NFT trade volume is projected to reach US$22.69 billion by the end of 2023, 39% lower than 2022, according to the latest Balthazar NFT Marketplace Update.
The report, which has increased its analysis to 10 leading NFT marketplaces, also found that Blur continued to dominate the market, despite a slowdown in NFT trade volume in March.
March 2023 saw a combined US$2.04 billion across the 10 marketplaces, which was a decrease of 9.8% compared to February 2023 (US$2.26 billion).
The total trade volume to date (January-March 2023) was US$5.67 billion for the quarter, 84.2% higher than the previous quarter (US$3.08 billion). The market is back to July 2022 levels for the past two months, following a continued decline from its peak in Q1 2022.
Source: Balthazar, DappRadar
John Stefanidis, Co-founder and CEO of Balthazar, said he’s excited to see momentum building in the market, with renewed sentiment and more high quality projects.
“It’s certainly exciting to see that the trend in NFT sales is moving up, indicating a returning interest and adoption of this innovative technology. We’re seeing more high quality projects coming through, which is a testament to the long-term sustainability of the market.
“The recent movement in Bitcoin is also positive for the NFT market, as all boats rise with the tide. It’s likely to have a positive impact on the overall sentiment of the market. Bitcoin is currently trading at above US$28,000, which we haven’t seen since June last year.
“The emergence of Ordinals, which are NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain, is another interesting development, as this could unlock a whole new dimension of possibilities for the NFT market.
“It’s an exciting time to be building innovative technology in this space, as we’re soon to launch Babylon, a software development kit to help game developers build Web3 games. This will undoubtedly attract more developers and create a vibrant ecosystem of NFT-powered games and applications that push the boundaries of what’s possible with this exciting technology.”
Month-on-Month
Blur dominated NFT sales volume in March once again, with the highest trade volume for the month, at US$1.34 billion. This was slightly higher than the previous month, by 0.5% (US$1.33 billion).
Out of 10 top marketplaces, Blur and Axie Marketplace were the only marketplaces that saw an increase in trade volume in March compared to February. Axie Marketplace was up by 36.6% to US$88.45 million in March. We’re likely to see this trend continue following the announcement on March 30 that the Ronin Network has introduced staking and game partners
X2Y2 saw the biggest decline by value, with US$153.72 million lower trade volume in March compared to February. While LooksRare saw the biggest drop by percentage, by 58.5%.
Year on Year
March 2023 was down by 38% in trade volume compared to March 2022, across the 10 marketplaces combined. The data includes Blur recording US$1.34 billion in transactions in March 2023 and no trades in March 2022, as it launched in October 2022.
The biggest fall in trade volume out of the 10 marketplaces was LooksRare, which was down by 95.3% in March 2023 compared to March 2022, followed by Axie Marketplace by 86.8%, and OpenSea with a decrease of 85.7%.
Just two of the marketplaces recorded an increase in March 2023 compared to March 2022. X2Y2 saw a 2,647.7% increase in March, with US$180.19 million recorded compared to US$6.56 million in March 2022. While JPG Store recorded a 721.4% increase in the same period.
Marketshare
Across the 10 marketplaces, Blur held 65.5% market share of trade volume in March 2023, followed by OpenSea with 14.4%, and X2Y2 with 8.8%.
Source: Balthazar, DappRadar
Number of Users
There were 1.46 million users recorded across the 10 marketplaces in March 2023, 7.4% lower than February 2023. Interestingly, half of the marketplaces saw a jump in users while half saw a decline.
However, Q1 2023 saw a 6.5% increase in the number of users compared to Q4 2022. There were a total of 4.68 million users in Q1 2023 compared to 4.40 million users in Q4 2022.
Number of trades
The total number of trades in March 2023 across the 10 marketplaces was 3.78 million. This was 24.4% lower than the previous month.
Blur was the only marketplace out of the 10 that saw an increase in trades in March compared to February – up by 131.5%. Conversely, X2Y2 saw the biggest decline in the number of trades in March, with 60.5% lower than the previous month.
Average trades
The average trade size in March was US$5,927, and stayed relatively constant with February, down by only 4.3%. The high average trade size is driven by CryptoPunks, which saw an average trade of US$30,685 in March.
Axie Marketplace saw the biggest increase, by 45.2% in March compared to February, while ThetaDrop saw the biggest decline in the average trade size, by 73.0%.
