In the rapidly evolving world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the latest data reveals a surge in sales and a significant increase in the number of buyers in the digital art world. 

Over the past week, NFT sales registered an impressive 11.60% increase over the previous week, signaling a continued upward trend in the market. 

In addition, the number of individual buyers purchasing NFTs increased by an incredible 95.20%, with a total of 664,096 buyers participating in this emerging digital art market.

ETH remains the leading blockchain for NFT art sales

Among the various blockchains that facilitate NFT transactions, Ethereum (ETH) continues to dominate, accounting for a substantial portion of the sales volume. 

Sales of ETH-based NFTs surged a remarkable 18.11% in one week, demonstrating the popularity and robustness of the platform. 

On the other hand, sales of NFTs based on Bitcoin (BTC) also jumped significantly by 10.84%, indicating the growing interest in NFTs on the BTC blockchain.

While Ethereum and Bitcoin remain the leaders, other blockchains are also gaining ground in the NFT market. 

Solana, BNB Chain and Mythos are among the top five blockchains by weekly NFT sales, demonstrating their potential to become major players in the space. The NFT market is expanding and becoming more diverse and inclusive, providing opportunities for artists and creators on various blockchain platforms.

Turning to the week’s top collections, the leading position in NFT sales belongs to the intriguing collection known as Uncategorized ordinals. 

This collection amassed an impressive $12.18 million in sales, captivating buyers with its unique and unconventional offerings. 

It is closely followed by the Grails II collection, sold by the esteemed luxury auction house Sotheby’s, which generated sales of approximately $7.67 million. 

The success of the Grails II collection indicates the growing involvement of established institutions in the NFT space, further confirming its importance and potential.

The top-selling NFT collections

The list of top five collections also includes the popular NFT card sales of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Dmarket, and Gods Unchained. 

These collections have gained considerable attention from buyers, solidifying their presence in the competitive NFT market. 

In particular, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Azuki are emerging contenders, demonstrating their potential to disrupt the established hierarchy.

Furthermore, this week’s list of the five most expensive NFT sales demonstrates the desirability and value associated with these unique digital assets. 

Getting more specific, two NFTs from Sotheby’s Grails II collection secured a place on the list, with the first sale reaching an impressive $5.4 million. 

The Uncategorized ordinals collection also contributed two NFTs to this exclusive list, while the BNB chain presented a noteworthy NFT sale. These high-value transactions underscore the growing interest in NFTs by collectors and investors.

The sector is growing, and the results prove it

The latest data on NFT sales and buyer engagement highlight the continued growth and potential of this emerging market. 

As more individuals recognize the value and uniqueness of digital assets, demand for NFTs is likely to rise further. Ethereum‘s dominance as the preferred blockchain for NFT transactions, along with the emergence of other blockchains, promises a diverse and dynamic ecosystem for creators and collectors. 

With the active participation of established institutions such as Sotheby’s, the NFT market is emerging as a legitimate avenue for art and creativity.

In conclusion, the recent surge in NFT sales, accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of buyers, paints a positive picture for the future of this burgeoning market. 

As the digital art landscape continues to evolve, NFTs offer artists and collectors new opportunities for expression, ownership, and investment. With ETH leading the way and other blockchains in contention, the NFT market is poised for further growth and innovation.

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During the second quarter of 2022 (i.e., the period between April and June), according to the latest report published by the data analytics site NonFungible.com, NFT sales dropped 24% from the previous quarter. 

In the report, it must be taken into account that the blockchains considered in the report are those of Ethereum, Flow and Ronin.

In any case, NonFungible.com highlights the differences and the decline that took place in the NFT sector between the first and second quarters, and from this, we can see that active wallets also decreased by 33% over the course of three months.

Many also decided to sell, albeit at a loss, and this figure stands at 23% in terms of losses on total purchases.

The only positive figures are in increase in smart contracts (+30%) and average NFT hold period (55%), a figure that could certainly be dictated by the fact that many preferred to hold their Non-Fungible Tokens rather than sell them at a loss.

Interest in NFTs remains stable

Also interesting is the analysis done by the NonFungible.com team in terms of interest in the sector, which remains high, according to Google search data. Interest seems to have dropped since January 2022, but is back to the values of September 2021, believed to be the “golden age” of NFTs.

