Layer-1 blockchain ecosystem Aptos is gearing up for a new collaboration with NFT marketplace Rarible as the network sees a spike in daily transactions.
Aptos (APT), a layer-1 blockchain network based on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, is set to collaborate with Rarible, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, to achieve what the blockchain describes as a “game-changer” for both platforms.
In a forum post on Aug. 22, a global community manager for the Aptos Foundation under the alias “Angel” hinted that Rarible might soon add support for the network, bringing the potential for “novel NFT use cases leveraging Aptos’ tech.”
“Whether it’s a full marketplace launch or another form of collaboration, this teased alliance between Rarible and Aptos is definitely one to watch!”
Angle, global community manager for the Aptos Foundation
Rarible, which already supports networks like Ethereum, Base, and Celo, has not yet integrated Aptos, according to its FAQ page. However, the marketplace has also hinted at a possible collaboration with Aptos on its social media, though the details remain unclear.
The news of the possible partnership coincides with an unprecedented surge in activity on the Aptos network. On Aug. 14, daily transactions on the blockchain nearly hit 144 million, according to data from Aptoscan. While the reason behind this surge remains unclear, it marks a significant uptick in on-chain activity.
The surge in activity occurred just days before Tether announced that its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin (USDT) would soon be available on the Aptos network. While the exact launch date remains undisclosed, Tether highlighted Aptos’ “robust developer community” and “extremely low gas fees” as major reasons for the move.
Tether highlighted that Aptos’ low transaction costs make it “economically viable for a broader range of use cases, from microtransactions to large-scale enterprise operations.”
SuperRare’s price experienced a sharp reversal due to profit-taking after the token’s parabolic rise of over 500% between August 5 and August 15.
The SuperRare (RARE) token retreated to $0.2280, down by over 34% from its highest point on Sunday, Aug. 18. This downturn was primarily driven by profit-taking, as the recent surge lacked a substantial catalyst. Additionally, the token dropped after on-chain data revealed that the SuperRare Treasury transferred 7.5 million tokens to Binance. Typically, moving tokens to an exchange signals an intention to sell.
Fundamentally, SuperRare and other Non-Fungible Token (NFT) platforms like OpenSea and Rarible are struggling as trading volumes continue to decline.
Data from Dune Analytics indicates that SuperRare’s monthly volume has plummeted to a record low. After reaching over $36 million in August 2021, the volume fell to under $1 million in July. This declining trend over the past two years led the company to reduce its workforce in 2023.
Similarly, OpenSea’s monthly volume dropped to $32 million in July from $643 million in Feb. 2023.
Additional data from CryptoSlam shows that global NFT sales volume has decreased by 37% in the last 30 days, totaling $387 million. At its peak, the industry was handling billions of dollars weekly, driven by popular collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, Art Blocks, and CryptoPunks.
SuperRare’s price surge also pushed its futures open interest to a record high of $112 million. Notably, the token had no open interest in the futures market for several days this month.
The daily chart shows that the RARE price went parabolic, trending on social media platforms like X and StockTwits. It peaked at $0.3460, the highest level since May 2022.
As it surged, the token broke through the key resistance point at $0.2384, which was its highest swing in March this year. It also moved above the 50-day moving average, while the Money Flow Index rose to the overbought level.
Given these factors, the token’s outlook appears bearish as many traders may begin to exit their positions. If this trend continues, the price could drop to the key support level at $0.1626, which was its highest swing on May 12 and 30% below its August 19 low.
This past week, the overall non-fungible token market was a mixed bag.
NFT sales volume dropped by 11.92%, totaling $81.8 million, while the number of NFT buyers increased by 173.25% to 327,594.
Let’s take a look at some of the key metrics that characterized the NFT market over the last seven days based on data from CryptoSlam.
Key blockchain performances
Ethereum (ETH) continued its dominance in terms of NFT sales volume. Despite a more than 10% drop from the previous week, the network still managed to rake in over $28 million — a figure accompanied by a notable rise in buyer activity, which went up 42.5%.
