The world’s leading nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea, is poised to break its own record for monthly sales on Ethereum as daily volumes have been surging.
OpenSea’s $2.1 billion in trading volume of NFTs through Monday is more than half the total trading volume for the entirety of August 2021, the highest month on record. Volume reached nearly $3.5 billion in that month, according to Dune Analytics.
The marketplace is currently on pace to top $6 billion in trading volume for January should the current trend continue.
Current trading volume on OpenSea has been driven by the new “PhantaBear” collection, which recorded 17,124.79 Ether (ETH) ($53 million) in sales over the past seven days. “Bored Ape Yacht Club” is a close second place with 16,657.78 ETH ($51.5 million).
Jay Chou YYDS pic.twitter.com/LbhAjIRmzv
— Ezek (@EzekClub) January 10, 2022
Aggregated data from CryptoSlam shows the “Doodles” collection as the leader in sales across all NFT marketplaces, with nearly $56 million in sales over the past seven days. It currently ranks third in trading volume on OpenSea.
Other key factors contributing to the record pace for OpenSea, according to Dune Analytics, include the number of active users, which at 260,369 is rapidly approaching the all-time high of 362,679 tallied last month.
OpenSea has shown that there is still a tremendous amount of room to fill for NFT marketplaces, as trading volumes have remained high for over six months straight and surpassed $4 billion globally over the past 30 days. In light of that, alternative marketplaces such as the new LooksRare and Solana’s Magic Eden intend to siphon off at least a portion of OpenSea’s volume.
Related: OpenSea raises $300M for encrypted digital marketplace
The NFT markets have experienced a veritable resurgence in interest since the beginning of the new year. Volumes across all platforms tracked by NFT market data source NonFungible.com show a steady increase since Jan. 1 when total daily sales reached nearly 15,671 items. From Friday to Saturday, sales spiked up from 13,189 to 36,041 NFTs. Daily sales hit a monthly high of 29,921 NFTs on Monday.