The NFT market fell sharply in 2022, but because the number of NFTs traded, the year is almost as good as 2021, according to figures from DappRadar. A total of USD 24.7 billion in NFTs was traded in 2022, compared to USD 25.1 billion in 2021. But where 58.6 million NFTs were sold in 2021, that number was up by 101 million NFTs in 2022.
The NFT market has slowly collapsed over the past year, but the enthusiasm to trade NFTs is still high. And is larger than in 2021. Therefore, about a quarter of money was spent on NFTs in 2021, despite prices for individual NFTs continuing to decline since May 2022. ultimately $24.7 million was spent on NFTs in 2022 compared to $25.1 billion in 2021.
Wash trades are excluded
DappRadar’s figures show that 101 million NFTs will have been traded in 2022, compared to 58.6 million in 2021. This excludes half a million wash trades, which are transactions where sellers trade their own NFTs between their own wallets to to raise their prices. That market turns out to be worth millions of dollars, but it has therefore been excluded from the analysis.
The crypto market collapsed in May of 2022 due to the tolling of Terra’s LUNA and UST. That was the start of the crypto winter, and the demise of FTX also contributed. The NFT market shows the same development, continuing the momentum of 2021 in January to May. Where $ 3.3 billion was lifted in May, that amount fell to just over one billion in June.
NFT market not over $1 Billion after June
After June, the NFT market hasn’t reached the $1 billion mark, according to DappRadar’s figures. In December, the value of the NFT market fell to about $684 million. That is more than sales in November, when $664 million were spent. That’s probably due to the growing number of NFTs that were sold, namely 6.7 million in December from 4.8 million in November.