Solana (SOL) came in second after it generated more than $16 million in NFT sales. However, the figure represented a 15% decline, even though the network witnessed a staggering 245.93% increase in buyers. It also saw a nearly 6% drop in wash trading activities.
Bitcoin (BTC) maintained the third spot for a third week running, even though the $13.8 million it brought in reflected a 6.1% drop from the previous week’s numbers.
Wash trading on the network went up by more than 4%, although the $410,863 realized from that activity pales in comparison to other blockchains. For instance, fourth-placed Polygon (MATIC) had the highest amount of funds from wash trading at $9.1 million. The amount was markedly higher than the $6.6 million that came into Polygon from owner to owner NFT sales.
Rounding out the top five is Mythos Chain, which experienced the steepest decline in NFT sales volume, plummeting almost 30% to just north of $5 million.
Notable collections and sales
Coming to NFT collections, Mythos Chain surprisingly produced the best-selling NFT collection of the week, with its DMarket collection raking in $4.99 million in sales across seven days.
However, the amount was still a nearly 30% plunge from last week’s levels, with the number of transactions recorded for the collection also dropping 33%.
Meanwhile, second-placed Sorare, hosted on Ethereum, showed resilience, with sales going up 8.3% to $3.65 million. The number of transactions for the collection also went up by almost 8%, while buyer activity increased by more than 10%.
The uptick in activity coincides with the start of popular European soccer leagues including the Premier League and La Liga, which may have caused renewed interest in the fantasy sports platform.
However, the standout performer of the week was Bitcoin’s Uncategorized Ordinals, which saw a staggering 864.66% increase in sales to $3.1 million.
Top NFT sales of the week
In terms of sales of individual NFT pieces, one of the most notable transactions was that of an Uncategorized Ordinal on Bitcoin which sold for a whopping $2.4 million.
In contrast, Ethereum’s Bored Ape Yacht Club #2579 sold for $342,542, a pretty huge amount but dwarfed by the Ordinal sale. Other notable transactions in the week included Solana’s Froganas #4559, which fetched $82,689, and a BNB Paraluni Perpetual Bond, which sold for $134,751.
Agriculture, the bedrock of human civilization, faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. With climate change threatening traditional farming practices and the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, driving a 51% increase in food demand, the development of new and innovative solutions to help improve the industry is imperative.
The tokenization of agricultural trade has emerged as a promising solution to many of its most modern challenges. Many tokenization projects have focused on fractionalizing illiquid assets, also known as real-world assets (RWAs), enabling buyers and sellers to transfer ownership faster.
However, there is a common misunderstanding that tokenization is synonymous with fractionalization. Tokenization refers to the process of converting something of value into a digital token usable on a blockchain. For instance, we could tokenize the Mona Lisa as an NFT, representing the entire artwork as a single digital token. Alternatively, we could tokenize and fractionalize the piece of art and allow multiple people to own a part of it in the form of NFTs.
These two approaches address different issues. The former, tokenizing the art as a single NFT, deals with the ownership of the asset and enables easier transferability. You don’t need to put it in an auction house and pay exorbitant fees to lawyers to transfer ownership—you simply need to transfer the NFT to transfer the legal ownership.
The fractionalizing of the Mona Lisa addresses liquidity issues associated with the painting’s price. Since the Mona Lisa costs hundreds of millions, fractionalizing it allows multiple people to purchase shares of it and be bound to its future success. This also provides them with the opportunity to easily buy into and sell out of the asset.
We don’t need to tokenize the underlying assets in agriculture as they’re already divisible; the holy grail is to tokenize the contractual agreements themselves. The benefits of tokenization for farmers are clear—instant settlements of contracts, the removal of unnecessary documentation, and a unified legal structure to the underlying trade process. A great deal of the current cost and friction in traditional agricultural systems is in transacting between jurisdictions—blockchain-based transactions will simplify this.
