023.

Q1: How to measure the success of the NFT market in 2022?

The NFT market in 2022 has faced such a decrease in volume due to the bear market and overall downturn that there was widespread concern that NFTs are dead. However, if you exclude bull market-driven 2021 as an anomaly in terms of volume and traction, the NFT market in 2022 is in fact thriving in many areas. The drop-off in NFT market trading volume as compared to the smaller drop-off in NFT transactions shows that people are still using NFTs and that the downturn is just a broader market trend.

For example, the rapid adoption of layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism meant growth in unique addresses holding NFTs, which showcases the amount of building activities supporting the L2 space. Meanwhile, Polygon is also active in NFT business development and continues to draw stellar Web2 talent and clients to blockchain.

Music NFTs are also seeing success on various platforms, with high sales volumes and increased minting.

Web3 social platforms using NFTs in various ways are also gaining traction, such as Aave’s Lens Protocol that already boasts nearly 100,000 users since its May 2022 launch. In addition to a plethora of quantitative data to consider, there’s also ample qualitative data available that indicates that the recent NFT craze has led to an influx of strong Web2 builders entering the Web3 space to build with NFTs. This underscores the success of the NFT market and the global attention it has garnered in a very short time.

These new entrants include leading Web2 founders and gaming studios who have built established and enduring products in the Web2 space and are now using Web3 and NFTs to supercharge new applications, such as NetEase, Pixel Gaming, Wildlife, Square Enix, Ubisoft and Zynga. Top-tier brands such as Gucci, Nike, Adidas and Prada are all onboarding NFTs in their marketing to connect better with their customers. Instagram, with its over half a billion daily active users (DAU), is now effectively an NFT marketplace.

Reddit has come out of nowhere this year with its sudden implementation of NFTs (although they refuse to use the term) as a core technology in its digital collectible avatar program, bringing in a vast number of new users and wallet owners in the process.

Web2 giants are also using the world’s biggest sporting and entertainment events, such as the World Cup and Super Bowl, to enhance In-Real-Life (IRL) experiences by leveraging NFT drops, as we saw with Coca Cola’s NFT drop at this year’s World Cup. Limit Break is planning a Super Bowl freemint for next year where you can scan a QR code and get a free NFT mint during the US’ flagship annual sports event.

The above applications of NFTs allow for the seamless transaction of digital property rights and interoperable assets. Despite current market fluctuations, the continued involvement and innovation of top builders and brands in the NFT space are laying the foundation for strong growth in the future, as these projects come alive and, ideally, coincide with a market uptick.

While there’s currently not much joy to be found in the crypto space in general, there’s cause to be bullish on NFT adoption and many web consumer applications. Whether it’s a bear market or bull market, the truth is that gamers are going to game and consumers are going to consume.

If NFTs keep unlocking these digital property rights to allow owners to transact within these games with interoperable assets, it’s just a matter of time for quantitative data to pick back up. Viewed with this lens, 2022 can therefore be seen as quite successful for NFTs.

Q2: Which NFT verticals and use cases have been a key focus in 2022?

The main focus for 2022 has remained on Web3 gaming and related consumer services, such as loyalty and ticketing, while metaverse experiences and Web3 social applications have also garnered attention. NFT data analysis to track assets on-chain has also been a continuous trend which is somewhat well built out.

We also saw a drop-off in the DAO and Guild tooling narrative, as play-to-earn (P2E) models crashed in 2022 due to the bear market, poor tokenomics and a general failure to deliver a compelling gaming experience to retain gamers. It’s clear that the industry is beginning to understand that Web3 gaming and metaverses will take time to go mainstream; therefore, the focus is shifting to building the right experiences and infrastructure around that.

This change in focus will boost the following sectors: gaming infrastructure aimed at building better gaming applications, infrastructure on wallets and marketplaces, and NFT creations that can service more complex incoming metaverses as well as Web3 social applications and products that will help unlock Web3 intellectual property (IP).

In 2021, the incredible popularity of PFP NFTs led to the creation of a significant amount of new IP, mainly consisting of pictures and images to interact with. The goal for 2023 will be to create more advanced gaming products and applications that can help unlock and enhance this IP through the potential application of AI-based utility or in-game utility.

Q3: Why did NFT theses like NFTFi and SocialFi fall short of expectations in 2022?

A few 2022 NFT theses failed to deliver on the massive hype they carried over from last year.

Let’s start with direct virtual world investing. While “metaverse” was a major buzzword for 2022, the industry now understands that the hype was premature and that fully immersive digital experiences will take time to develop. It’s not even clear yet whether metaverses will be PC-based, AR-based, VR-based or a mix thereof — the market will ultimately decide. As previously explained, there is therefore an emphasis now on creating the infrastructure and experiences that will make up this overarching metaverse experience, such as catering for small games.

DAO tooling (a set of software, apps and smart contracts that a decentralized autonomous organization uses to operate) was also massively hyped during late 2021 and early 2022, but lost its luster this year as the market realized it was building a product to service needs that weren’t effectively there yet. DAOs are still in their infancy— while still scaling very rapidly — and we are definitely seeing a clear use case for them. As they continue to take shape and operate, especially in this bear market, there’s a better understanding now of what tools can support DAOs and service their needs.

Guild tooling has suffered a similar fate in 2022, with investors and users realizing that they latched on to this gaming-driven niche a little prematurely. In hindsight, it is now clear that it was wrong to assume that the first generation of games such as the V1 Axie Infinity model provided a blueprint for all future gaming. It will be important to remain flexible and adaptable as more games enter the market and utilize guilds in different ways.

