Ethereum’s Non-fungible token (NFT) market has seen a major resurgence in trading activity over the past week. According to data aggregation site CryptoSlam, the weekly trading volume of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain surged to over $158 million – the highest level recorded since February 2023. This represents almost a 100% increase compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, competing NFT marketplaces on blockchains like Bitcoin and Polygon actually saw declines in volume of 24% and 10% respectively.
Pudgy Penguins’ Dominance and Ethereum’s NFT Boom
Driving much of Ethereum’s NFT boom is growing interest in the Pudgy Penguins collection, currently the 3rd highest by market capitalization. Pudgy Penguins is rapidly approaching the market dominance of top collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, owned by leading NFT firm Yuga Labs. While Bored Apes holds the top spot for highest floor price, Yuga’s CyberKongz collection actually has the highest individual NFT floor price across the entire market.
Beyond rising sales activity, Pudgy Penguins creators are actively building out integrations and metaverse experiences like Pudgy World – an interactive game planned for launch on Apple’s yet-to-be-released AR/VR headset. At the same time, Yuga Labs continues development on its Otherside metaverse, with plans for a third testing phase. NFT minting on Ethereum has remained fairly stable over the past year however, indicating this new volume is being driven more by secondary sales rather than new projects launching.
Elsewhere, Dapper Labs’ NFL All Day NFT brand saw strong momentum around the recent Super Bowl event. Promotional NFT packs issued in January drove short-term speculation, including a $40k+ sale of a Tom Brady non-fungible token. Aaron Rodgers’ NFT from the set sold for $34k.
To date, NFL All Day has generated close to $10 million in sales since September.
Trading Volumes Reach $405 Million
The broader NFT market has shown signs of recovery after the crypto downturn in 2023. As cryptocurrency prices have rebounded, so have NFT sales.
In October 2023 specifically, monthly NFT trading volumes on all blockchains jumped back up to hit $405 million – a $99 million increase over the previous month. This represents the highest monthly volume since August 2023.
NFTs on the Bitcoin network reached a new milestone in December 2023, breaking the $800 million barrier in sales for the very first time. According to market data, monthly Bitcoin NFT sales hit $881.22 million in December, broke the previous sales record on a single blockchain.
Driving this Bitcoin NFT boom were 111,713 buyer addresses transacting with 98,744 seller addresses.