In the coming years, more marketplaces will leverage blockchain technology to tokenize agricultural trade. This shift is driven by the complexity of legal contracts, which can be simplified through smart contracts. These contracts will unify and automate underlying processes, removing friction and resolving issues efficiently—this will enable farmers to focus on what they do best.
The challenges facing agriculture
The agricultural sector is fraught with challenges that make it insufficient and unfair for stakeholders within the supply chain.
According to a study, a 350g four-pack of supermarket beefburgers priced at £3.50 sees the beef farmer incurring high costs of 90p but receiving a profit of only 0.03% (0.1p). In contrast, with similar costs, the processor earns ten times the profit (1p), and the retailer earns 70 times the profit (7p). This pattern is seen across the sector: for a pack of mild cheddar, the farmer receives 0.02p, for bread, 0.01p, and for apples, just 1% of the retail price.
One major reason for profit disparity is the fragmented nature of the supply chains requiring multiple intermediaries. Blockchain applications are streamlining these processes by automating transactions and reducing friction for and with intermediaries, thus lowering costs and increasing transparency. Furthermore, inefficiencies and a lack of transparency in the supply chain can lead to disproportionate profit distribution, with farmers often at the beginning of the supply chain bearing a disproportionate amount of risk for the reward they receive. This disparity highlights the need for improved market platforms and better support systems for farmers to ensure fairer profit distribution.
Solution through innovation
The tokenization of agricultural trade will play a crucial role in creating more transparency and efficiency in the supply chain. This will ultimately provide farmers with a fairer share of the profits and end users with cheaper products.
The agricultural industry needs a blockchain-based real-world assets marketplace to bring the $2.7 trillion agricultural trade on-chain. Immutable ledger technology brings a layer of verified trust to a system that has used papers and pens for too long. Settlement has relied for too long on archaic banking channels, and finally, access to markets has been riven by unnecessary additional hands.
A new blockchain-based system would enable instant settlement of transactions, with fees of only 0.15% for each side of the trade. This is in stark contrast to traditional systems, where fees can be several percentage points per trade.
For example, Oldenburg Vineyards, one of the biggest wine producers in South Africa has recently settled one of the first agricultural trades on Solana. Adrian Vanderspuy, owner and CEO of Oldenburg Vineyards, stated:
“We settled the first-ever trade on a public blockchain, and it is now on its way from South Africa to London. The funds came into our account in seconds rather than days, and the fees were £5. We look forward to continuing our partnership and bringing more of our stock on-chain. This will help us to reduce transaction and remittance costs, as well as the time it takes to receive payments.”
Stories like the above are just the beginning of the agricultural trade revolution.
The road ahead
As we face the challenges of feeding a growing population, reducing food waste, and ensuring sustainability, tokenizing RWA trades offers a compelling solution. By leveraging blockchain technology and its ability to provide decentralized transparency and lower the cost of transacting, we can address the inefficiencies of traditional supply chain systems. This approach promises a new era of efficiency and accountability in agriculture, ultimately helping to secure a sustainable future for global food production.
Additionally, enhancing transparency is a key benefit of the tokenization of agricultural trade. Blockchain technology ensures that all transactions are recorded on an immutable ledger, providing transparency across the supply chain.
This can help reduce fraud and ensure that farmers and end-users receive fairer prices. Blockchain’s primary attributes—traceability, immutability, and provenance—promote transparency in supply chains. Farmers urgently need these blockchain properties to secure fair remuneration for their work and sustain their efforts to feed the growing global population.
IOTA has introduced a new blockchain-based tool aimed at simplifying music rights management in the film industry.
IOTA (IOTA), a distributed ledger focused on the exchange of value and data, has unveiled a blockchain-driven tool designed to transform the management of music rights in films, addressing what the project describes as a traditionally time-consuming process.