NFTFi also fell short, largely due to the market downturn and the drop in liquidity, which will take time to flush out. Still, it has clearly demonstrated the immense potential of NFTs to offer strong financial applications, such as issuing tokens and representing bonds, as we can see with projects like Solv Protocol.

Direct NFT market financial services such as lending will improve in line with pricing over time, and remains a focus thanks to better liquidity and more users than before. While there is a lot of user hesitation around the risks tied to NFT-based lending applications, it is important to note that the long-term narrative for NFTs in financial services remains strong and is also expected to take a few years to play out in full.

Q4: What are the NFT development trends to expect in 2023?

Sfermion will continue to invest in Web3 gaming in 2023, but we are now looking for more advanced use cases within games. Companies are building entirely new NFT standards to function within their games, using new economic models like free-to-own, and attacking new verticals like fully on-chain experiences. These companies are innovating at a rapid pace and include both strong Web2 founders and studios building lasting Web2 games, even porting Web2 IP to Web3. These companies are bringing what works in the Web2 world, such as casual, mobile and PC console games, and using NFTs as a technology to enhance these experiences.

We’re also tracking how Web2 brands and intellectual property (IP) entering the space are using NFTs, and the birth of new Web3-native IP will remain a core focus in the NFT space.

The intersection of NFT and AI, such as art and gaming asset creation, gameplay design, using AI-based NPCs and the overall creation of transmedia content, remains another fascinating focal point. The evolution of wallets and marketplaces to better serve specific users is also exciting. We are seeing a focus on building wallets that are more Web2-friendly and adding elements like social factors and DeFi features for DeFi audiences. Standalone marketplaces for specific collections, such as gaming-focused marketplaces, are also emerging. Overall, there is a focus on looking at NFT verticals and where they can be advanced and improved going forward.

In addition, there is a strong buzz around general advancements in layer-2 chains, particularly in the zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup space, which is primed for a big year in 2023. ZK-rollups are expected to make NFT access and usage 10x to 100x easier, which should convert to an increase in builders building on these rails and using NFTs for social media experiences, with more users as a result.

Web2 social media platforms are also doing unique things with NFTs. Reddit allows you to integrate your avatar, Twitter allows you to showcase your avatar. However, avatars are really just version-0. Instagram goes further and enables you to post content as NFTs and mint them. These are version-1 applications that barely scratch the surface, and we’re very excited to see where V2 and future iterations take NFT innovation. It’s going to be fascinating to see NFTs used to supercharge the social media experience over time.

In 2022, we also saw the advent of a new generation of NFT marketplaces like LooksRare, X2Y2, Blur and Magic Eden that are challenging the supremacy of OpenSea and reshaping the NFT landscape.

There are a number of strong players and well-founded marketplaces that are constantly innovating, with ideas like token-based airdrops, advanced social features, shared liquidity, focusing on certain markets like hardcore traders, having optional royalties, going multi-chain, or focusing on a specific genre, such as gaming, music or video. These products and apps are only just beginning to understand their user base in full and targeting them as such.

For example, Magic Eden and Fractal understand that they’re getting a lot of traction on the launchpad side and so are effectively doubling down on that, alongside their added gaming focus. Meanwhile, OpenSea continues to defend and enforce NFT market royalties, and is being joined by others like X2Y2 that are choosing to respect creator fees. It’ll be interesting to see how the royalty debate plays out over time, with both camps enjoying strong support.

What we are looking at is how these marketplaces cater to their users and enhance their experience through features like multi-chain, multi-wallet support, fraud detection and better discovery and recommendation tools. For example, with so many NFT collections out there, it is becoming increasingly important to help a user find the content they want more efficiently and create a more personalized marketplace experience.

Q5: Funding — where are VCs deploying their capital in 2023?

Within the current NFT verticals, VC firms remain most excited about Web3 gaming despite its dismal performance this year, as there is a shared sentiment that gaming will eventually onboard the masses into crypto Web3.

This extends not only to NFTs, but also involves crypto areas such as the use of hardware wallets, software wallets, interacting with decentralized exchanges (DEXes) and using on-chain lending sources. As users are onboarded through Web3 games, this adoption will eventually trickle down to other areas of crypto. Therefore, VCs are still looking for strong studios and builders in the Web2 gaming space, as well as strong infrastructure.

In addition, VCs are looking closely at NFT IP. Every year, there is likely to be a new IP coming out of the NFT space, as well as the unlocking of existing IP to supercharge the community experience, which has been lacking in the Web2 space.

Web3 social media is another exciting frontier. Which stands to benefit from the unrest on Web2 social platforms caused by user outrage over perceived censorship and the unsolicited monetization of personal data. However, it is still in its early days with only a handful of platforms actively building and gaining traction.

There are many games that aim to cater at the same time to both Web2 and Web3 audiences. It is possible to have a game that is considered “Web2.5” where Web2 players (who may not be interested in using NFTs or token) can still experience the game while being slowly onboarded into Web3. This gamer-first approach makes more sense in the long term, instead of trying to force NFTs and tokens on players from the start.

It’s a New Year’s Crypto resolution of sorts to actually be able to play all the games. That we’re actively looking at and really see what works and what doesn’t, since games take so long to build. With Web3 social media also projected to eventually take off, there’s definitely some value for anyone to start creating their own on-chain credentials and social presence early.

The same applies for the L2 ecosystems and understanding which one(s) best serves an end user based on their interests and goals. As the UX of crypto improves with each calendar year. We anticipate more and more users to surface with crypto and NFT-based applications on a daily basis.

Disclaimer: The above overview and information contained there represents personal views of the Sfermion team and does not constitute investment advice