The NFT market appears to be recovering after last year’s sales and overall market slump. According to NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam.io, the sales volume of NFTs increased by 16 percent year-on-year in the first three weeks of 2023. According to the report, over 320,580 people bought digital collectibles between January 1st and 21st alone. Based on blockchains, NFTs or digital collectibles, there are virtual representations of art, animals and game characters that can be operated in the metaverse.
In the last seven days itself, the sales of NFTs shot up 43.48 percent from the previous week, a Bitcoin.com report said citing statistics from CryptoSlam.io.
NFTs build on the upgraded, energy-efficient Ethereum merger blockchain, recorded the maximum revenue of over US$206 million (approximately Rs.1,675 billion) of the total NFT sales last week. Purchases of Ethereum-based NFTs are up 24.78 percent this year already.
NFTs supported by Solana became the second best-selling digital collectible, grossing over US$36 million (around Rs.2.92 billion) in the past seven days.
NFTs created on other blockchains such as Theta, Fantom, Palm, and Eax have also seen a surge recently.
A NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and two of the CryptoPunk Series emerged as the top three most expensive NFTs stolen in the past week.
Industry analysts had predicted in the last week of December that NFT sales would skyrocket in the first half of 2023.
“Brands will try to outshine each other to gain visibility in the crypto-native audience. Retail adoption of crypto, driven largely by their indirect exposure to virtual digital assets through brands they typically interact with, will also increase,” said Rajagopal Menon, vice president of crypto exchange WazirX had said on December 30, 2022.
After the crypto industry took a slump in the second half of 2022, the low-risk sentiment also hit potential NFT buyers who decided to take a break from the indulgence.
According to a Bloomberg reportNFT sales hit a 16-month low in December last year.
Between January and December 2022, the NFT trading volume allegedly slipped 97 percent and is now on the road to recovery.
