- OpenSea remains on the sidelines as Blur dominates NFT trading volume on Ethereum.
- While the general drop in interest has impacted activity on Blur, daily sales volume puts the company ahead of OpenSea
Among the Ethereum-native NFT marketplaces, Blur remains dominant as an NFT marketplace and aggregator, accounting for nearly 60% of all trading volume on the chain, Messari found in a new report.
Blur remains the dominant Ethereum NFT marketplace, with ~60% of total volume. pic.twitter.com/FpV7yDG1YN
— Messari (@MessariCrypto) August 21, 2023
Blur has gained significant traction since its launch in October 2022, overtaking market leader OpenSea. Popularity skyrocketed after the symbolic airdrop event on February 14.
Before the airdrop, Blur controlled 48% of the NFT transfer volume in the market. However, a few days after the airdrop, the stock rose to 78%. This caused OpenSea’s NFT transfer volume to decline by 21%.
Source: Glassnode
While the NFT trading volume at Blur has since declined due to the decline in general market interest in NFTs, data from Dune Analytics shows that the daily volume of NFT trades completed on Blur still exceeds OpenSea.
Source: Dune Analytics
Collectors have still shunned NFTs
The year to date has been marked by a general decline in interest in NFTs as a digital asset class. So far, interest rates peaked around February, and NFT’s market cap and sales volume have been trending downward ever since.
According to NFTGo, the sum of the market cap of all collections has dropped 46% in the past seven months. In addition, the daily total volume of NFT sales across all collections has decreased by 98% over the same period. For context, this was $420.48 million on February 19. As of August 19, the recorded sales volume was less than $5 million.
Amid declining interest, the values of blue-chip NFTs have also been tarnished. For example, at the time of writing, this is the bottom price of an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC] collection amounted to 24 ETH. The last time the average price was this low was in August 2021, three months after launch. This year alone, the bottom price of the collection has dropped by 64%.
Source: NFT Price floor
Another leading NFT collection affected by the whirlwind of disinterest in digital collectibles is CryptoPunks. At a floor price of 47.39 ETH, one CryptoPunk NFT is currently trading at a price last recorded in June 2022.
Source: NFT Price floor