Messari, an on-chain data analytics platform, revealed in a new report that Blur continues to dominate the NFT markets on the Ethereum network and accounts for approximately 60% of the total NFT transaction volume on the blockchain. The airdrop event conducted by Blur in February 2023 and the ongoing process significantly boosted the popularity of the NFT marketplace.
Popularity Gained through Airdrop
Since its launch in October 2022, Blur has garnered significant attention and surpassed industry leader OpenSea. Its popularity skyrocketed after the airdrop event on February 14th and has been sustained through various activities. Prior to the airdrop, Blur held 48% of the NFT transfer volume in the market. However, shortly after the airdrop, its share increased to 78%, causing OpenSea’s NFT transfer volume to decrease by 21%.
Although the NFT transaction volume on Blur has decreased due to the overall decline in market interest towards NFTs, data from Dune Analytics shows that the daily NFT transaction volume on Blur still surpasses that of OpenSea.
Investors Stay Away from NFTs
There has been a general decrease in interest towards NFTs as a digital asset category over the past year. Interest reached its peak around February and since then, the NFT market capitalization and sales volume have been on a downward trend.
According to NFTGo, the total market value of all collections has decreased by 46% in the past seven months. Additionally, the daily total NFT sales volume across all collections has decreased by 98% during the same period. As of August 19th, the recorded sales volume was below $5 million, compared to $420.48 million on February 19th.
Amidst the declining interest, the values of Blue-Chip NFTs have also been affected. For instance, at the time of writing, the base price of an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection was 24 ETH. The last time the average price was this low was three months after the collection’s launch in August 2021. The base price of the collection has decreased by 64% this year alone.
Another leading Blue-Chip NFT collection affected by the low market dynamics for digital collections is CryptoPunks. Currently, a CryptoPunk NFT is trading at a base price of 47.39 ETH, the lowest recorded price since June 2022.
