• The non-fungible token (NFT) trading volumes reached $2 billion in February, the highest since before the crash of Terra and its UST and LUNA tokens.
• The surge is largely attributable to the rising popularity of zero-fee marketplace Blur, which conducted incentivized trades ahead of a native token airdrop.
• According to DappRadar’s report, Blur is overtaking market share from OpenSea but is not bringing new traders into NFTs.
Record Trading Volume in Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Space
According to DappRadar’s February report, NFT trading volumes hit an all-time high of $2 billion – the highest since before the meteoric crash of Terra and its UST and LUNA tokens in May 2022. This huge spike was due to catalysts such as ongoing NFT marketplace war and Yuga Labs’ successful launches. Much of the surge is attributable to the rising popularity of zero-fee marketplace Blur, which conducted incentivized trades ahead of its native token airdrop in mid-February.
OpenSea vs Blur
Blur is overtaking market share from historically leading NFT marketplace OpenSea; however, it does not bring new traders into NFTs. While OpenSea targets retail traders, Blur’s focus on professional traders may be raising trading volumes rather than increasing adoption rate.
Yuga Labs’ Role in Market Growth
Yuga Labs has also been credited for driving much of this growth with their loyal fans and successful launches. Their new CEO Daniel Alegre made his first public appearance since assuming his position in late February 2021.
The Future Of The Non-Fungible Token Space
Despite the positive impacts this growth has had on increasing trading volume, Sara Gherghelas believes that it has not resulted in more widespread adoption yet and that “as of right now they are just bringing hype with the token launch.” What remains to be seen is how this will affect the future development and sustainability of this space as more players enter into it over time.
Conclusion
February’s record highs show that there is strong potential for growth within the non-fungible token space despite current shortfalls related to adoption rates and lack thereof by zero fee marketplaces like Blur. With Yuga Labs driving further success through their loyal fanbase and ambitious launches though, it still stands that there could be great things ahead for this budding industry if those trends continue moving forward into March 2021 or beyond!