The volumes of Ethereum NFT trades on OpenSea, which is the main marketplace for NFT trades, is up sharply in the first days of the year with record levels.

Record volumes for NFTs on OpenSea

On January 2, there was a volume of Ethereum trades worth over $243 million, according to blockchain data released by analytics firm Dune Analytics. This is a real record, compared to $170 million on 1 January and $124 million on the last day of 2021.

This is the third-best trading day to date on OpenSea in US dollars, following the all-time high of almost $323 million recorded on 29 August and the $267.5 million on 30 August also last year.

In 2021, the average volume transacted was more than $3 billion, with a record in August of $3.4 billion.

Records for NFTs, cryptocurrencies struggling

And all this despite the fact that the cryptocurrency market has been steadily in the red for the past two weeks. Bitcoin has fallen 16% in the last two weeks, Ethereum has lost 20% of its value in the same time frame. While back in December the major cryptocurrencies had all posted double-digit losses.

But NFTs don’t seem to be following this trend. On the contrary, according to data from OpenSea, in the first ten days of January, trading volumes have already exceeded 2 billion, suggesting a new record month for the non-fungible token sector.

This factor indicates, according to the experts, that a market that is still very immature has reached maturity. Until a few months ago, a drop in cryptocurrency markets was followed by a more or less corresponding drop in NFT sales volumes. Now this clear divergence shows that the NFT market has grown and is now able to stand on its own two feet.

Dragos Dunica, co-founder and Chief Data Officer of blockchain analytics platform DappRadar said in a recent interview that this rise of NFTs depends on factors outside the cryptocurrency market, such as the rise of Gamefi, the hype around the metaverse and the ever-growing celebrity interest in NFTs.

“All of these are signs that the NFT market is evolving and progressing rapidly towards its peak, making it an attractive investment prospect, regardless of how cryptocurrency prices are performing at the moment.”

Reese Witherspoon and other celebrities in the NFT world

Latest to be dazzled by NFTs and their potential developments was famous actress Reese Witherspoon who tweeted enthusiastically:

In the (near) future, every person will have a parallel digital identity. Avatars, crypto wallets, digital goods will be the norm. Are you planning for this?

— Reese Witherspoon (@ReeseW) January 11, 2022

Last October, the actress bought her first NFT.

Sports, the world of art and gaming were the first sectors to link part of their revenues to this new form of commercialization. But now the fashion and film worlds are also increasingly linking their brands and business to the sale of non-fungible tokens.

It is therefore inevitable that interest and business will grow even without the push of crypto markets. 

Indeed, according to Dunica of DappRadar, the trend could be dramatically reversed by 2022. Paradoxically, the NFT market could even drag the cryptocurrency market along.

 

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