NFT market remains sluggish despite crypto’s rise

So far digital collectibles have not significantly benefited from crypto’s rally

article-image

Lazartivan/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Despite a broad-based rally that has pushed digital asset prices to levels not seen in years, the NFT market remains stubbornly mired in a bear. 

In the past week, large caps such as bitcoin have surged as much as 22%, climbing from $28,000 to a peak of $35,000 on Monday. Bitcoin in turn dragged much of the industry higher, with only two assets — Huobi’s HT and Trust Wallet’s TWT — among the top 100 by market capitalization in the red on a 7-day basis, per CoinGecko. 

Despite the broad-based rally, however, the NFT sector has largely failed to rise. 

According to data from Nansen, floor prices — the lowest price at which a single NFT for a given collection can be purchased — for major projects such as CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins are down on a 7-day basis, falling 4% and 5% respectively. 

The Nansen NFT-500 index is continuing to grind lower, currently sitting at a value of 308 versus a yearly high of 1,700 set in October. 

On Oct. 24, both the total number of buyer addresses (7,200) and first-time buyers (920) set yearly lows. 

However, there are some metrics that look promising for the sector. 

Overall trading volumes appear to have bottomed. For the week ending Oct. 9, volumes on mainnet Ethereum hit a yearly low of 29,742 ETH, or under $50 million. Since then, volume has begun to rally, with the week ending Oct. 23 seeing 47,369 ETH worth of NFTs traded or minted worth over $85 million. 

Additionally, there has been an uptick in “active projects” – collections with sales exceeding benchmarks such as 10, 100, and 1,000 ETH. On Oct. 8, active projects bottomed at 41 collections, versus 80 as of today.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

An overview of the Base Ecosystem, with a focus on market leaders.

article-image

Although bitcoin hitting $120k by year’s end is looking unlikely

article-image

About 270 million HYPE has been claimed, valued around $7.6 billion

article-image

Stanford professors David Mazières and Dan Boneh will lead the lab alongside a cohort of graduate student researchers

article-image

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” CoinShares posed

article-image

The proposal comes after Polygon governance considered a controversial use of bridged liquidity for yield

article-image

Can the community balance its decentralized ethos with the need for inclusivity and constructive debate?