The new solution, developed under the European Blockchain Pre-Commercial Procurement initiative and funded by the European Commission, leverages distributed ledger technology to streamline negotiations and secure intellectual property rights more efficiently, according to an Aug. 12 blog announcement.
The core of IOTA’s latest solution is the Smart Contracts for Media system, which automates contracts between film producers and rights holders. These smart contracts are self-executing digital agreements, intended to reduce the time traditionally required for negotiations and payment processes.
IOTA brings NFTs to revolutionize IP rights management
IOTA claims its solution promises to “revolutionize the way intellectual property rights are handled,” enabling producers to select predefined contract templates, make real-time adjustments, and finalize terms digitally. Once agreed upon, the smart contracts are deployed on the IOTA Smart Contract Chain, ensuring the agreements are immutable.
The tool also incorporates non-fungible tokens to represent rights and obligations. These NFTs contain unique identifiers that link to detailed data stored off-chain using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized storage solution.
The initiative seeks to address long-standing challenges in intellectual property rights protection, an area where blockchain has yet to offer a standardized solution. Other firms, such as U.S.-based Dapper Labs — known for the CryptoKitties video game — have also introduced NFT licenses to broaden the use cases for digital arts, outlining what owners can legally do with their assets.
However, IOTA claims its system improves the traceability and security of rights management, facilitating easier verification of ownership and contractual terms for all parties involved.
Italian sports car manufacturer Lamborghini and Animoca Brands have announced a collaboration to “drive automotive brand engagement.”
Automobili Lamborghini, the Italian luxury sports car maker, and Hong Kong-based crypto firm Animoca Brands have announced a partnership focused on enhancing brand engagement within the automotive industry.
In an Aug. 8 blog announcement, Animoca Brands said the collaboration will leverage both companies’ expertise to create “unique experiences for Automobili Lamborghini’s fans and customers,” without elaborating on the matter. While details of the collaboration are yet to be disclosed, web3 creative design studio Gravitaslabs and Motorverse, an Animoca Brands venture focused on digital vehicles, have been selected as exclusive partners for this initiative, the announcement reads.
Lamborghini deepens its blockchain roots
The latest collaboration is not Lamborghini’s first foray into blockchain-related initiatives. In August 2022, the luxury automaker partnered with NFT PRO and INVNT to launch a series of non-fungible tokens featuring its iconic vehicles in different locations under the title “Road Trip NFT.”
The project, which continued until March 2023, released monthly collections of NFTs, each available for a limited time. The initiative was part of Lamborghini’s broader strategy to explore modern collecting and engage with new generations through digital art and NFTs.
At that time, Christian Mastro, Lamborghini’s marketing director, described NFTs as a “new exclusive, unconventional proposal” and a “new form of expression for new generations.” Additionally, Lamborghini made headlines when RM Sotheby’s auctioned the last Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae Coupé, paired with a one-of-one NFT, marking a crossover between physical luxury and the world of tokenized assets.
MonkeDAO, the community behind Solana’s Monkey Business Gen2 NFT collection, has launched an internal probe following allegations of treasury fund discrepancies.
MonkeDAO, the community that oversees Solana‘s NFT collection Monkey Business Gen2, has launched an internal probe following allegations concerning discrepancies in its treasury funds. The probe was announced by Ariel Givner, the DAO’s acting general counsel, in an X statement on Aug. 7 addressing the claims.
A statement as @MonkeDAO’s acting general counsel:
MonkeDAO has been made aware of the recent allegations regarding the MonkeDAO Validator earnings and the discrepancy in the funds allocated to the treasury. We take these claims very seriously and are currently conducting a… https://t.co/ivkSw2JpXF
The investigation was triggered by X user @hankobaggins, who raised concerns over why approximately 586 SOL — or about half of the MonkeDAO validator earnings since December 2023 — had not been allocated to the treasury, sparking apprehension within the community regarding the management of funds.
