The NFT market is in shambles as key metrics such as users, volumes and liquidity rate plummet and several key collections are pulled back by 90% or more.
However, there are a few perhaps surprising sub-sectors showing relative strength as collectors and dealers bet that generative art and historically significant collections will outperform over the long run.
According to analytics platform Nansen, total NFT trading volume is down 49% this month to 223,000 ether, or about $367 million. Total daily sales and daily active wallets have both gone down in the last 90 days.
While the macro background is bleak, the carnage is particularly pronounced on certain individual collections.
Azuki, a bull run darling that allowed creator Chiru Labs to earn a $300 million valuation, has fallen from a rock bottom price of 33 ether (ETH) to 3.9. Similarly, the Kevin Rose-backed Moonbirds collection has steadily dropped from its peak of 36 ETH in April 2022 to just 1.29 ETH today.
Amidst the rubble, traders and collectors are beginning to unite around small strong sectors. According to Nansen’s NFT indices, the arts sector is the best performing sector of the year, with the Nansen Art-20 index down just 40% against other sectors that are down 50% or more.
Looking at the Art-20 sub-collections, generative art is particularly strong. Chromie Squiggles, one of the first collections released by generative art hub Artblocks, is down just 1.7% on a 30-day basis, while Terraforms, created by generative artist Mathcastles, is down 5%.
Historic collections are also beginning to outshine the younger and once brighter offerings. In December 2021, the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club “turned around” or surpassed that of the Cryptopunks collection – a move that some at the time saw as passing the torch to an upstart collection that had managed to dominate the bull market. This perception was reinforced in March 2022 when Yuga Labs, the creators of BAYC, purchased the intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks in March 2022.
However, as the bear market continues, CryptoPunks once again appear to have recaptured their position as the preeminent NFT collection.
Punks are currently sitting at a rock bottom price of 47 ETH, compared to BAYC at 27 ETH. In addition, the higher rarity prices of the CryptoPunks bolster the collection’s estimated market cap of 772,000 ETH against BAYC, which sits at 291.00 ETH according to Nansen data.
Over the past month, as the NFT price crash intensified, the BAYC price floor is down 24%, while CryptoPunks are down just 3.8%.
The Nansen NFT-500 index is down 56% year-to-date with no immediate low in sight.