During a media preview for the “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale” auction at Sotheby’s in New York City, U.S., on June 4, 2021, a television camera is seen next to the non-fungible token (NFT) “CryptoPunk #7523,” a series of 10,000 unique pixel-art characters created by Larva Labs in 2017. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters (Reuters) – LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – According to marketplace data, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) reached new highs in the second quarter, with $2.5 billion in sales so far this year, up from just $13.7 million in the first half of 2020. A digital asset such as an image, video, or in-game item is represented by an NFT, which is a crypto asset. The owners of NFTs are recorded on the blockchain, allowing them to be traded as a substitute for the digital asset they represent. find out more After the popularity of NFTs burst early this year, sales volumes have remained strong. In June, monthly sales volumes on OpenSea, a prominent NFT platform, hit a new high. Some NFT collectors regard them as collectibles with intrinsic value due to their cultural significance, while others regard them as investments in which they speculate on growing prices. find out more Since March, buyers have outnumbered sellers by a factor of 10,000 to 20,000 every week, according to NonFungible.com, which aggregates NFT transactions on the ethereum blockchain. Estimates of total sales volume vary according on which NFT transactions are included. Volumes for the first half of 2021 were just under $2.5 billion, according to DappRadar, which tracks sales across multiple blockchains. NonFungible.com, on the other hand, estimates $1.3 billion, excluding around $8 billion in “DeFi” (decentralized finance) NFTs. Both sites only keep account of sales that take place on the blockchain, or “on-chain” transactions. Parts of some of the largest NFT sales, such as those at auction houses, take occur “off-chain,” which means they must be manually added to the data. A digital image sold for a record $69.3 million as an NFT at Christie’s in March. Since then, no other NFT sale has come close. A “CryptoPunk” sold for $11.8 million at Sotheby’s, making it the second most expensive known NFT sale. find out more Volumes and buyers on the National Basketball Association’s Top Shot marketplace, which allows fans to purchase and trade NFTs in the form of video highlights, have decreased from 403,000 in March to 246,000 in June. After peaking at $182 in February, the average price of a Top Shot “moment” dropped to $27 in June. However, while some NFT kinds lose popularity, others gain popularity. Collectors have flocked to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a set of 10,000 one-of-a-kind digital ape NFTs. On July 1, the average ape sold for $3,600 on OpenSea, up 1,574 percent from the launch price of $215 in April. According to Yuga Labs, the club’s creators, total sales have risen to $61 million. (This story has been resubmitted due to a typo in the last paragraph.) Elizabeth Howcroft contributed reporting, and Richard Chang edited the piece. The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles are our standards./n
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