“Our primary goal is to ensure transparency and accountability within our operations. We are committed to providing a detailed explanation and resolving any issues that may have occurred.”
Ariel Givner
Givner emphasized that MonkeDAO takes these claims “very seriously,” adding that the DAO is committed to transparency and accountability. The organization aims to resolve the issue promptly and provide a detailed explanation of any financial irregularities, she added.
Launched in 2021, MonkeDAO is a community of crypto investors backing the development of Solana Monkey Business, one of Solana’s pioneering NFT collections. Despite the recent incident, Solana Monkey Business NFT holders remain unfazed, with the price floor for an NFT rising 4% to 21.61 SOL, according to CoinGecko data.
“Party Like It’s 1999,” sang Prince Rogers Nelson, because on June 1, 1999, a new computer software service would forever change how music was distributed, consumed, and even written. Napster was a peer-to-peer file-sharing service that quickly gained popularity among music fans—since its launch in May 1999, it had gathered over 20 million users by March 2000—looking for a way to share and download music online for free. The cataloging software, created by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, searched your computer’s hard drive, listed all the MP3 music files contained in it, and allowed anyone else using the service to share and play those files.
Napster’s popularity was short-lived as its ultimate demise resulted from its legal troubles stemming from cybercrime: file sharing and piracy. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the company’s computer software facilitated copyright infringement and filed a lawsuit against Napster. Napster was ultimately shut down in 2001. Nevertheless, Napster’s technology had a profound impact on the music industry by paving the way for other P2P file-sharing services, which helped to popularize the idea of downloading music online, which gave rise to the concept of the first virtual currency for peer-to-peer systems: Karma. Karma was introduced in 2003 as a way to pay for P2P file-sharing services.
Magic internet money—Karma
The co-founder of the first internet money—way ahead of Bitcoin (BTC)—was a virtual currency called Karma, designed by Dr. Emin Gun Sirer, who is also the founder and CEO of Ava Labs. Dr. Sirer explained that the emergence of the internet and, subsequently, the World Wide Web marked a pivotal shift from isolated, local computing to global-scale computing:
“Architecturally, we transitioned from standalone computers to a ‘client-server architecture,’ which enabled us to connect to remote services operated by others to leverage their programs and capabilities. This new paradigm gave rise to digital services that catered to the entire world, created millions of jobs, and solidified the U.S.’s position as a global economic leader.”
Dr. Sirer added, “I built a system called Karma for ensuring that people who participate in peer-to-peer file sharing networks don’t just leech. They don’t just take resources from the network, but they also donate resources. So everybody was downloading files, nobody was putting up files for upload. And so my solution to this was, what if there was some magic Internet money that nobody controlled that you needed to use to download files? And if you ran out of it, then that would put an end to your leeching ways and you would now put up some files to get your Karma back.”
Ava Labs is a software company founded in 2018 that is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, whose mission is to tokenize the world’s assets on the Avalanche public blockchain and other blockchain ecosystems. This includes tokenizing the music industry with music NFTs.
Music NFTs
Dr. Sirer explains that blockchains represent the next phase in the evolution of networked computer systems by facilitating many-to-many communication over a shared ledger. This allows multiple computers to collaborate, achieve consensus, act in unison, and build shared services in the network. In turn, this enables the development of unique, secure tokenized assets, such as music NFTs, among many other innovative applications.
By harnessing the power of blockchain technology, which records the copyrights to ownership of the music that cannot be changed, the Avaissance program music NFTs give musicians a new universe of creative and financial options. They expand the range of music they can make by allowing them to sell music NFTs directly to fans via an NFT marketplace. Dr. Sirer points out that there are different types of tokens.
