The frenzy surrounding meme coins, coupled with a general downturn in the cryptocurrency market in the second quarter, led to a 44% drop in non-fungible token (NFT) sales. This was stated by Apollo Crypto’s Chief Investment Officer Henrik Andersson in an interview with Cointelegraph.
According to CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume fell from $4.14 billion in the first quarter of the year to $2.32 billion in the second.
“The second quarter was tough: Bitcoin fell by 15%, and many altcoins performed significantly worse,” Andersson added.
In his view, meme tokens have “taken” mind share from NFTs. In the last 24 hours alone, trading volume for such assets exceeded $3.6 billion.
This is largely due to interest in “political” and celebrity-created coins.
The Apollo Crypto executive noted that Bitcoin “inscriptions” might also have diverted some popularity from NFTs:
“In the long term, Ordinals will continue to capture market share in the non-fungible token space, especially with the emergence of numerous second-layer solutions for the first cryptocurrency’s blockchain.”
However, activity in the Ordinals and Runes segments has also declined in recent months. In June, sales volume for “inscriptions” totaled $116 million, compared to $191 million in May and $708 million in April.
The largest NFT collection remains Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) with a market capitalization of $344 million. Following are Mad Lads on Solana ($146 million) and Milady Maker on Ethereum ($201 million).
In April, Magic Eden took the lead in trading volume among NFT marketplaces with $486 million. Blur, for the first time since its launch, ceded its leadership position.
In March, BAYC #9258, owned by American comedian Kevin Hart, was sold for 13.65 ETH—76% below its purchase price. A token from the same collection owned by pop star Justin Bieber depreciated by nearly 95%.