Data on the NFT Market: Total trading volume has decreased by 50% since April, while Solana's royalty revenue remains strong

Author: OurNetwork

Compiled by: ShenChao TechFlow

NFT Trading Volume Drops 50% Since April 2024

• Since April 2024, NFT trading volume has decreased from $300 million per week to less than $150 million, a decline of 50%. Over the past 30 days, daily trading volume has remained around $15 million. As of July 24, Ethereum had the highest daily trading volume at $5.8 million, accounting for 45% of the market share; Solana followed closely with a daily volume of $3.3 million (26%), while Polygon had $2.3 million (18%).

nftpulse

• Typically, 1 or 2 platforms dominate trading on each chain. In the past 30 days, Blur accounted for 60% of the trading volume on Ethereum. On Polygon, OKX facilitated 91% of the trades; on Solana, Magic Eden's trading volume accounted for 55%, while Tensor accounted for 41%. In the Bitcoin market, Magic Eden's trading volume exceeded 90%.

nftpulse

• Royalties remain strong, with Solana leading the way. Over the past 30 days, platforms have paid a total of $4.8 million in royalties to creators, with Tensor accounting for 31% and Magic Eden for 30%. The top collections by royalties include Mad Lads and Liberty Cats, each contributing about 10% of the total.

nftpulse

① Blur

Evgeni Averkin | Website | Dashboard

Whale Game: 40-70% of Blur's Trading Volume Dominated by 5-20% of Traders, Leading to a 38% Drop in TVL Due to Exhausted Incentives

• As a leading NFT marketplace, Blur experienced a significant decline after the end of its Q3 rewards on June 26. Daily trading volume plummeted from $13.3 million (Blast) and $7.9 million (Ethereum) on June 24 to $755,000 and $310,000 on June 26. The lending amount also dropped from $7 million to $3.2 million. Although rewards were limited to Blast, the withdrawal of funds by yield farmers from one blockchain had spillover effects on other blockchains within the same platform, highlighting the volatility of incentive-based crypto ecosystems.

Dune Analytics - @zh3n

• Blur's trading volume dominance masks its small trader base. Despite accounting for 40-70% of trading volume from May to July 2024, the proportion of independent traders has consistently remained between 5-20%. This contrasts sharply with OpenSea (25-35% of trading volume, 30-40% of traders), showing Blur's vulnerability to whale behavior, as a withdrawal by large players could lead to a sharp decline in trading volume.

Dune Analytics - @zh3n

• The exit of yield farmers from Blur also triggered a sharp decline in TVL, dropping from a peak of 52,000 ETH to 32,000 ETH (-38%), which affected market sentiment and thinned liquidity, causing the blue-chip NFT floor price index to fall by 38% from peak to trough. However, after the exit, prices stabilized (up 10% from the low), suggesting a potential return to bullish organic trading.

Dune Analytics - @zh3n

• Trading Level Alpha: On June 17, just before the end of Blur's Q3, cbb.eth executed a large withdrawal of 5,550 ETH from the Blur Pool, which accounted for over 10% of the protocol's TVL at the time. This transaction was the largest in 90 days, highlighting Blur's dependence on whale behavior. Such actions can quickly alter bid-ask spreads, reduce liquidity depth, affect market stability and trader confidence, leading to price and trading activity volatility, as seen in the months of June and July.

② OpenSea

Brandyn Hamilton | Website | Dashboard

OpenSea Attracts Over 250,000 L2 Users in Q2 2024, Surpassing Ethereum for the First Time

• Crypto enthusiasts and casual observers may have heard of OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace. However, there has been a significant shift in user migration from Ethereum Layer 1 (L1) to Layer 2 (L2) networks over the past few months. In Q2 2024, L2 blockchains—Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base—accounted for 39% of OpenSea's total sales, up from just 8.9% in Q1. Among them, Base's trading volume accounted for the vast majority of L2, reaching $88.3 million.

github

• Looking at the top 5 NFT collections on L1 and L2 networks, Q2 trading volume was primarily dominated by Base, with the highest collection being Higher Swatches, which had a trading volume of $27.7 million. However, L1 had the highest average sale price per NFT, with BoredApeYachtClub's average sale price reaching $52,850.

Github BrandynHamilton

• On L2 networks, the number of users also saw significant growth. In Q2, Base's user count surpassed Ethereum, increasing by over 100,000. The next point of interest is whether Base can maintain this growth rate, especially after the launch of the Onchain Summer 2.0 event in June. Although Base is newer than other L2 networks, it leads in both users and trading volume.

Github BrandynHamilton

• Trading Level Alpha: In Q2 2024, one of the top collections on Optimism was 3DNS, which is the first on-chain domain registrar compatible with web2 and web3. Domains powered by 3DNS can not only be used to set up email and website records but also to send and receive cryptocurrencies. So far, the highest-selling domain was watch.box, sold via auction on May 6, 2024, for 23.59 ETH / $73,644. Considering that this collection has been around for less than a year, these are some very early web3-enabled DNS domain sales, marking a true historical milestone.

③ Rarible

sealaunch | Website | Dashboard

Over the Past 6 Months, 170,000 Unique Wallets Minted Over 500,000 NFTs Through Rarible Drops

• Rarible's product line has expanded beyond just Rarible Marketplace (secondary NFT market) to include: RaribleX (NFT marketplace as a service), NFT infrastructure provided by Rarible API, and Rarible Drops (multi-version NFT launch platform). In terms of sales volume, Rarible GMV still primarily occurs in Rarible Marketplace (secondary market), accounting for about 90% of the total.

Dune Analytics - @sealaunch_team

• On the other hand, Rarible Drops (primary market) allows creators to launch multi-version NFTs across multiple chains using Rarible, successfully attracting a large number of NFT minters, accounting for over 80% of total users and transactions.

Dune Analytics - @sealaunch_team

• In the past 6 months, Rarible Drops achieved over 500,000 mints, involving more than 170,000 unique collectors from different chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Celo, Rari, and Base), generating over $290,000 in minting revenue. One of the most successful releases was "Anticipation (of a future event)," which triggered a surge in minting on April 24, resulting in over 190,000 mints with participation from over 48,000 users.

Dune Analytics - @sealaunch

④ Hyperspace

Ali Taslimi | Website | Dashboard

Hyperspace Users on Avalanche Earned $12 Million in Rewards, While the Market Generated Only $6 Million in Revenue

• Hyperspace's activity volume plummeted from handling millions of dollars in trading volume to nearly only $10,000 per day. This change occurred after they announced the termination of their rewards program in June. Many NFT markets have also experienced significant declines in activity after stopping incentives in recent months. Although the promise of airdrops or rewards initially attracted users, these incentives seem to have failed to promote user loyalty and long-term engagement.

Flipside - @alitaslimi

• The total rewards earned by market users over seven seasons amounted to $12 million. Despite generating approximately $6 million in revenue, it has been reported that a large portion of the rewards program was funded by Ava Labs, raising questions about its long-term sustainability.

Flipside - @alitaslimi

• Since the beginning of 2024, a considerable portion of NFT sales has involved wash trading, negatively impacting the rewards program. These incentives may lead to farm-like behavior, which could be another reason for the termination of the program.

Flipside - @alitaslimi