Blue-chip NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) take a hit as traders shun the industry

YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) – Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has taken a huge hit as the NFT industry gets embroiled in the ongoing crypto market downtrend.

The total market capitalization of the industry dropped over 60% this week before slightly regaining lost ground. The latest dip comes as the number of active wallets and NFT traders sharply declined, according to recent research by analytics company Chainalysis.

As the report suggests, there were not as many takers for NFTs as when the year started. For example, out of the nearly 1 million active accounts from the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, the number declined to about 491,000 in Q2. The steep fall marks a nearly 50% decline from Q1.

The NFT industry exploded in 2021 to become a 40 billion market. For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has traded in over 567,000 ETH.

NFT transaction volume has grown significantly since the beginning of last year. However, the growth has had its fair share of troubles. 

“NFTs saw explosive growth in 2021, but this growth hasn’t been consistent and has leveled off so far in 2022,” 

Chainalysis wrote in the report.

After entering a downturn in February, the industry began to recover in mid-April. However, the overall picture remains worrying. To make matters worse, the hackers occasionally compromise official accounts of NFT projects. Even OpenSea, the largest nonfungible token marketplace, fell victim to a hack, costing users $1.7 million. 

Recommended: Sales of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)-related NFT projects tank 

Average sales of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) plummets by 28%

According to data aggregator NFT Price Floor, the average sale price of many high-end NFT projects is sinking. The popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) from Yuga Labs, for example, lost nearly 30% of its average sale in the last seven days. As a result, the BAYC floor price also took a hit. After sinking as low as 87 ETH on May 10, the floor recovered slightly but remained under 100 ETH. 

Another blue-chip NFT project, the Crypto Punks by Larva Labs, faces a similar challenge. The most expensive Punk sold in the past seven days fetched 120 ETH, an over 47% drop in a week. Even the floor price of Crypto Punks sank below the 50 ETH mark. The cheapest Punk one could buy at the beginning of May was over 61 ETH. 

In a shocking drop in price, CryptoPunk #273 sold last week for just under $139,000. Last October, that Punk had fetched a whopping $1.03 million.

The incident has since become representative of the sad state of affairs in the NFT industry. While NFTs are not going away, the FUD is certainly dying out. Will the JPEG-styled nonfungible tokens like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Crypto Punks survive? Time will tell.