Industry sales are in free fall while recent data shows a completely different face, different from the successful non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that “easily” sell for tens of thousands or millions of dollars.
NFT pricing and industry reality: the billion-dollar mirage for useless NFTs
A September 18, 2021 Bloomberg article reveals that 73.1% of NFTs, a percentage derived from OpenSea Marketplace data mining, had only one transaction in 90 days. Only 2.4% of NFTs had 4 or more transactions.
For NonFungible.com’s COO, Gauthier Zuppinger, 90% of NFTs mined today “are totally useless and meaningless.” He explained the success of successful NFTs by citing a combination of factors:
“ninety-nine percent is being in the right circle, having the right information at the right time. In the NFT space, you live with this constant frustration of missing out on a chance to win a billion dollars.”
While some NFTs sold with a 5- or 6-figure price tag sound like a dream, the NFT industry is actually reportedly relatively illiquid. Many low-priced NFTs as well as little-known projects are indeed struggling to see their value increase.
Death of NFTs: premature announcement or encrypted evidence?
According to data from NonFungible, the number of daily sales on NFT marketplaces saw a sharp drop within a month, from 138,109 on August 30, 2021, to 42,372 on September 21, 2021.
Podcast host Dennis Porter was not shy about commenting on the latest NFT statistics, which indicate a short-term downward trend. He even outright buries NFTs in his September 20, 2021 tweet, sending jabs in passing to cryptophiles supporting non-fungible tokens:
“As I predicted (despite the intense reaction from everyone, including bitcoiners), the NFT market is dead. The average price of NFTs has fallen by over 99%. Liquid death has arrived. Sorry, not sorry for calling this market a scam.”
It’s hard to know at this point whether this drop in NFT sales is cyclical or structural. OpenSea has been performing poorly since the beginning of September 2021, but the bearish narrative needed to be qualified.