The countries where this interest remains high are mainly Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Nigeria, while Italy is not even among the top 20 countries in the world. Among European countries we find only the Netherlands and Switzerland, ranked 17th and 18th respectively, and Romania in 20th.

NFT performance by segment

Leading the way in the second quarter of 2022 are collectibles, with more than 300,000 active wallets, followed by gaming and utilities. Art is only in fourth place with 88,000 wallets instead, while metaverse is last on the list with 65,000 active addresses.

Among the projects driving the sector are mainly OtherSide, or the collection related to the Bored Apes metaverse, the Bored Apes themselves, followed then by MoonBirds, Loot, CloneX, and only in sixth place by CryptoPunks.

Highlights for the second quarter of 2022

Through a timeline, the report also highlights key episodes that characterized the period.

In April, for example, we recall that the announcement of Starbucks and Line’s NFT market-related initiatives took place, as well as the record-breaking sale of a CryptoPunk for 1050 ETH. Also in the same month, the Beta version of Coinbase’s Non-Fungible Token marketplace was launched.

Then in May came the collaboration between Madonna and Beeple and Sorare’s entry into the world of baseball.

In June, Mastercard decided to allow customers to buy NFTs on different marketplaces, while eBay bought KnowOrigin.

The last week in the NFT marketplace

Over the last week, the NFT marketplace sales on Ethereum fell by 8% (about $159 million in total) compared to the previous period, although collections such as Electricsheep, Moonbirds, and Moonbirds Oddities had spikes of between 90% and 16,000% in terms of increased trades.

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The website cryptoslam.io, which records all non-fungible token transactions, has noticed a real collapse in NFT sales over the last week. 

NFT sales drop

Sales over the past week were reported to be around $620 million, 26.65% lower than the previous week, which saw sales of over $824 million.

In terms of volume on the main blockchains on which sales are made, Ethereum is reported to have fallen by more than 30% and Solana by 27%, with a total of 302,000 buyers and around 1.4 million transactions made. Avalanche, which saw sales fall by just 6.2%, was much smaller.

But even with the market down, there was still a record sale for a CryptoPunk artwork that sold for 8,000 Ether, around $23 million.

A record NFT seizure

This week also saw the first major seizure of NFTs by the UK’s collection agency, for an alleged scam with a total value of £1.4m. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the UK’s tax collection agency, has announced that it has arrested three people in connection with an alleged VAT fraud. 

Part of the proceeds of the money stolen from the British state were allegedly invested to buy NFT works, which despite the collapse of the cryptocurrency markets seem to have substantially maintained their prices, according to data released by DappRadar.

Around $44 billion in NFT transactions were recorded last year, according to a report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis. 

More and more companies look to the metaverse

While NFTs are catching a break, the emerging market that is closely related to it, that of the metaverse, seems instead to be starting to take shape in the minds of big companies, like for example to name just the latest two, Disney and Victoria’s Secret.

Victoria’s Secret, as announced via Twitter, has registered four trademarks to sell its virtual lingerie products.

Disney, on the other hand, has announced that technology executive Mike White will be hired to take on a new role coordinating the company’s efforts in the metaverse, in which the company seems intent on investing a lot of its efforts as early as this year, as CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement to employees:

“This is a very top-of-mind thing for us because we are continuing over time to augment our skills and the types of people that we attract into The Walt Disney Company to reflect the aggressive and ambitious technology agenda that we have”.

“You probably noticed that one of my 3 pillars is innovation and specifically technological innovation because we realize that this is going to be an important part of telling story in that third dimension. So it is absolutely top of mind”.

 

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The latest news from the NFT sector include the new Non-Fungible Token collections launched by OneOf on Polygon’s blockchain, the statements of the famous NFL champion Tom Brady from Autograph, Caochella’s new market with FTX and OpenSea‘s monthly sales records. 

NFT News: OneOf and the collection of sports star covers

The popular NFT marketplace dedicated to music, OneOf, announced its new expansion into sports by launching a new marketplace in partnership with Sports Illustrated or “SI” to create new NFT collections highlighting superstar athletes, inspired by their most famous covers. 

