In a surprising turn of events, data from Dune Analytics has revealed a notable downturn in the monthly sales volume of Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the leading marketplace, OpenSea. The decline in interest in digital collectibles has been evident since the first quarter of the year, with sales volume consistently dropping over the past seven months.
In October, the sales volume for Ethereum-minted NFTs on OpenSea plummeted to $49 million, marking a stark 51% decline from September’s $74 million. This also signifies a staggering 92% decrease from the $659 million recorded in January.
Similarly, Polygon-based NFTs on OpenSea saw a decline in user patronage after a record-breaking sales volume of $109.12 million in February. Data from Dune Analytics showed a total sales volume of $2.7 million for October, reflecting a 40% drop from September’s $4.5 million.
Transaction fees on the Ethereum network, paid in Ether, have decreased since May due to reduced network activity. On 5 May, the median transaction fee was 142 GWEI, which currently stands at 21.1.
Despite low gas fees and decreasing floor prices in many NFT collections, traders have shown minimal interest in executing sales transactions. The number of traders completing transactions involving Ethereum-based collectibles on OpenSea in October decreased by 34%.
Surprisingly, Polygon-minted NFTs have witnessed a surge in user participation, with a month-over-month increase of 15% in trades. Conversely, Ethereum NFTs on the platform experienced a 30% decline in trading.
DappRadar data reveals that Blur continues to dominate OpenSea in monthly NFT trading volume, with a total of $146 million in the last month. OpenSea, on the other hand, recorded a trading volume of $64 million.
In terms of trader count, OpenSea has surpassed other NFT marketplaces over the past 30 days. As per DappRadar, the total number of traders who completed NFT transactions on OpenSea during the last month reached 186,000, whereas Blur had only 27,000 traders participating.
