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Ending the year on a high note, NFT sales for December rose to $877 million, making it the second-best month of 2024.
Blockchain-based digital collectibles had a strong month in December, with sales reaching $877 million, making it the second-best month of 2024. This boost caps off a wild year for She denied The market, which witnessed a sharp recovery in the last quarter.
CryptoSlam Data It shows that 2024 NFT sales ended at $8.83 billion, outpacing 2023 by more than $100 million. While 1.1% growth may not seem huge, it highlights the market’s ability to recover after months of declining sales.
December was marked by… EthereumData shows that groups based on Pudgy Penguins, Azuki and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Ethereum led NFTs this month, generating $488.4 million in total sales, according to NFT Price Floor data. The Pudgy Penguins took the lead, with turnover reaching over $285 million, while other groups like Lil Pudgys and Azuki together added another $222 million.
In a commentary on crypto.news, Nicolas Lallement, co-founder of NFT Price Floor, noted that the NFT market saw “strong growth in Q1 2024 for both the Ordinals (Bitcoin) and Solana NFT collections,” further adding that “repricing Ethereum based blockchains have been long awaited.
“As a catalyst for repricing, we have the existing token associated with NFTs. Projects like Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, and Azuki have launched or announced plans for meme/L2 gov tokens, which have generated significant interest and repricing of premium NFTs.
Nicholas Lallement
Lallement points out that repricing is “not just driven by airdrops,” as many NFT holders have “converted profits from speculative memecoin trades into long-term condemnations, with a preference for high-quality collections.” This trend has been “particularly noticeable on Ethereum, given the fact that it is home to the most consolidated set of blue-chip pools,” he says.
“Looking forward to 2025, I expect a gradual impact that will benefit the entire NFT ecosystem. It will likely start with airdrop-related blocks, then expand to Ethereum-based PFP blocks, generative art (such as Art Blocks), and eventually include Solana and Bitcoin.”
Nicholas Lallement
The NFT market really rebounded in Q4. After a difficult third quarter, with sales of just $1.12 billion, they rose 96% to $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter. November sales of $562 million helped set things up for December’s nearly $1 billion showing.
Industry experts attribute this rise to increased confidence in the cryptocurrency market. For example, DappRadar researchers noted that the rise in token prices may have led to increased optimism, attracting new buyers to the space. Sarah Gergelas, a blockchain analyst at DappRadar, believes the difference “can be attributed to renewed trading activity in high-value pools, such as those on Yuga Labs, coupled with rising token prices.”
“Improving liquidity and increasing participation in premium collections is boosting confidence among collectors and investors, who now view NFTs not only as speculative assets but also as cultural commodities,” Sarah Gergelas wrote in an article. a report.
It is still far from its peak
Despite the year-end spike, total NFT sales for 2024 remain well below the market’s peak years. In 2021, NFTs generated $15.7 billion in sales, nearly double this year’s numbers. The following year was even more impressive, with sales reaching $23.7 billion.
Lallement believes NFTs have a “unique position” as high-risk speculative assets and status symbols. Historically, during the later stages of a bull market, participants who have seen their wealth grow tend to shift their focus from speculative investments to status assets such as digital art and collectibles, he explained.
“This behavior stems from a desire to display wealth and gain peer recognition within their communities. For NFTs to return to their highs in 2021-2022, we will likely need BTC to reach a significant price level (e.g., $150,000) and for ETH to achieve higher An all-time high (several multiples of the previous level, perhaps around $10,000).
Nicholas Lallement
Once these milestones are achieved, Lallement expects to “rotate capital from fungible tokens into select NFTs.” He believes that when market participants start reallocating their gains to higher-value buckets, it could trigger another wave of inflated valuations. “Strong symbolic performance can renew investor confidence, create a wealth effect, and reignite the speculative and cultural appeal of NFTs as investments and status artworks,” he concluded, adding that this dynamic is likely to continue, fueling a thriving NFT market. The nature of the bust along with broader crypto trends.
Blur and Open sea The markets were the best in Q4, accounting for nearly 70% of all NFT sales, according to Data From NFT analytics platform Tiexo. Blur turned out to be the leader with sales of more than $885 million during the quarter, while OpenSea followed with sales of $607 million. Magical Edenwhich focuses on Solana NFTs record $365 million in sales
The diversity in market activity shows that the NFT ecosystem is still in a maturing stage. As a result, no single platform or blockchain is completely dominant. Although Ethereum is still the all-time leader in NFT sales, Solana and Bitcoin They gradually gain share.
December’s surge leaves us wondering what’s next for NFTs. Will the momentum continue into 2025, or will it fade? We, as analysts, will likely find out soon He predicts Bitcoin’s rally will peak in mid-2025, which could impact the NFT market as well.
