CryptoPunks Lead as NFT Trading Volume Rebounds on Solana and Ethereum

CryptoPunks and other established NFT projects are seeing renewed interest as the price of leading altcoins rise, with recent activity concentrated on Ethereum and Solana.

The NFT market has cooled drastically in recent years, but Sunday marked its busiest day since February, with $26 million worth of tokenized JPEGs changing hands across Ethereum’s ecosystem, according to a Dune dashboard created by Hildebert Moulié, a data scientist at venture firm Dragonfly. On Monday, that was followed up with $24.9 million in trading volume.

Over half of Sunday’s trading volume could be attributed to CryptoPunks.app, the official marketplace dedicated to the iconic collection of 10,000 pixelated profile pictures, which have been recognized by museums, auction houses, and luxury brands.

Over the past week, the collection’s so-called floor price has jumped 20% to 48 ETH, according to data provider NFT Price Floor. Measured in U.S. dollars, the entry-level price for CryptoPunks has jumped 45% to $177,000, partly due to Ethereum’s rising value. Meanwhile, 174 NFTs from the collection changed hands during that span, a 460% increase from the week prior.

In May, a newly established nonprofit called The Infinite Node Foundation acquired the IP to CryptoPunks from Bored Ape Yacht Club maker Yuga Labs, saying it would focus on preserving the collection, engaging with its community, and promoting its brand.

Myriad Markets users broadly believe that the CryptoPunks floor price will remain above the 44 ETH mark through the end of July 25, giving that an 85% chance. (Disclosure: Myriad is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, DASTAN.)

Other collections minted on Ethereum have seen floor prices swell over the past week, including a 38% jump to $56,000 for Pudgy Penguins NFTs, a 26% increase to $6,300 for Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and a 64% surge for Fidenza NFTs from generative artist Tyler Hobbs.

Although some spectators on X hope that two days of elevated trading volume could turn into a resurgence for NFTs, which ran red-hot during the pandemic-era crypto boom, there was “some increased activity from December to February, but it wasn’t sustained,” Moulié told Decrypt.

With NFT trading volume on OpenSea surging 44% to $9.5 million on Monday from Sunday, however, it appears some traders are chasing the trend. On Monday, NFT marketplace Blur also saw a 120% jump in trading volume from the previous day to $12.8 million.

On Solana, the price of Mad Lads NFTs has increased 27% over the past week to $6,800, while the floor price of Clarnosaurz NFTs has risen 47% to $2,100, and the entry-level Solana Monkey Business Gen2 NFTs has jumped 43% to $4,000, among gains for other collections.

In total, $9.3 million worth of Solana-based NFTs sales have taken place on secondary markets over the past seven days, a 59% increase, according to CryptoSlam. Ethereum-based NFTs have meanwhile seen $105 million in sales, a 50% increase over the same period of time.

Although trading volume has decreased over the past week, Bitcoin-based collectibles have seen floor prices tick up as well. The floor price for Ordinals collection Taproot Wizards has climbed 26% to $26,700 over the past week, and 10% to $4,800 for Bitcoin Puppets.

The NFT market may be glittering as Ethereum and Solana rise, but notably, no NFT collection referenced in this article is close to setting an all-time high floor price. And although Sunday and Monday’s trading volumes were the most robust in months, the daily stat has spiked above $50 million four times within the past year, per Moulié’s dashboard.

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