Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have proven to be a huge victim of the current bear market. The drop in the price of bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies has completely washed away the hype of the digital works of art and collectibles. Last year astronomical amounts of NFTs were traded daily, but now it’s been a long, dark and cold winter.
NFT winter
Earlier you could read in the NFT news that the ‘NFT winter’ was getting colder due to the ever-declining trading volume. For example, the total trading volume of non-fungible tokens on Ethereum (ETH) was $518 million in October, up from $687 million a month earlier.
In the second quarter, the trading volume of non-fungible tokens was down 40% compared to the first quarter of 2022. This was a significant drop, but these months were marked by a lot of turmoil in the overall crypto market. In May, market drama began with the astonishing demise of Terra (LUNA) and the UST stablecoin. About a month later, the unrest increased even further because crypto lending platform Celsius had ceased withdrawals on the platform.
In November the baton was passed to FTX which went under and caused a lot of chaos in the market. Logically, this has not benefited the sale of non-fungible tokens: trading activity has not been this low since July 2021, according to data from Dappradar. At that time, OpenSea was the only major trading place available.
In November, trading volume on OpenSea fell from $226 million to just $174 million. The only major NFT marketplaces to see an increase in trading volume this month were Magic Eden and Blur.
Football World Cup NFTs
The World Cup in Qatar has led to the launch of several collections. For example, Visa, the global payment processor, had partnered with Crypto.com to launch an NFT auction of iconic goals by legendary soccer players at a World Cup. In addition, Coca Cola also wanted to take the opportunity by also collaborating with Crypto.com and launching non-fungible tokens in honor of the football festival in Qatar.