TL;DR Breakdown:
- Search interest in NFTs is beginning to decrease.
- OpenSea recorded over 27% drop in monthly trading volume
- The declining volume and interest leave Ethereum blockchain at ease.
The steep decline in OpenSea’s NFT trading volume suggests that the frenzy known to the non-fungible token market is beginning to slow down, probably due to the global turmoil which negatively affected both the cryptocurrency and traditional markets.
OpenSea records $1.38B drop in volume
A recent report by CryptoRank showed that OpenSea recorded a 27.8% decrease in trading volume for February. The value dropped from $4.95 billion in January to $3.57 billion – the highest drop ever seen on the platform month-over-month. The data plainly depicts that interest in the NFT market is beginning to reduce, considering OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace.
Search results from Google also confirm the statement to be the case. Search interest spiked to 100 around 23rd – 29th January. However, the value dropped to 38 around 20th – 26th February and could decrease even further to 28 towards 12th March, according to the information on Google Trends.
The declining volume and interest in the NFT market is not wholly a surprise, given that the cryptocurrency market has been struggling over the recent weeks, including the stock market. The ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine wrecked panic amongst investors, which resulted in sell-offs and liquidations. Perhaps, the same reason explains the drop in the NFT market, and we can expect a leap as the situation eases.
The good side for Ethereum
During the early times of the market frenzy, the Ethereum blockchain was extremely stressed amid the massive number of users from NFT and DeFi transacting on the network. Consequently, the network was congested, and transaction fees became very expensive for retail users.
However, the cost of transactions on Ethereum has now dropped to six-month as the rush in the NFT market gradually calms.
