By James Davis
Data on analytics firm DappRadar shows that despite months of falling prices and declining sales, the overall NFTs sale volume in 2022 came closer to the 2021 peak. In addition, the data suggests that a buzzy start to the NFT market last year helped make up for many weaker months that followed.
As per DappRadar, in 2022, the NFT market saw about $24.6 billion in organic sales across all NFT marketplaces and blockchain platforms. That’s just a small dip from the $25.2 billion recorded in 2021 when the NFT market saw increased activity and interest.
The organic data in DappRadar excludes wash trades or any trades that are suspected of having been manipulated. Wash trading happens when traders sell their digital collectibles back and forth between their wallets at overinflated prices, usually to game a token reward model on the NFT marketplace.
While the NFT trading volume for 2022 was hugely flat, the analytics company recorded a major increase in NFT transactions that year. According to DappRadar, last year, there were over 100 million NFT trades compared to 57 million NFT transactions in 2021.
NFT Market in 2022
The entire crypto market lost massive value in 2022, with more losses recorded in May following the downfall of Terra’s UST and LUNA. The crypto winter was later worsened by the collapse of FTX, a crypto exchange, and the resulting industry contagion affecting crypto prices even further.
The NFT market was not spared. It appeared to follow the same pattern throughout the year. There was an increase in NFT sales in January as OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, saw a record-setting trading volume of $5 billion.
The trading volume, however, dropped the following months until late April, when Yuga Labs Launched NFT land plots for the firm’s metaverse game dubbed Otherside. That launch boosted the trading volume on OpenSea, and many thought 2022 sales volume could surpass 2021’s record.
However, that spike did not last long. As crypto prices significantly plunged in May, the NFT trading momentum slowed, leading to prices dropping sharply. DappRadar data indicates that monthly trading volume went from $3.4 billion in May to about $1.1 billion in June.
December Records Increased Activity in NFT Market
The analytics company also reveals that in December 2022, the NFT market generated over $680 million in organic trades, up from $650 million recorded in November. Also, that month saw over 6.6 million NFT trades compared to 4.7 million transactions in November.