Over the weekend, NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain experienced their lowest trading volume in approximately two years, reflecting a slow-down across portions of the space in recent months.
The blockchain’s NFTs saw volumes amounting to about 11,900 ETH — worth roughly $22.1 million — over the weekend, according to Web3 community Proof’s director of research, who goes by NFTstats.eth on Twitter.
ETH NFTs did just 11,900 ETH of volume over the weekend.
This was the slowest volume weekend for NFTs in years.
The second lowest weekend this year was ~15,400 ETH, 29% higher than this weekend. pic.twitter.com/94xcCiLCOo
— NFTstats.eth (@punk9059) July 31, 2023
According to NFTstats.eth, the recorded figure marked the lowest total since July 2021. Prior to this, the lowest weekend trading volume in this year had been approximately 15,400 ETH, which was 29% higher than the total recorded in the last two days.
“Weekends tend to be a bit slower than other days — but just another cut at the data,” the Proof research director said in a separate tweet.
Proof did not immediately return a request for comment.
The most recent down volumes for NFTs on Ethereum reflect a wider downtrend across the NFT segment.
NFT trading volume dropped 35% quarter over quarter, according to a CoinGecko report published on July 18 — from $4.84 billion in the first three months of 2023 to $3.15 billion during the second quarter.
Read more: NFT execs: Cutting barriers, propelling use cases key to segment rebound
One growing part of the segment was NFT lending, which jumped 453% from April to May. This was due in part to the launch of Blend by marketplace Blur, CoinGecko data shows. While Blur’s share of total trading value grew from 56% in the first three months of 2023 to 65% in the second quarter, OpenSea’s volume share dropped from 33% to 23% over that span.
OpenSea’s Ethereum NFT volume for July stood at roughly 66,000 ETH during the month’s final day, according to Dune data — down from 88,520 ETH in June. The monthly figure has fallen each month since its 2023 peak of nearly 400,000 ETH in February.
“As with the rest of crypto, the NFT market hits bear and bull cycles,” OpenSea Chief Business Officer Shiva Rajaraman told Blockworks earlier this month. “We are using this current cycle to prepare and build for the next wave of adoption.”