NFT Buyers Continue to Pile in Despite Overall Sales Decline

The non-fungible token market appears to be showing good signs of consolidation and growth as the number of unique NFT buyers has increased. While overall sales volumes have declined, the arrival of new players in the space and blockchain-based games are causing the market to flourish.

The NFT market appears strong as ever as the number of unique buyers grows, according to data from Delphi Digital. The report notes that, despite a reduction in the overall sales volume, the market appears not to be facing a negative turnaround.

Delphi Digital reports that daily sales volumes of NFTs have been decreasing since the start of September 2021, but coinciding with this, there has been an uptick in unique buyers. One of the explanations it offers for this is the lower average ticket prices as fewer crypto-native buyers enter the market.

The report also analyzes the sales of NFTs of different valuations on different platforms. The data shows that SuperRare and OpenSea are the go-to markets for high-end NFTs, with SuperRare crossing $100,000 in daily average sale price of NFTs on six occasions. More commonly, though, the two platforms have a bulk daily average sale price of $30,000–$60,000.

One aspect worth noting is that OpenSea is by far the most popular NFT marketplace, perhaps partly helped by the many retail NFT sellers on the platform. OpenSea’s market share represents 97.8% of the total trading volume among all NFT marketplaces.

OpenSea has been highly successful, with DappRadar showing impressive sales results. The NFT marketplace has also dominated ethereum burn rankings, which was recorded shortly after it saw $1.5 billion in monthly trading volume in Aug. 2021.

Ethereum and Ronin lead NFT volume

As for the networks dominating NFT volumes, Ethereum and Ronin, Axie Infinity’s sidechain, make up the bulk of the NFT market. Ethereum crossed $100 million in daily NFT volume in late August and early September and now stands at a few tens of millions of dollars. Ronin falls just short of Ethereum’s volumes, having been boosted by Axie’s releases in Q2 and Q3 of 2021.

NFTs on Wax Network also appear to be experiencing a surge, as sales volumes have spiked since the start of October. Delphi Digital puts this down to increasingly popular blockchain games using Wax NFTs.

While the NFT market is still relatively new, it does not appear as if the market will turn away from Ethereum any time soon. However, given the comparative newness of NFTs, it is likely that many more players will enter the market, which can only set the stage for more growth.