Non-fungible tokens are in a market downturn, contrasting with the positive trend of cryptocurrencies.A pivot to gaming and even rosier crypto asset prices could be catalysts behind a market comeback.Connect/Create WalletNo wallet? No problem. You can set one up for free. We recommend Torus for first-time users.
Part of the zeitgeist of the 2022 crypto market mania, NFTs have plummeted in value and have not seen much relief over the past year. The Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index fund — which provides institutional investors exposure to the largest NFT collections — is28.8% since the beginning of the year, whilst bitcoin has appreciated 70% over the same period.
Unsurprisingly, it's been a brutal period for marketplaces, which have seen the number of active weekly users and volume decline since January 2022.OpenSea — which was at one point the darling of the NFT market sporting a $10 billion-plus valuation — has seen active traders on its platform decline from nearly 250,000 per week to around 40,000.Monthly volumes for Ethereum-based NFTs across marketplaces declined from a high of $1.
In a sense, that lag is tied to the fact that most investors in NFTs are the crypto rich, so would-be active NFT collectors sit on the sidelines until broader crypto prices are robust enough for investors to ape in, noted prominent NFT enthusiast,"I don’t expect volume to meaningfully pickup until we enter a sustained uptrend in ETH and crypto more broadly," he told The Block."When crypto participants feel rich, they buy NFTs.
Still, he pointed to some signs that NFTs have caught some degree of mainstream appeal including recent auctions conducted by Sotheby's. In May, the auction house