2022 has seen significant shifts in the non-fungible token market landscape, with different sectors facing different levels of volatility. At the center of this fluctuation is the Art NFT sector, which has managed to gain a strong foothold, Nansen research reports on Twitter.
As of January 2022, art NFTs are the best performing ETH NFT sector
They’ve outperformed every other type of NFT, including Blue Chips and Metaverse NFTs, remember?
But they have fallen against the dollar…
Let’s see how low each NFT sector is… pic.twitter.com/ZcZUI2EXDw
— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) August 29, 2023
The Game-50 index, which spans a wide range from GameFi to Play-to-Earn platforms, had a particularly challenging year. Investors who started their journey in January with an optimistic $1,000 found their holdings reduced to a paltry $90 by the end of the year.
Similarly, the buzz and promise surrounding the metaverse sector was put to the test. The Metaverse-20 index, representative of this digital frontier, started the year with investments worth $1,000, before shrinking to a modest $202 as the curtains drew in 2022.
According to Nansen, the broader NFT market was not immune to the turbulence of the year. The NFT-500, touted as a barometer for the general NFT landscape, receded considerably. The index started the year well, with investments worth $1,000, but lost ground to end the year at a lower $329.
Yet not all sectors found themselves in challenging terrain. The Social-100 index, emblematic of NFTs rooted in community and interpersonal connections, painted a slightly brighter picture. Starting positions in January, set at $1,000, declined, but ended the year at a relatively healthier $362.
Similarly, the revered Blue Chip-10 index, often seen as the gold standard within the NFT universe, held up. Despite the unpredictable vagaries of the market, investments here fell from $1,000 in January to $405 at the end of the year.
2. Blue Chip-10: The cream of the crop. The very best and most recognizable NFTs come second
If you invested $1,000 in January ’22, you would now have $405…
They may be the leading NFTs but even they are in today’s market… pic.twitter.com/1fMq9GFHc8
— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) August 29, 2023
However, the star of the year was undeniably the Art-20 index. This index, which represents the twenty largest art collections by market capitalization, bucked the broader market trend and offered a spark of optimism. Investors in this segment should take comfort as the January valuation grows from $1,000 to an impressive $596:
“I think people really like the art.”
Ether, often regarded as a gauge of the digital asset landscape, has had its challenges. An allotment of $1,000 in Ether in January translated to $432 by the end of 2022, demonstrating the performance of the Art NFT sector when other NFT sectors struggled.