By Vince Dioquino
Translation: Blockchain in Vernacular
After the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market in November, the NFT market has heated up again.
According to CoinGecko data from December, the market capitalization of the sector has reached $8.8 billion, up 17.3% from last week. The same data shows that trading volume has also risen sharply: in the past 24 hours, the daily trading volume of the entire chain has soared by nearly 48%.
The trend continues the surge in November, when NFT sales reached $562 million, according to CryptoSlam. That figure is the highest since sales approached $600 million in May.
Notably, the number of unique buyers fell to just 662,000 in November, compared with more than 1 million in May.
1. Blue chip NFT data at a glance
Blue-chip NFT collections continue to dominate the market across all blockchains, including non-EVM chains. CoinGecko’s NFT heat map shows that its current lowest price is 42.99 ETH, or about $159,000. The price has risen by nearly 5% in the past 24 hours and more than 14% in a week.
CryptoPunks also led the November recovery, with trading volume reaching $49 million, a 392% increase from October, achieved through just 388 transactions.
Despite the nascent NFT collecting, CryptoPunks still command a 40% market share with a median transaction value of $114,131, demonstrating that this groundbreaking collectible remains attractive among serious collectors and investors.
Not to be outdone, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s price remained strong at 21.27 ETH ($79,727) and achieved an impressive 75.79% gain in a week, attracting attention from major exchanges. The total trading volume of the series reached 1,486 ETH in the past day, showing that whales and collectors are betting heavily.
The market’s growth is not limited to traditional popular projects. As a dark horse in the blue-chip NFT field, Pudgy Penguins currently maintains a healthy reserve price of 14.869 ETH (about 55,758 US dollars) and has achieved a nearly 30% increase in a week. Even the more popular Azuki, with a reserve price of 5.799 ETH, has risen by 8.61% in a single day.
Currently, the three major series of CryptoPunks, BAYC and Pudgy Penguins account for 73% of the market activity. Meanwhile, Ethereum is still the leader, with sales reaching $216 million in November, while Bitcoin is also not to be underestimated, with a 99.44% increase in the month to $186 million.
According to data compiled by Dragonfly Capital analyst Hilldobby through Dune Analytics, in the NFT market of the EVM chain, Blur leads with a transaction volume of US$271 million, followed by OpenSea with a transaction volume of US$161 million.
As for user habits, OpenSea is still the preferred market for most people, with about 188,000 active traders and more than 2 million transactions completed. It is worth noting that although Blur has a smaller user base, with only about 38,000 active traders, its users are more active in trading.
2. It’s no longer at its peak
Although NFT trading volume has shown some signs of recovery recently, the CryptoSlam 500 NFT Index tells a more realistic story about the overall direction of the market. Currently at 1,135.04, the index is down 53.77% from its peak, which means we are still far from the heyday when NFTs once dominated cryptocurrency headlines and attracted mainstream attention.
The index, which tracks 500 smart contracts across 11 major blockchains including Ethereum, Solana and Polygon, has fallen sharply from its peak of 2,494.74, painting a picture of a market still searching for a new equilibrium.
While recent platform innovations and institutional interest have provided some hope for the market, data suggests that the NFT market is still struggling to recapture the explosive growth that once defined the sector.
