The post NFT Market Monthly Report: January 2024 Analysis and Insights appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The year 2024 looks promising when it comes to Non-fungible tokens! The key trends seen in the market were primarily dedicated to tokenizing real-world assets and the artists blending NFTs with tangible products, offering great immersive experiences. Bitcoin-based NFTs are expected to expand. From Web3 gaming to the arena of movie actors, NFTs are making a place for themselves. The global market cap of the NFT market is $193.84 billion in January 2024.

While the sales of NFT peaked at nearly 881 million US dollars in September 2021, there was a continuous declining trend in the following period. As of January 2024, the aggregated sales value over 30 days amounted to 11.8 million US dollars. They seem like a fad approach to selling memes; the concept could revolutionize different communities.

All we can expect is some real growth in the sector. In this report on NFTs in January 2024 by Coinpedia, we have compiled the NFT market stature and its monthly performance. It is a comprehensive report on the NFT sector compiled using some of the most reliable data sources. As we explore the world of possibilities with NFTs, let us scroll through to understand some of the most popular trends in the NFT market in January 2024.

Market Overview

As we know, the term non-fungible token means what it says! Something is fungible when one can exchange one unit for another without a second thought. Dollar notes are fungible, and so are grains of rice. By contrast, each NFT is unique, just like in a litter of puppies. This makes them non-fungible; we generally won’t trade our puppy for another. Each NFT is an individually distinct digital record, which can be linked to other assets or product features. 

The NFT market has been in a resurgence since last December. The global NFT sales topped US $1.77 billion, the highest record being nearly US $3.4 billion in May 2022. NFT sales are on pace to cross US $1 billion for the second straight month, the first time it has done so since last February. The market is on a shift! Let us see the latest insights:

• NFT marketplace OpenSea is reportedly considering acquisition proposals.
• Between January 20 and 27, 2024, there was a notable decline in the sales volume stemming from NFTs, plunging 21.25% from the week before.
• The leading blockchains in seven-day sales are Ethereum and Bitcoin!
• The last week marked the steepest decline in 2024, with comparative sales plunging over 21%. This contrasts with the year-end surge in NFT sales during 2023, largely driven by Bitcoin blockchain-based NFT transactions. 
• Bitcoin NFT sales dominated in November and December till the first week of January 2024. 
• Recent weeks have seen a shift, with Ethereum reclaiming its position as the frontrunner in NFT sales volume. 

1.1. The NFT Market Scenario

• Ordinals continued their outstanding performance, with BRC-20 NFTs dominating the top spots in trading volume.
• New NFT-focused blockchains like Frame and RARI are entering the market.
• Cardano has occupied its space in the top 10 blockchains in NFT trading volume.
• Possible NFT trends for the upcoming months could be:

• Established and upcoming NFT art by attracting a substantial base of collectors.
• GameFi and NFT integration, the fusion of DeFi, NFTs, and online gaming, enhance digital ownership and security.
• NFTs are becoming a vital component of the metaverse, facilitating digital ownership and interaction.
• Solana dominated other blockchains like Ethereum and Polygon across the NFT activity metrics in January 2024.
• The blockchain has the highest numbers in unique wallets, transactions, unique buyers, and first-time wallets over the last week of January.
• Solana had over 106,000 unique wallets by the third week of January 2024. There were over 22,000 first-time wallets on Solana, 3x those in Ethereum and 2x in Bitcoin.
• More than 2.8 million transactions were posted on Solana.
• Is Solana going to lead the NFT space? Is it here to stay? Let us see as we go through the report.
• Indices tracking the prices of NFTs have risen almost 10% this month, outpacing Ether.

1.2. Blockchains Clash

The Solana NFT ecosystem has grown significantly with weekly earnings exceeding $65 million. Solana’s NFT volumes rise as blue chips gain popularity on the network. Magic Eden’s new development could incentivize Solana’s growth! 

• Blue chips Solana NFT index witnessed a massive peak, growing by 27% in January. 
• The activity on the Solana network grew materially as well. It indicates a revenue generation rise of 140.2% in the last 30 days.
• Magic Eden announced a reward program that will start on Solana shortly. It would incentivize users to buy more NFT collections on the Solana network.
• Tensor, Magic Eden and Hyperspace became the top 3 marketplaces for Solana NFTs in January 2024.
• Bitcoin experienced a 12.62% week-over-week drop, with $55.92 million in sales over the last week of January.
• Solana secured the third place recording $53.69 million in sales, declining by 11.85% in the last week of Jan.
• Polygon secured fourth place amounting to $15.66 million and experiencing a 36.40% drop. 

Major Trends In NFT Space In January

After seeing a recovery in the fourth quarter of 2023, the NFT market has experienced some further growth in January 2024. It is just the first month of the year and Ethereum NFT trading volume increased four times while Solana NFT trading has increased more than ten times! As the NFT trading volume is seen recuperating from all-time lows, the floor prices of top NFT projects on Ethereum and Solana are also soaring high. 

