Non-fungible tokens or NFTs have blasted into the mainstream as digital artwork on the blockchain has sold for millions of dollars around the world.
While NFTs have nearly caught up with physical painting sales over the past two years, many people are still skeptical about the new technology, citing environmental concerns.
Negative sentiment seems to be spreading in the markets as fears of inflation and the Russia-Ukraine crisis have sent prices lower, in line with the wider global markets.
We at the Bankless Times decided to do some further research to see how the NFT markets have fared amidst this turmoil.
Here’s what we found…
OpenSea Experiences Dramatic Fall in Daily Trading Volume
OpenSea is the world’s most popular NFT marketplace.
It was recently valued at over $13 billion after a new funding round raised $300 million.
Looking at the data, there is a clear uptrend in daily NFT trading volume up until the end of January where it forms a peak.
Since then, trading volume has remained in a downtrend, now averaging around $70 million daily.
This means that looking at this metric alone, NFT trading activity has declined by over 70%.
The next metric we looked at was Interest Over Time.
Interest in NFTs Falls Off a Cliff
Using Google Trends, we were able to gauge the level of "interest" in NFTs over the past few months on a worldwide scale.
Our findings for this metric lined up incredibly well with the results for daily trading volume from the previous section.
Here, we discovered that “Interest” in NFTs peaked on January 21st, 2022, and has been in a downtrend ever since.
Interest now sits at around 27 out of 100, which reflects a 73% drop since the top.
97% Drop in Fee Revenue For Top NFT Marketplace
Our most stark finding relates to the monthly fee revenue generated by the top NFT marketplace, OpenSea.
According to the data, the platform saw a huge spike in revenue after August 2021 and this metric peaked in January 2022, after recording a record $386 million in fees for the month.
In February, this figure fell by 52% to $204 million and despite being halfway through March, the platform has only generated $7 million so far.
When doubling this figure to account for the second half of the month, $14 million still represents a 97% drop in revenue for the platform since the peak.
