NFT trading volume in August hits a record $1.5 billion

From August 1 to 25, NFT trading volumes amounted to $1.5 billion. The figure rose by 42,757% year over year, according to NonFungible.com.

We ran the numbers from August 2020 and August 2021. And it went like…

August 2020:
⇒ $3.5 million USD sales
⇒ 33,000 sales
⇒ 11,300 active wallets

🆚

August 2021:
⇒ $1.5 billion USD sales
⇒ 710,000 sales
⇒ 190,000 active wallets#TBT #NFT pic.twitter.com/yaQcJ1KEnA

— NonFungible.com (@nonfungibles) August 26, 2021

According to the resource, over the year the number of active users in the sector rose from 11,300 to 190,000, the number of deals closed rose by 21.5 times (to about 710,000), and the average size rose by 19.8 times (to $2,100).

For all of 2020, NFT stood at around $95 million, and for the first half of the year — $2.47 billion.

One driver has been the growing popularity of Axie Infinity. The volume of NFT items sold in this blockchain game over the past 30 days reached $852 million. Its daily audience surpassed 1 million users.

The other growth factor was the hype around the CryptoPunk project. From the start of August, sales of 24×24-pixel NFT images reached $427.9 million — nearly half of the total since 2017, according to Cryptoslam. The average price was $219,300, with the priciest CryptoPunk selling for $5.45 million.

In the auctions participated and the payments firm Visa, which purchased CryptoPunk #7610 for 49.5 ETH (about $150,000 at the time of the deal). In June its counterpart #7523, also known as COVID Alien, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s for 4,520 ETH ($11.8 million).

According to journalist Colin Wu, part of the collection now belongs to venture capitalist Feng Bo and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng, who gave 1,600 ETH (~$5.33 million) and 125 ETH (~$416,000), respectively.

Chinese Internet investors have bought CryptoPunk one after another. Meitu founder Cai Wensheng bought CryptoPunk #8236 with 125ETH. Feng Bo bought CryptoPunk#7252 for 1600ETH (approximately US$5.33 million). pic.twitter.com/LyGxNRORJX

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 26, 2021

The activity in the segment pushed the Ethereum network’s average transaction fee to the highest since May 19, at $27.23.

According to gasTracker, the NFT marketplace OpenSea creates the main load on the network, Axie Infinity fourth on this metric.

Facebook is exploring the possibility of creating NFT-related products and services.

In late July, Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz predicted NFT-market growth over the next decade and called the technology “expensive for the future”.

Earlier, the head of the crypto derivatives exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried expressed optimism and caution regarding the prospects for NFT development.

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