Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue their multi-year downward trend, with prices and volumes plummeting following OpenSea’s initial distribution of XP crates.
Legacy NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Pudgy Penguins are down more than 50% since the summer, when the market rebounded after the start of OpenSea’s chest farming system. However, after initial crate distribution, OpenSea NFT volumes are down 48% over the past week, and Blur’s are down 60%.
Falling volumes are reflected in asset prices. Bored Ape Yacht Club is down 26% over the past month to 6.55 ETH, or $24,000, its lowest price since 2021. Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins is down 33% over the past month to 6.65 ETH, and is down 80% from its all-time high in December, which was catalyzed by the launch of the PENGU tokens.
Azuki, another old NFT collection whose floor price reached over 35 ETH at its peak, has seen its entire life cycle and is now trading at 1.08 ETH, after being issued in 2022 for 1 ETH per NFT. The collection recently even fell below 1 ETH amid a massive liquidation of Blur loans.
Leading NFT Collections – Blur
New NFT collections like Hyperliquid’s Hypurrs have not been spared either, changing hands at 950 HYPE, or $41,000, after trading at $57,000 just two days ago, and $80,000 on OTC markets before launching.
Post-farming episode
OpenSea wrapped up its first chest farming campaign on October 17, with users farming XP to earn chests, thought to contain valuable NFTs and points that could make their future $SEA allocations quantifiable.
However, most farmers received cents on the dollar for their fees paid, a new allocation of OpenSea treasure – which TGE should “meaningfully take into account” – and anyone who won an NFT worth more than $10,000 was surprised by a KYC form to claim their prize.
At the end of the first breeding season, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer took to X to share statistics about OpenSea’s new focus on token trading.
“OpenSea surpassed $2.6 billion in trading volume this month, with more than 90% of that coming from token trading. This is just the beginning of our transformation, from ‘NFT marketplace’ to ‘trade anything,’” said Finzer.
However, OpenSea DEX aggregator volumes have plummeted since the first case distribution. The platform generated a record volume of $462 million on October 15, but has only processed between $3 million and $8 million per day since then.
OpenSea DEX Aggregator Volume – DeFiLlama