Cheaper NFTs Mean Sales Are Surging, But Trading Volume is Plummeting: DappRadar

NFT trading volumes saw a quarter-on-quarter plunge of 45%, according to a new report—despite sales surging by 78%.

DappRadar says there’s still a healthy interest in digital collectibles, but there’s been a “sharp drop” in the average prices paid.

In a sign that multimillion-dollar Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks sales are a distant memory, trading volume stood at $823 million in Q2—down from $4 billion a year ago.

A total of 12.5 million sales took place over this three-month period. That compares with 15 million in Q2 2024, but it’s a huge jump from the 7 million seen in Q1 2025.

Illustrating how the space is becoming more affordable, the DappRadar report added: “The art category saw a 51% decrease in volume, but a 400% surge in sales suggesting that prices have dropped significantly, making art NFTs more accessible to a wider audience.”

It’s also been a good quarter for domain NFTs, with the report suggesting this is primarily due to a surge in activity on the TON blockchain.

“Telegram users are buying anonymous, number-based domains that can be linked to Telegram accounts without SIM cards, a very specific use case that seems to resonate,” the report says.

NFT marketplaces have also suffered a double-digit drop in sales. But OpenSea is the exception here, with a quarter-on-quarter rise of 156% as excitement builds for its upcoming $SEA token.

“Many users are now actively trading cheaper collections to farm points in hopes of maximizing their future rewards,” DappRadar noted.

Elsewhere, dapp users remained fairly constant at 24.3 million—and while gaming remains the most popular category overall, the market share of AI-related projects has jumped to 18.6%.

It was also a gloomy period for hacks, with Web3 losing $6.3 billion as the result of exploits in Q2—one of the highest figures since FTX collapsed. That’s a 215% increase compared with the first three months of the year.

“We hoped that after all these years, the industry would have learned its lessons to stay vigilant, to be more careful with user funds, and to mature at least to some degree. But unfortunately, this quarter proved otherwise,” DappRadar added.

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