NFT trading volume had seen a wild uptick back in the bull runs of 2021. By the start of 2022, the market had begun to reach its peak as interest blossomed. However, after hitting an all-time high in January of 2022, the volume had begun to dwindle. The following months would see lower values and by June, it was down 93% from its ATH. This decline has raised concerns regarding where the future of NFTs lie.
Is NFT Dying?
The volume that was recorded in January and the months leading up to it had been during the bull market. Hence, more people were willing to risk money for these ‘jpegs.’ It is also noteworthy to mention that the dollar volumes were so high because the prices of digital assets such as Ethereum and Solana had been on the rise. However, by June when the market crash had occurred, the dollar value of the traded NFT had plummeted.
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Looking at the charts, it shows that the total NFT traded volume across all of the marketplaces had reached $16.57 billion in a single month. The month of June was a long way from this with only $1.03 billion in NFT trades recorded for the month. This inadvertently shows that interest in the space is declining.
NFT collections grow 15k | Source: IntoTheBlock
Despite the declining interest, the number of collections being launched has not slowed down in any way. Data shows that more than 15,000 NFT collections were launched in the month of June alone compared to about 13,000 collections for the previous month.
OpenSea Continues To Dominate
Through the uptrends and downtrends, OpenSea has maintained its lead when it comes to NFT trading. It has made its mark as the first major NFT trading platform in the space and as such remains highly favored among investors. The addition of other networks such as the Solana network has also helped grow its popularity in the market. This does not mean that the marketplace is without competition though.
Contenders such as LooksRare have been rapidly stealing market share from OpenSea, and with the launch of the NFT marketplace early in the year, it had successfully stolen the majority of its market share. Although only for a while.
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Presently, OpenSea maintains more than 55% of all of the NFT volume recorded for the previous month. LooksRare which is quickly becoming an investor favorite due to its rewards accounts for 32.45%. Magic Eden, the no 1 Solana NFT marketplace, accounts for 12.49% of the total market share.
As trading volume is expected to dwindle over the next couple of months, it is expected that these platforms will be locked in a fierce battle for dominance of the NFT space.
Featured image from Forbes, chart from TradingView.com
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