There is good news for holders of Ethereum NFTs. July saw sales of Ethereum’s NFTs hold steady despite a broader slowdown in overall NFT trading, according to OpenSea, the top NFT marketplace. Holders of Solana NFTs saw a more pronounced dip in sales that is more reminiscent of the current NFT bear market.
OpenSea, the largest Ethereum marketplace of organic trading volume, announced small gains in total Ethereum non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sold along with increases in unique users but reported decreases in USD sales. This may indicate that while sales are staying on par compared to June numbers, they are for much lower prices than before.
A look at the numbers
According to the analytics platform Dune, the data reveals that over 1.6 million Ethereum NFTs were sold near the end of July on OpenSea compared to 1.54 million in all the previous month. The volume of unique traders, or the number of individuals making at least one trade, jumped from 393,000 in June to more than 400,000 in July.
Dune also reported $695 million in Ethereum NFT sales volume in June versus only $495 million in July. This represents a nearly 30% drop month-over-month in sales volume in USD. From May to June Ethereum witnessed the horror of a 73% fall as the crypto market crash set in.
An NFT is a blockchain token that shows ownership of an item. This item can be an image, artwork, photography, or collectibles. In 2021, NFTs accounted for $25 billion worth of trading, according to DappRadar. Through the first half of 2022, there was $20 billion worth of organic trading without counting “wash trades.”
Another analytics firm, CrytoSlam, says that Ethereum’s average NFT sale price is around $451 across all markets in July compared to $691 in June. The same company reported averages of $2,436 in May and $3,109 in April. That may be due in part to ETH falling from $3,000 in April to $1,700.
Solana did not fare so well. CryptoSlam reported $52.4 million toward the end of July compared to $91.5 million for the entire month of June—at least a 43% drop.
NFTs on Ethereum
One possible explanation for why NFTs continue to sell on Ethereum is because 95% of all NFTs exist on the Ethereum blockchain. Therefore, the second most popular cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin remains an investor’s preferred network for NFT projects.
For buyers, sellers, and trading prices, Ethereum dominates the NFT space. Ethereum produced $1.8 billion from NFT sales at an average price of $3,000 per NFT in March 2022.
There are three main benefits of trading NFTs on the Ethereum network. The first is that Ethereum has a sturdy network infrastructure that comes with being one of the biggest blockchain currencies in the world. Second, Ethereum offers a wide range of functions that go beyond simply storing data. Ethereum can execute smart contracts, which is essential for NFT trading. Finally, Ethereum constantly receives updates and innovations to improve it. This has kept Ethereum on the cutting edge of the crypto industry and will continue to do so.