A real-world asset
A token can be the direct or indirect representation of a traditional asset. For example, numerous musicians are currently publishing complete songs and albums as music NFTs or selling their fans NFT concert tickets. While music NFTs offer exciting opportunities for artists, they raise copyright and intellectual property concerns. When artists tokenize their music, they must ensure they have the right to do so. Smart contracts, a key component of music NFTs, automate the payment of royalties to creators each time their tokenized music is resold. This feature is a game-changer in an industry where musicians often lose out on resale profits. Smart contracts simplify the process of compensating musicians, but it also raises questions about how different types of music royalties should be calculated and distributed fairly.
A virtual item
A token can represent a piece of digital art, including a musician’s album cover, poster, and show photographs; a collectible in the form of a musician’s autograph; a gaming skin; videos of virtual concerts or tracks; virtual artist meet and greet experiences; and more. These digital assets can be tokenized into music NFTs to be traded for a profit. These can be varied in function and form as well. They can range from simple non-programmable pictures of the musician, a common use of NFTs, to complex assets, some used in virtual concerts, that can encode all sorts of functions and features of the asset directly inside the asset itself.
Pay-for-use
Public blockchains constitute shared computing resources that must be allocated efficiently. A token is the perfect mechanism to meter resource consumption and prioritize important activities. Such tokens are sometimes known as “gas tokens.” For example, BTC is the gas token of the Bitcoin blockchain, ETH for Ethereum, AVAX for Avalanche, and so on. Without gas or transaction costs, a single user or small group of users could potentially overwhelm the blockchain, similar to a denial of service attack, making the blockchain unusable.
Musical entertainment in the metaverse
Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, a culture and entertainment platform based on the Ethereum network, explained that he established a new web3 arena for musical entertainment in the metaverse called ShowCity that is home to The Voice and other TV shows. ShowCity is also home to music industry heavyweights such as Snoop Dog, Steve Aoki, Chainsmokers, and Warner Music Group—the first major music firm to enter into the metaverse with its top recording artists like Bruno Mars, Twenty-One Pilots, Ed Sheeran, Madonna, Metallica to hold virtual concerts and other musical experiences.
ShowCity offers musicians exclusive digital and physical perks—such as tickets to live tapings of The Voice—if they purchase a LAND in ShowCity in exchange for The Sandbox (SAND), which was deemed a security by the US Securities and Exchange Commission last year.
Snoop Dogg, tweeting about Sandbox Land Sale Prices: “That’s a bargain.”
Musicians create avatars, digital versions of themselves, to hold virtual concerts, selling millions of dollars in tickets and NFT merchandise. All items acquired in The Sandbox are 100% owned by the musicians themselves, creating revenue opportunities.
Sebastien Borget indicated that ShowCity brings the open metaverse one step forward in the direction of sustainable fan-owned and community-driven musical entertainment initiatives with its partnerships with non-profit foundations supporting social, environmental, and climate causes.
Potential legal challenges to the tokenization of music
As musicians are turning to tokenization of their music, holding metaverse concerts, issuing collectible NFTs, and collectors are investing in music NFTs, they should bear in mind that the tokenization of the music industry comes with potential legal challenges and financial quagmires. These include issues concerning copyright, taxation, security classification of gas tokens, AML concerns for metaverse land sales, sanctions compliance, artist royalty, environmental footprint challenges to music NFT and metaverse platforms, and other matters that could complicate the music NFT landscape.
Jonathan Cutler, senior manager at Washington National Tax, Deloitte Tax LLP, said that,
“The final digital asset reporting regulations, published at the end of June, keep NFTs in scope for Form 1099-DA reporting. The rules include a reporting threshold of $600 for sales of ‘specified’ NFTs—NFTs that are indivisible, unique, and do not reference certain excluded property. Where sales exceed $600, a digital asset broker may report the NFT sales on a single Form 1099-DA for the year rather than separate forms for each sale. These regulations make no comment on treatment of certain NFTs as collectibles for tax purposes. The April draft Form 1099-DA, which is pending redraft for the final rules, also included no reference to collectibles.”
After three straight weeks of improvement, the non-fungible token market saw a drop in sales volume tempered by a notable increase in buyer activity.
