Ethereum-based NFTs on OpenSea recorded highest monthly sales volume, here's why

Ethereum-based NFTs on OpenSea just saw its highest sales volume since May.
Monthly sales volume across OpenSea, however, is at its lowest level this year.

After suffering a severe decline in interest, Ethereum-minted NFTs on OpenSea clinched the highest monthly sales volume since May, data from Dune Analytics showed.

With 696,908 Ethereum-based NFTs sold on OpenSea since the beginning of December, the monthly sales volume totaled $1.2 billion at press time. With seven days left till the end of 2022, this index represented a 74% increase from the $253 million logged as the sales volume in November.

Source: Dune Analytics

Interestingly, of the $1.2 billion registered as monthly sales for Ethereum-minted NFTs on OpenSea so far this month, the daily sale volume of $1.01 billion recorded on 24 December amounted to 84% of total sales made.

In fact, for several months, the sales volume for Ethereum-minted NFTs sold on OpenSea had been less than $20 million.

Source: Dune Analytics

While data from DappRadar revealed a 4% uptick in sales volume across OpenSea in the last week, an assessment of monthly sales volume across the leading marketplace revealed a decline.

According to data from Dune Analytics, since April, monthly sales volume on the OpenSea marketplace has fallen by 95% and might close the year at its lowest level since June 2021.

Source: Dune Analytics

2022 in a nutshell

As tightening conditions in the broader financial markets foisted a decline in the general cryptocurrency market, profile pictures (PFP) NFTs suffered a significant decline in investors’ interest.

The drop in interest exhibited itself through a significant decline in sales volume, count of NFTs sold, etc., across leading NFTs marketplaces.

According to data from the NFT analytics platform NFTGo, the market capitalization of the NFT ecosystem fell by 13%. As of 24 December, this stood at $21.77 billion.

Interestingly, with a plethora of NFT projects launched during the year, sales volume grew by 44.87% this year. As of this writing, NFTs sales volume across all marketplaces stood at $21.92 billion.

Source: NFTGo

Furthermore, in a newly published research, Blockworks Research found that in the web3 ecosystem, the NFT/Gaming vertical sectors attracted the most funding. According to the research platform, both sectors raised $8.3 billion, which represented a 51% growth from the funds raised in 2021.

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Funding Trends:
🏆 NFT/Gaming vertical attracted the most funding this year.
📈 The vertical raised $8.3bn in 2022, a 51% increase YoY.
➡️ Half of these investments were in VR/metaverse, blockchain-based gaming, and game studio. pic.twitter.com/QpgBCzzAQf

— The Block Research (@TheBlockRes) December 21, 2022

As for Blue Chip NFTs, they saw a decline in value in 2022. The NFT collections that make up the Blue Chip NFTs category include but are not limited to Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, Art Blocks, and CloneX.

According to NFTGo, the Blue Chip Index is calculated by weighing the market capitalization of Blue Chip NFT collections to determine their performance. At 9138 ETH as of 24 December, this fell by over 30% in the last 12 months.