NFT sales on Solana surpassed the Bitcoin network in the last week of January! The trading volume of NFTs on the Solana chain grew by 25% weekly. The share of  Solana’s total NFT trading volume has increased from 7% to 24% over the past six weeks. The most popular statement to deliver in terms of NFTs while January ends would be, “Solana is establishing itself as a strong alternative to ETH for NFTs!”

Top NFT Blockchains in January 2024

January has been filled with surprises when it comes to the NFT market. Let us explore how!

Solana

Solana is making news with its burgeoning non-fungible tokens. Solana surpassed $62 million in weekly sales. It marked a 25% surge in trading volume. 

• Solana’s weekly NFT trading volume as per CryptoSlam crossed the $62 million mark in the last week of January.
• Despite a slow start in January, Solana witnessed a resurrection.
• It gained a total trading volume for the month approaching $190 million, securing its position as the second-highest in the NFT market, right after Bitcoin.
• In December 2023, Solana had a watershed moment when its NFT sales volume passed $365 million. It surpassed Ethereum and trailed just behind Bitcoin. 
• A massive momentum was seen as January began! 
• Experts predict a long-lived surge in Solana’s NFT ecosystem.
• The high value NFT collections by Tensorians contributed to Solana’s flourishing ecosystem.
• Tensorians led with 107% surge in trading volume towards January end, amassing a total of $4.6 million. Each Tensorian commands a floor price of 88 SOL.
• CryptoUndeads and Froganas played a role in Solana’s commendation in the last week of January! With the sale of $15 million and $4.6 million respectively, they have become the stars of the NFT space.
• Despite a 25% weekly rise in trading volume, the number of NFT-related transactions on Solana’s blockchain reduced by 15%. 
• Wash Trading was seen declining by 50% in the last week of January in Solana’s NFT space.
• Tensor and Magic Eden were leading Solana NFT marketplaces, having shares of 75.74% and 18.85% in the market, respectively.

Solana is paving the way for a promising future in the NFT space with an impressive surge in sales. 

Ethereum

• The mid-Jan hit on $42.7 million by Ethereum NFT market made headlines as it was the first time this number exceeded $40 million since June 2023. The weekly volume shot up to the heights too.
• On January 12, Ethereum NFT space saw the second-highest daily volume of $32.52 million.
• The last few days of January saw a decline in trading volume. 
• Azuki continued to lead in volume but experienced a 7% drop in floor price, settling at 6.4 ETH. 
• The recovery was driven by Blur and Blast, incentivizing trading activities through airdrops. Blur dominated 82% of the total volume, while Pudgy Penguins experienced a surge of 65% in the last week of January.

3.2. Top NFT Collections in January

• Bitcoin’s Uncategorized Ordinals experienced USD $9 million in sales, witnessing a 3.75% decline from the week prior. 
• In the third spot, Solana’s Froganas reported $7.04 million in sales, a significant increase of 420.77% compared to last week.
• Occupying the fourth rank, Solana’s Cryptoundeads achieved $6.75 million in sales, yet faced a 58.82% decrease. 
• In the fifth position, Avalanche’s Dokyo NFT collection registered $5.85 million in sales, experiencing a 33.70% drop in sales volume from the previous week.
• January’s last week’s highest-priced digital collectible was Cryptopunk #6,940, fetching $507,618 seven days ago. 
• BNB’s Lockdealnft #18,858 realized a sale of $147,157 , while an Axie Infinity NFT commanded a price of $143,559 in the last week.

• An Uncategorized Ordinal was acquired for $88,386, and a Cardano’s Meld Diamond Hand #2,813 went for $56,186.
•  The sales of Cryptopunk #6,940 and the Axie Infinity NFT contributed significantly to the sales boost on their respective chains.

With this, we know that the sales of blockchain-based digital collectibles faced a challenging period throughout 2022, and most of 2023 also witnessed a downturn in NFT sales until the year’s end. Bitcoin’s entry into the NFT sales space initially boosted overall sales, but BTC-focused NFT sales not only decreased this week but also experienced a 28.15% drop the week before.

NFTs based on Solana and Polygon hinted an increase in the latter part of 2023, yet they have recently encountered modest falls in their overall digital collectible sales volume. Whether this downward trend in NFT sales continues or a resurgence occurs remains to be seen.

