NFTs, which affected the art world more than ever at the beginning of this year and which everyone strives to own, can also be described as digital collections. These digital art products are created to show that a person has some online pictures, videos, in short, any artistic item that can be viewed on the internet or computer. NFTs may also be released as a unique or limited edition copy of a single, unique virtual item.

NFTs, which can be described as anything that can be represented by 1’s and 0’s, have attracted more attention than ever before, so people have begun to attach great importance to NFT sales. In this article, we have talked about recent NFT sales, how the future of NFT sales will be with the thoughts of some famous experts, and interesting facts about NFT sales.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • While NFT sales were over $2 billion in the first quarter of 2021, according to data from the Nonfungible website, NFT sales declined more than ever during the rest of the year, according to newly released data.
  • Although NFT sales gained popularity towards the middle of 2021 and there were significant cash inflows and exits in the market, NFT sales are back to where they were at the beginning of the year.
  • According to a recent study conducted on March 10, 2022, the weekly trading volume in the NFT world reached 687 million in 2022. Considering that the average for the first quarter of 2021 was $620 million, the fact that this translates into just a weekly average is impressive.
  • According to Nadya Ivanova, COO and & foresight lead at L’Atelier BNP Paribas, the NFT marketplace will continue to be volatile in 2022. But technological projects that are determined to grow will become huge.
  • NFTs with great value and very expensive have been extremely affected by the price change during the year.

Summary of 2021: The NFT Marketplace Statistics

According to the data of the Nonfungible, NFT sales in the first quarter of 2021 were over two billion dollars. Still, NFT sales are down more than ever, according to newly released data.

According to the remarkable data published by the same website, the total value of NFT sales reached one hundred and seventy-six million dollars in the week of May 9, but this value dropped sharply on June 15 to nine million dollars, a decrease of almost ninety-five percent. Although NFT sales gained popularity towards the middle of 2021 and there were significant cash inflows and exits in the market, NFT sales are back to where they were at the beginning of the year.

We said that NFT sales, which were at high levels in mid-2021, are back to normal towards the end of the year, and NFTs with great value and very expensive were also affected by this situation. The prices of even the most popular NFTs have become quite low due to lack of demand, for example, CryptoPunks, a very popular NFT project, saw a hundred thousand dollars in early May and dropped to fifty-one dollars in early June. In addition, the prices of SuperRare, which is also a very popular NFT collection, dropped from thirty-two thousand dollars to five and a half thousand dollars, experiencing a serious loss of value.

What About 2022? – NFT Market Statistics of 2022

According to the news of Business Insider, NFT market volume reached 7 billion in January of 2022. Remember what that number was for all of 2021: 17 million. How is it that almost half of this number was reached in just the first month of 2022?

The answer is pretty obvious: NFT is expanding the marketplace very quickly. In December of 2021, just one year ago, the NFT trade volume was $2.67 million. Even in just one month, it can almost triple the volume with the market volatile enough.

Let’s take a look at the statistics updated on April 3 and published by The Block Crypto. When we look at the monthly marketplace volumes, we see a big jump at the beginning of 2022. LooksRare, OpenSea, and MagicEden occupy the largest part of this table. After the incredible increase in January, there was a decrease in February and March, but the statistics are still at least double the level of 2021.

nft marketplace monthly volume

Well, in the highly diversified NFT world, are you wondering in which category these market transactions are performed the most? In fact, it varies from period to period. Especially in March of 2022, the art & digital collectibles category and the gaming category are very close to each other. Although the gaming NFT volume is much higher at the end of 2021, it is possible to say that in 2022 these two areas are close to each other in volume.

weekly nft sales by category 2022

Below you can see the interesting leap that has taken place since January of 2022 in proportion to NFT marketplaces. Did you notice anything? Launched on January 10, 2022, LooksRare has moved the market as Opensea’s biggest competitor. Just one day after launch, 100 million worth of NFTs had been sold on LooksRare. This may show how new marketplaces and marketing strategies to be launched can bring life to the NFT world.

how looksrare change the game - monthly nft marketplace volume

What Will the Future of NFT Sales Look Like?

Nadya Ivonava, the manager of the business division of a major research firm, said in an interview with CNBC that NFTs act speculatively and the markets for all these speculative assets will be unstable. Emphasizing that the most important issue about NFTs is not how the sales will look, but what value they will have in the future, Ivanova stated that NFTs should be examined on a long-term basis and that the declines in the market should not seriously affect the review. In addition, considering that people will be more involved in augmented and virtual reality technology and therefore spend their money in virtual environments, Ivanova is not considered unfair.

