NFT Market Cap Drops 46% in 30 Days as Blue-Chip Prices Plunge

The non-fungible token (NFT) market has lost almost half of its value in the last 30 days, even as trading activity picked up in October.

CoinGecko data shows that the global NFT market capitalization fell from about $6.6 billion on October 5 to $3.5 billion on Wednesday, a 45% drop in just 30 days. The slump comes despite an increase in the number of sales in October that briefly lifted blue-chip prices.

CryptoSlam data shows NFT recorded sales of approximately $631 million in October, a 13% increase from September’s $556 million. Bitcoin and Base NFT have shown resistance in the last 30 days, with increases of 9% and 24%, respectively.

Players like BNB Chain and Polygon experienced the biggest drops, at 82% and 86%, respectively. Ethereum, the largest network for NFT sales volume, saw a decrease of 25.5% in the last 30 days, while Solana, Immutable and Avalanche decreased from 31% to 35%.

Blue-chip volatility highlights fragile NFT valuations

NFT Price Floor data showed that the latest market correction hit even the most established NFT collections.

In the last 30 days, CryptoPunks seen a 40% drop in trading volume, with its floor price dropping from around $214,000 on October 5 to $117,000 on November 5.

Moonbirds saw a similar pullback, with volume down 63% and floor prices more than halved from $14,700 to $6,500 over the same time period.

Meanwhile, some collectors saw higher volumes, but still saw drops in valuation.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Pudgy Penguins have recorded volume increases of 30% and 83% respectively, and their floor prices have also dropped massively. BAYC floor prices dropped from $36,700 to $19,500, while Pudgy Penguins dropped from $43,000 to $18,340.

The disconnect between trading and sales volume increases and the ratings show how liquidity in the NFT market remains speculative and sensitive to broader crypto sentiment.

Related: NFT markets rebound after $1.2B wipeout in Friday’s crypto crash

The main players are expanding beyond NFT

As NFT cools down, major industry players recalibrate.

In October, the OpenSea digital collection market, which has dominated space in the last 30 days with more than 522,000 traders, said it was expand into a universal onchain business center.

While the company is now targeting everything in the chain, it rejected claims that it was pivoting from NFT.

Meanwhile, Animoca Brands, another leader in the NFT space, confirmed its listing plans on the Nasdaqsignaling how traditional capital markets begin to recognize Web3 gaming and metaverse companies also as secondary NFT market contracts.