Excited to announce @OneOfNFT is going beyond Music & entering the world of #SportsNFTs First major partnership is w @SInow #SportsIllustrated to bring legendary athletes @MuhammadAli @JerryRice @EmmittSmith22 @BillieJeanKing & more into the metaverse. https://t.co/mNFYna5Y7j

— Lin Dai (@ThePointsDai) February 1, 2022

“Excited to announce OneOfNFT is going beyond Music & entering the world of #SportsNFTs Pallone da football First major partnership is with @SInow #SportsIllustrated to bring legendary athletes MuhammadAli, JerryRice, Emmitt Smith, BillieJean King & more into the metaverse”.

The first batch of this collection features three of the most dominant and prolific players in NFL history – Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Dick Butkus, along with 3D animated versions of their historic Sports Illustrated covers. 

SI’s remaining collection of covers will feature other influential and important sports figures such as Billie Jean King, who was the first woman to be named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, Mia Hamm, Wayne Gretzky and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

OneOf has announced that it will be Polygon’s blockchain that will host the drops for these mega-star athlete collections. On that note, Josh James, co-founder and COO of OneOf, said:

“The expansion into sports and lifestyle is a natural evolution to further our mission to bring the next 100 million non-crypto-native fans into web3 through cultural passion points. This collaboration with Sports Illustrated to mint legendary athletes’ NFTs on the energy-efficient Polygon blockchain is the perfect way to launch our Sports and Lifestyle marketplace, and we are excited for the opportunity to engage millions of sports fans worldwide”.

The partnership between Coachella and FTX

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival today announced a long-term partnership with FTX US (“FTX”), the leading regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the United States to officially enter the world of Non-Fungible Tokens. 

And indeed, it’s a new Coachella NFT marketplace, built by FTX on Solana’s blockchain, and the release of its first NFT series: the Coachella Collectibles.

Debuting with three collections, the Coachella Collectibles opportunity gives fans the chance to own lifetime festival passes, unique on-site experiences, physical products and digital collectibles, all verifiable through blockchain technology.

Coachella’s inaugural NFT sale and auction will be live from Friday, 4 February at 10 AM PST to Friday, 11 February at 5 PM PST.

OpenSea’s monthly sales record of $5 billion.

According to data from Dune Analytics, the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, appears to have generated more than $5 billion in total trading volume in January across Ethereum and Polygon sales, breaking the previous record set in August 2021.

Specifically, in January 2022, OpenSea had over $4.95 billion in Ethereum exchange volume and over $79 million on Polygon. 

Just last month, OpenSea had announced the closing of a $300 million Series C funding round, led by Paradigm and Coatue, which took the company to be worth $13.3 billion. 

Announcing Series C! We’re building the friendliest & most trusted NFT marketplace with the best selection across many chains. The funding helps us accelerate product development, improve trust & safety, and invest deeply in the web3 community & ecosystem. https://t.co/OmRPleMCOX

— OpenSea (@opensea) January 5, 2022

“Announcing Series C! We’re building the friendliest & most trusted NFT marketplace with the best selection across many chains. The funding helps us accelerate product development, improve trust & safety, and invest deeply in the web3 community & ecosystem”.

Tom Brady retires and devotes himself to Autograph while Justin Bieber purchases his Bored Ape

Celebrated NFL champion, Tom Brady, winner of 7 Super Bowls, has announced that he is retiring from his 22-year career as an American footballer and devoting himself fully to his businesses like his Autograph NFT marketplace. 

In his roundup of career-closing tweets, the latest one is all about his future, described as follows:

“the future is exciting. I’m fortunate to have cofounded incredible companies like autograph.io, bradybrands e tb12sports that I’m excited to continue to help build and grow, but exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress. As I said earlier, I am going to take it day by day. I know for sure I want to spend a lot of time giving to others and trying to enrich other people’s lives, just as so many have done for me. With much love, appreciation and gratitude, Tom”.

Recently, Autograph closed a Series B financing totaling $170 million co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins. 

At the same time, another music industry star, Canadian singer Justin Bieber, bought a Bored Ape NFT for 500 ETH, the equivalent of $1.29 million, paying more than 300% of the on-floor price. 

Bieber has his own account on OpenSea in which his entire collection of BAYC-rich NFTs is shown. The latest purchase was Bored Ape Yacht Club #3001 and, what makes the situation anomalous, is that the base price of the BAYC was 104 ETH or $270,908, at the time of the sale.

 

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