NFT sales volume rises thanks to Blur airdrop, as traders get excited about new NFT marketplace
TL;DR Global NFT sales saw an 8.5% increase over the seven days from Feb 10 to 16, reaching US$304 million. This spike was largely due to a Blur token airdrop that saw many traders selling their tokens to buy their favorite NFT projects. Additionally, the Ordinals Protocol and Emblem Vault collections have also been bringing wider NFT capabilities to Bitcoin. With these new developments, the NFT world could provide tailwinds to the larger crypto economy.
Global non-fungible token (NFT) sales rose 8.5% over the seven days from Feb.10 to Feb.16, with significant sales spikes in the last two days.Total weekly NFT sales increased to US$304 million in that seven-day timeframe, up from US$280 million in the previous week, according to data from NFT aggregation site CryptoSlam.Thursday alone accounted for over 30% of the weekly sales volume, topping US$92.9 million in daily sales, the highest single-day sum since May 2022. Average price of the assets sold on Thursday increased to US$463.09, around 265% higher than Tuesday’s US$175.57.The sales spike was largely fueled by Blur token airdrop on Tuesday, according to Yohann Calpu, chief marketing officer at CryptoSlam.“Many traders who used the blur.io marketplace – which has taken significant market share from OpenSea’s NFT trading volume – received an airdrop of Blur tokens, which many sold to buy their favorite NFT projects,” Calpu said.Zero-fee NFT marketplace Blur on Tuesday released its Blur tokens and gave users 60 days to claim the airdropped coins. The cryptocurrency was trading at US$0.90 at 2:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data.Over the past 30 days, Blur NFT marketplace recorded US$471.7 million in trading volume, surpassing the market leader OpenSea’s US$448.9 million, DappRadar data showed.Meanwhile, the NFT community has been keeping a close watch on Bitcoin NFTs. The Ordinals Protocol, released last month, is bringing wider NFT capabilities to Bitcoin.The Emblem Vault collection, for example, wraps Bitcoin NFTs and bridges them to Ethereum where they can be traded on Ethereum-based marketplaces, according to Calpu.Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 16, Emblem Vault saw over US$4.2 million in sales, surpassing the total sales volume of US$714,600 for the entire month of January, CryptoSlam data showed.“When you add the recent Valentine’s Day Blur airdrop to the mix, the NFT space feels alive again for the first time in about a year when NFT volumes hit a high,” Calpu said. “My sense is the NFT world could once again provide tailwinds to the larger crypto economy with these new developments.”