Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were not considered an investment instrument ten (10) years ago.
Even in 2018, the idea of digital arts as an investment product did not resonate well with a lot of investors.
The crypto market boom of 2021 ushered in a new type of investment called digital collections which have given birth to the rise of a new sector called the Metaverse.
As of Tuesday, March 7, 2023, the NFT industry has generated more than $50 billion from the sale of collections.
This is great news for the entire decentralized finance market since cryptocurrencies play a primary role as a transactional currency.
The latest milestone comes as a surprise to many industry experts considering total NFT sales in its first year of being tracked by CryptoSlam in 2017 was around $20 million.
The years 2021 and 2022 are credited for the path to this milestone
NFT monthly sales crossed $1 billion for the first time in July 2021 when collections such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and others were added to the market.
It reached a new all-time high (ATH) of approximately $5 billion the following month in August 2021 and saw a minimum of $3 billion in sales for the next four months to close the year.
Global NFT market sales reached a new peak of $6.3 billion in January 2022 with unique buyers soaring to 1.38 million.
This signaled strong interest in a market that was earlier written off as just some virtual images being powered by blockchain technology. Monthly sales remained above $3 billion until crypto winter took hold of the entire market after May 2022 which saw a decline below $1 billion.
CryptoPunks NFTs have contributed the most to individual sales
While Axie Infinity remains the biggest-selling NFT of all time, CryptoPunks have four (4) of the top five (5) NFT collection sales ever. CryptoPunks No. 5822 is the biggest-selling NFT of all time after it exchanged hands for $23.2 million a year ago.
This is followed by CryptoPunks No. 4156 which sold for $10.3 million and CryptoPunks No. 5577 which was let go for $8 million.
In fourth place is CryptoPunks No. 7804 which was sold for $7.6 million on NFT marketplaces.
The cumulative sales of all CryptoPunks NFTs stood at $2.13 billion from the buying and selling activities of 5,831 and 4,467 collectors respectively.
Aside from CryptoPunks and Axie Infinity, BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Art Blocks, Otherdeed, NBA Top Shot, Azuki, CloneX, and Moonbirds wrap up the top ten (10) NFT collections rankings by sales volume.
Ethereum remains the king of NFT blockchains
Despite the efforts of Zilliqa, OKC, Fantom, Theta, Cronos, Waves, Algorand, Palm, Arbitrum, Panini, Tezos, Binance Chain (BNB), Immutable X, Avalanche, WAX, Cardano, Polygon, Flow, Solana, and Ronin, Ethereum remains the biggest NFT blockchain by all-time sales volume.
Out of the $50 billion in volume, Ethereum NFTs have generated around $38 billion which represents 74% of the total liquidity poured into digital collectibles.
With JPEX’s YAMI and YOBI Series NFTs coupled with other collections from several platforms in the pipeline, sales from Ethereum NFTs could surpass $40 billion in no time.
This will positively reflect in the global NFT market sales and potentially push it to $60 billion soon.