Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been surging as of late, hitting $25 billion in 2021, Reuters reported Monday (Jan. 10).
That came as the speculative crypto assets got way more popular, although there were signs of the growth slowing down at the end of the year.
The data came from market tracker DappRadar, which collects data from ten different blockchains and records who owns NFTs. The sales volume hitting near $25 billion was a mass increase from $94.9 million from 2020.
The prices of NFTs, which included digital items depicting images, videos or land in virtual worlds, among other things, rose rapidly in 2021. Because of that, speculators were sometimes able to “flip” them for a profit within a few days.
The art world has caught on, and NFTs have been sold from auction houses for millions of dollars. Some of the biggest brands in the world, including Coca Cola and Gucci, have also sold NFTs.
There have been various estimates of volumes, which depend on what’s included. The report says transactions taking place off chain, including big NFT sales at auction houses, are often not included in the data.
Sales were highest in August. From there, they fell in September, October and November, but picked up again in December, according to numbers from OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace. However, the data doesn’t seem to have to do with the fluctuations in the price of cryptocurrencies, which are often used to buy NFTs.
The report says buying NFTs can sometimes be seen as a vote of confidence in the development in the metaverse, though others have expressed not understanding why that much money is being spent on items that don’t exist in the physical realm.
Earlier this month, PYMNTS reported that GameStop has seen a surge in trading because of its announcement that it was hiring a new NFT division.
Related: GameStop Shares Climb on News of Crypto, NFT Division
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