Does it pay to stay bullish on cryptoart in a bear market?

How is the market faring as a whole?

In general, art as an asset class has proven to be a wise investment during recessions and economic downturns. During the 2009 crash, auction prices fell by 27.2%; but the art market made a healthy rebound just two years later. In comparison, the S&P 500 fell by 57% and it wasn’t until 2013 that the market began to restabilize. ¹ Today, the general perception is that art makes for a robust alternative asset investment. To open the inquiry into how investments in digital art fare in a crypto bear market, however, is a slipperier affair, due in no small part to the inherently volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. Before concluding that crypto art makes for similar wise investments, it is therefore worth zooming out and comparing NFT art sales with the NFT market as a whole.

Punk9059, also known as NFTStatistics.eth, has been keeping track of market trends and sharing his daily findings on Twitter throughout 2022. On July 30th, he reported a steep decline in sales volumes and USD value on popular NFT trading platform OpenSea compared to the previous year, stating: “Last year on July 30, OpenSea volumes jumped from $10mn to $30mn and never looked back. Unfortunately, today will be the first time ever where NFT USD volumes are down year-on-year.”