While all big companies from Facebook to Microsoft continue their work on augmented and virtual reality, we can easily say that these technologies are becoming more popular and developing day by day. Although virtual and augmented reality has not yet been accepted into the mainstream, many experts working in the field of crypto and continuing their work in this field agree that NFTs will be included in virtual worlds and will develop virtual worlds like never before.

Osler, one of the developers of S!NG, the easiest way to produce, create, organize and listen to digital assets and music, is one of the experts who believe that NFTs will become even more popular. According to Osler, NFT will not only become popular in the coming months but also develop in the music field.

Offering examples to support his idea, Osler adds that artists such as Kings of Leon and Steve Aoki have been involved in the world of NFT through music. Osler also states that we only see the smallest part of the future of NFTs, as this situation is quite new and we do not know what the future will be like.

NFTs are unlikely to become popular, as people who want to use cryptocurrencies and want to evaluate them in their original form consider NFTs something to buy. Considering that digital art products are getting more popular day by day, it is natural for Osler to think that music is next.

Although NFTs are likely to become very popular in the arts and music arenas, more time is needed before NFTs become a common method of proving ownership of digital content and art. The biggest reason for this is that copyright is likely to be in jeopardy. It is a known fact that many artists and creators have their artwork or work stolen and sold as NFTs online. For this reason, Osler also drew attention to the importance of people buying NFTs to be able to take legal action should something go wrong.

NFT Sales Statistics: The Most Interesting Facts

We talked about what NFT sales are, took an overview of NFT sales, and shared with you what renowned experts think about the future of NFT sales. In this section, we have compiled the most interesting statistics in NFT history for you. We can list the most interesting events in NFT history and their numerical values ​​as follows:

  • The NFT-designed statue of LeBron James, a famous basketball player, and NBA team player was sold for more than $21.6 million in NFT markets. It is believed that all proceeds from this sale were deposited into LeBron’s account and that LeBron used this amount for his own personal needs.
  • Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, sold his first tweet on Twitter by editing it in NFT format for more than $2.9 million. Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, “I’m setting up my twttr”, was priced at one hundred thousand dollars per letter.
fun nft sales statistics - first tweet of jack dorsey
  • Eminem, who offered his NFT collection for sale at Nifty Gateway, a famous NFT market, sold his entire collection, which he called Shady Con, to its new owner in April 2021 for 1.78 million dollars. This collection contained all the digital action figures that influenced Eminem, and these figures reflect the childhood of the famous singer.

fun nft sales statistics - eminems shady con collection
  • Grimes, the ex-girlfriend of Elon Musk and selling more than thousands of NFTs, made history by earning more than seven million dollars from NFTs alone. Grimes, which has one of the best-selling NFTs in history, released an album in NFT format. She has thousands of copies of her album in NFT format, has set a price of more than seven thousand five hundred dollars for each of them. In addition, Grimes’ unique video, which she called “Old Death,” brought in more than three hundred and eighty-nine thousand dollars.
  • Human One, a sculpture designed by Beeple, real name Mike Winkelmann, was sold at a live auction held by Christie in Switzerland. Human One sold at this auction was valued at $28.9 million. Because an NFT was sold at such a high price, the event became front-page news in newspapers such as Barrons, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.
Beeple's Latest NFT 'Human One'
  • In just one month in 2021, the total value of NFT sales between October and November 2021 was more than one and a half million, and more than one and a half billion NFTs were sold in that one-month period. The total amount of NFT sales in 2021 was more than eleven million dollars.
  • Sales on Nifty Gateway, a renowned NFT sales platform, have grown from less than half a million dollars a month in early 2020 to more than two hundred and fifty million dollars in 2021. The total amount of NFT sales to October 2020 was $9.94 million, compared to $29.54 million in December. In addition, the amount of NFT sales by March 2021 reached $ 105.71 million.
  • The world’s most expensive NFT meme costing more than $4 million, the universally recognizable NFT memes are one of the most popular types of NFT. The owner of the Doge meme sold the meme for more than four million dollars. The previous owner of this record was Disaster Girl, and the value of this meme was five hundred seventy thousand dollars.

What does NFT stand for?

NFT, a one-of-a-kind token that stands for the immutable token, is unlike any other cryptocurrency, unlike Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Because all NFTs are different and unique, they cannot be changed.

What is an example of NFT?

An example of NFTs is anything that has digital value. NFTs can be a virtual trading cards, any artwork can be sold as an NFT, or NFTs can be in song format.

Who are some of the top NFT creators?

Examples of top NFT creators include Hackatao, Grimes, Mike Parisella, Justin Balu, Xcopy, and Maddogjones.

Where is the best NFT marketplace in 2022?

The most popular and preferable NFT marketplaces of 2022 are LookRare, Opensea, Foundation, Rarible, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, MakersPlace, BakerySwap.