3.3. NFT Whales Analysis

NFT Whales or the NFTs purchased by the largest NFT asset holders  are listed below:

3.4. Top NFT marketplaces in January

NFT Marketplace	Volume
Blur	$16.9 million
OKX	$6.05 million
OpenSea	$2.74 million
JPG Store	$2.69 million
Magic Eden	$1.96 million
MOOAR	$1.56 million
Immutable x Marketplace	$825.76k
Element Market	$695.43k
CryptoPunks	$599.05k
Axie Marketplace	$275.51k

Source : Dune

3.5. Crypto Space and NFTs

NFTs, which are digital tokens that use blockchain technology to certify ownership of digital assets, have been widely used in various sectors, including art, sports, entertainment, gaming, and retail. 

• The recent surge in the NFT market is credited to the expectation of approval for Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), which has revitalized the broader virtual asset market. 
• As the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and major altcoins have risen, investors have once again become interested in NFTs.
• The relationship between the cryptocurrency market and NFTs is becoming more apparent as we observe the price differences in alternative cryptocurrencies.
• In the previous month, as reported by The Block, the trading volume of NFTs based on Solana exceeded $360 million, surpassing the trading volume of NFTs based on Ethereum for the first time. During the same period, Ethereum experienced a slight increase of about 10 percent, while Solana surged by more than 100 percent.
• With the NFT market rebounding, companies that had previously lost interest are re-engaging with NFT-based marketing.
• Particularly, blockchain-linked gaming companies and retail sectors, who are known to be aware of younger demographics’ trends, have been issuing NFTs and initiating marketing campaigns related to them.
• Com2uS Platform, a blockchain subsidiary of the gaming company Com2uS, has announced plans to sell tickets as NFTs for the upcoming 35th anniversary fan meeting of ‘Choushinsei Flashman,’ a popular special effects series in Korea, in April. In the past, Com2uS issued official Froesman NFTs, which included figures and various related products.
• Starbucks has collaborated with the art-related platform Print Bakery to issue and sell NFTs. These NFTs are based on the concept of ‘a unique cup just for you’ and feature designs that incorporate Starbucks imagery on cups, tumblers, and other products. Starbucks states that it has introduced this initiative to promote environmental conservation by encouraging the use of personal cups.

3.6. NFTs At Work

We have compiled a list of NFTs to look for in the upcoming month. These might be able to yield promising returns if kept closely!

• Azuki

It is an Ethereum anime inspired NFT collection by Chiru Labs. The current market cap of 71,290 ETH, placing it among top 10 NFTs of 2024. 

• CryptoPunks

A CryptoPunk collectible recently sold for 205 Ethereum worth a whopping $507,617, amid an uptick in global NFT sales, with sales volume surging by 17.72% in Jan last week.

• Bored Ape Yacht Club

It is one of the most iconic NFT collections till date. Created by Yuga Lab, its current market cap is 253,549 ETH. It has kept its position among top 10 NFT collections strong!

• Pudgy Penguins

It is a collection of 8,888 cute, algorithmically generated cartoon penguin NFTs. The current market cap of the same is 161,121 ETH. The members enjoy an exclusive club, gaining access to global meetups and parties.

NFT Trader Profiles

The NFT market worldwide is projected to reach a market volume of$3.282 billion in 2027.

• The average revenue per user in the NFT market is $115.
• The NFT market is expected to have 19.31 million users by 2027.
• More than 50% of all NFT sales are for less than $200.
• “The Meg” is the most valued NFT to date, with a market value of more than $91 million.
• $244 million worth of NFTs were traded in the month of September 2023.
• NFTs are collected by 23% of Gen Y(millennials) in the United States.
• NFT collectors are three times more likely to be males than females.

4.1. Demographics and Characteristics

By Country:

Ever since 2022, India, Vietnam and Indonesia have been exchnaging positions in the top three countries dominating the NFT space.

By Gender:

Let’s explore the NFT demographics when it comes to gender. 

• India displays the most significant percentage of male NFT owners.
• Japan is the only country where female ownership slightly surpasses male ownership. 
• The United States, among the leaders in NFT revenue, shows one of the largest gender gaps. This country has significantly more men owning NFTs than women.

By age group:

The table below provides information on NFT ownership by age groups for selected countries. Specifically, the data is categorized into three age groups: 

18-34, 35-54, and 55+.

Some observations to note in January 2024:

• Singapore has the highest percentage of NFT ownership among the 18-34 age group at 9%. 
• India follows closely with 8% ownership in the same age group. Additionally, it has a fairly even distribution across all age groups. 
• Vietnam and Ireland both show a notable spike in the 55+ age group. Both countries have 11% each. 
• The United States of America, despite being a major global player, has relatively modest numbers across the board. This country has 5% in the 18-34 group, 3% in the 35-54 group, and 3% in the 55+ group. 
• Japan and Germany have the lowest NFT ownership percentages among the listed countries, with no group exceeding 2% ownership.

Conclusion

The NFT market is going to boom in 2024, as per the experts! With so many unique technological advancements and AI-integration, NFT is going to be the next game changer. We are here to give you a step-by-step analysis and monthly performance report.