The past seven days have been eventful in the NFT landscape, marked by mixed signals across various metrics. While overall sales volume declined, the number of buyers surged, hinting at a potential shift in market dynamics.
Data from CryptoSlam shows that this week there was a 12.61% decrease in NFT sales volume, totaling $90.98 million. Additionally, the number of NFT transactions dropped significantly by 26%, reaching just over 2.14 million.
That reduction could suggest a cooling period following previous high-activity weeks, possibly influenced by the volatility in the broader crypto market.
Growing interest among buyers
Despite the downturn in sales volume and transactions, the number of buyers rose impressively by 25%, totaling 875,892.
This uptick in buyer activity, accompanied by a 21.02% increase in sellers (311,910), may be taken as an indication of a broadening base of market participants.
The growing interest among buyers, even amid declining sales, could also signal the start of a maturation phase in the NFT ecosystem, where more individuals are exploring and experimenting with digital assets.
Ethereum, Solana lead the blockchain pack
As has been customary in the last few weeks, Ethereum (ETH) maintained its position as the top blockchain by NFT sales volume, generating $34.41 million, marked by a 9.65% decrease in wash trading.
Notably, the platform’s sales volume fell by 20.42%, reflecting the broader market slowdown. However, the buyer base on Ethereum expanded by 35.40%, reaching 62,384, suggesting continued strong demand for NFTs on the platform.
Solana (SOL) followed with $17.51 million in sales, experiencing a significant 32.41% drop. Despite this, the network saw a 129.18% increase in wash trading, indicating a mixed signal in market behavior. Additionally, its buyer count stood at 388,834, reflecting a healthy 34.53% growth.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) and Polygon (MATIC) also saw notable activity, with Polygon’s remarkable 540.41% increase in wash trading standing out as a key development.
Notable NFT collections and sales
Regarding NFT collections, Sorare on Ethereum topped the charts with $3.83 million in sales, a 41.30% increase from the previous week.
The surge is evidence of the growing popularity of sports-related NFTs, especially as the fantasy sports season ramps up, with popular soccer leagues across Europe due to return to action in the coming weeks.
The DogeZuki Collection on Solana and Guild of Guardians Heroes on Immutable-Zk also made headlines, with sales reaching $3.51 million and $3.38 million, respectively.
However, the most eye-catching performance came from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which saw a staggering 150.21% increase in sales, totaling $3.23 million.
The flurry of activity on BAYC seems to have been instigated by Ape Finance’s launch of a Bored Ape meme coin as suggested by the official CryptoSlam X account.
GM!⚡️
Driving the market yesterday was a frenzy of @BoredApeYC sales following the launch of a $BAYC memecoin by @apedotfi, and then @SeizeCTRL‘s n0 0rdinary kind collection cooked over on bitcoin.
NFT Global Markets (24h) CryptoSlam 500 Index – 1,305.58 (-0.39%) NFT Sales -… pic.twitter.com/TseelDblb8
That jump, accompanied by a 132.56% rise in transactions, pushed BAYC back among the top 5 biggest collections by sales volume after missing out in the last couple of weeks.
Top sales and market highlights
Among the week’s top sales, CryptoPunks #2601 led with a sale price of $212,568, demonstrating the enduring appeal of iconic NFT collections.
A gUSDC Locked Deposit on Arbitrum (ARB) sold for $183,348 while a LockDealNFT on BNB (BNB) went for $149,035.
Other notable sales included an item from Bitcoin’s Ordinal Maxi Biz, which fetched $82,720, and a Polygon’s Stead #1 that changed hands for $70,227.
As the NFT market navigates through its ever-changing landscape, these fluctuations in sales and buyer behavior highlight the complexity and dynamism of the space.
While overall sales volume may have dipped, the increasing number of buyers signals a growing interest in digital collectibles, potentially setting the stage for future growth and innovation.
