A review of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market shows the sector continued to experience growth in 2022, despite the overall cryptocurrency industry hitting massive turbulence as the year progressed.
According to global dapp store DappRadar, key on-chain metrics and broader NFT trends suggest a bullish future for the space. The state of the NFT market, DappRadar notes in its recently published yearly report, is one where there’s potential following the resilience shown during this year’s harsh macro conditions.
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Why bullish on NFTs
The latest outlook for the NFT market, which takes into account industry events, statistics and trends in metrics such as trading volume, sales, and unique active traders, suggest the industry is primed for further growth despite the bumpy ride that has been 2022.
NFTs have also registered significant growth in terms of the development of new technology and platforms designed to bolster demand for NFTs. The market downturn has also played a role in bringing more people into NFTs, while the rising adoption of NFTs across mainstream industries continues to drive global interest.
Also notable is the growth in and around NFT marketplaces, while top NFT collections remain resilient amid the crypto market volatility.
Key NFT metrics
As with the rest of the market, crypto winter saw NFT trading volumes fall from $12.46 billion in the first quarter to $8.4 billion in Q2 and just $4.4 billion generated in Q3 and Q4. The second half of 2022 just pales when compared to the $23.2 billion in trading volume generated during the same period in 2021.
Meanwhile, NFT unique traders fell slightly in the last three months after increasing throughout the year. For example, the number of unique NFT traders jumped 675% in the first quarter and 130% in Q2 year over year. Compared to the same period in 2021, traders count fell about 25% in Q4, 2022.
NFT sales were also huge in the first half of 2022, with 4.88 million sales accounting for a 483% jump in the first quarter. The 20.23 million NFTs sold in Q2 represented a 73.8% increase on sales recorded in the same quarter a year earlier.
