🏆NFT Market Roars in First Days of 2022 After OpenSea Marks Another $3B Month

After a year of explosive growth, the market for NFT collectibles and artwork is showing no signs of slowing down so far in 2022. Ethereum NFT trading volume on leading marketplace OpenSea is increasing in the early days of the year, following the platform’s second-largest month to date in December.

On January 2, OpenSea recorded more than $243 million worth of trading volume, according to public blockchain data curated by Dune Analytics. That’s a jump from nearly $170 million on January 1 and $124 million on December 31, 2021.

OpenSea posted over $3 billion worth of Ethereum trading volume in December. The month’s tally of nearly $3.25 billion in volume is second only to the August record of over $3.4 billion. It’s also a nearly 37% increase from November’s $2.37 billion worth of Ethereum trading volume on the platform.

An NFT is a blockchain-backed token that serves as a deed of ownership to a digital item. It can represent things like profile pictures, digital illustrations, video clips, and interactive video game items. Ethereum is currently the leading platform for NFT artwork and collectibles, with more than 90% of the market (including sidechains and layer-2s).

The Bored Ape Yacht Club profile picture project has been one of the biggest recent beneficiaries of the NFT boom. Over the last seven days, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection has yielded $89 million worth of trading volume, with the original Bored Ape collection adding more than $83 million in volume.

BAYC’s original collection of 10,000 NFT avatars—and the subsequent Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection—have drawn in an increasing number of celebrity owners, including Mark Cuban, Gary Vee, Dj Khaled, Post Malone, and Stephen Curry.

Over the last couple of weeks, rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg also joined the club, although Snoop was already an avid NFT collector. We also heard that Dave Chapelle joined the ranks but for now that has not been confirmed. Who would you like to see with an Ape?

Launched last April, and getting traction in May the original Bored Ape Yacht Club collection is most valuable with a current price floor—or cheapest available NFT—of 72.5 ETH (about $270,000) on the secondary market. It has even surpassed the influential CryptoPunks project, which has a current price floor of 68.7 ETH (almost $265,000).

Mutant Ape Yacht Club project has seen larger recent gains in value, with its current price floor of 15 ETH (about $56,500) representing a 119% increase over the last 14 days. The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s floor is up nearly 44% over the same span.

It’s not just Apes on the move, however. recently, a piece of  digital artwork by the artist XCOPY called “All Time High in the City” sold for 1,630 ETH, or nearly $6.2 million, on the SuperRare marketplace. Last month, via his NFT-collecting Cozomo de’ Medici alias, Snoop Dogg purchased a different XCOPY piece for 1,600 ETH (over $7 million at the time).

Leading Ethereum game Axie Infinity has seen a decline in trading volume of late. The monster-battling game generated more than $301 million worth of trading volume in December, making it the leading project during that span. However, it marked an approximately 60% drop from November’s tally of about $754 million.

🌏Disclaimer: Some members of our team, including editors of this article, have personally invested in a number of cryptocurrency’s, NFTs and DAOs. We also earn commissions on some of the products we recommend.