NFT trading volume plunges 98% from January despite rise in adoption

According to data compiled from Dune Analytics, the weekly trading volume of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, across the blockchain realm has plunged to $114.4 million.

This represents a decrease of 98% from the $6.2 billion witnessed around the end of January. Weekly NFT trading volume rose to an all-time high of $146.3 billion in early April before falling off a sharp cliff in May with the start of an ongoing crypto bear market. 

At the same time, however, the number of wallets owning at least one NFT has skyrocketed to 6.14 million, compared to 3.36 million at the end of January. NFT marketplaces also saw a massive change from the beginning of the year, where LooksRare was responsible for most of the dollar trading volume. That has since switched back to OpenSea.io.

The price of NFTs has also fallen sharply as part of a broader plunge in the price of Ethereum (ETH), the most common crypto used to buy and sell digital collectibles. Currently, an NFT only fetches about $285 per sale on average, compared to around $2,000 in early January.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Tony Ling, founder of NFTGo, said that innovation will continue to drive NFT adoption despite the market downturn. Recently, post offices in Austria have experimented with NFT stamps, while Mastercard has rolled out NFT customized debit cards.

Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co has also unveiled a customized pendant experience for CryptoPunk NFT holders. Month over month, however, the NFT market continues to worsen as the average NFT weekly trading volume has fallen by about 30% versus the same time in August.