The once-booming non-fungible token (NFT) art market continues falling as collectors spend less and less on digital artwork.
According to data presented by AltIndex.com, global NFT art sales value dropped to only $11-million in September, the lowest figure in years.
NFTs have been swept up in the 2022 crypto crash, with global NFT sales plunging and NFT collections losing billions of dollars in value. However, the collector`s appetite for digital artwork has continued falling this year, causing the number of sales and the total sales value in the NFT art segment to reach the deepest point in years.
According to Statista and NonFungible data, in September 2022, total NFT art sales recorded on the Ethereum, Ronin, and Flow blockchains generated an aggregated value of $22,3-million, 40 times less than the value seen in the same month in 2021. By the end of the year, the monthly sales value dropped to $17,1-million. But this was just the start of the sharp decline.
After recovering to $20,1-million in March 2023, which was still less than half the value seen in the same month last year, the monthly NFT sales value dropped to $15,8-million by June. The negative trend has continued ever since, with monthly sales value falling by a further 30% and reaching only $11-million last month.
The NonFungible data also show as of September 15, roughly 4 200 NFTs were sold in the art segment during the previous 30 days, only one-sixth of the number reported on the same date last year. Also, the average sales value dipped by more than 30% year-over-year, falling from $2 607 in September 2022 to just $1 771 last month.
Besides a considerable drop in total sales value, the NFT art market has also witnessed a huge decline in the number of active wallets. Last week, the NFT art segment counted less than 2 700 active wallets, 79% less than the same month a year ago.
The number of unique buyers plunged by 83% in this period, falling from more than 8 900 a year ago to 1 420 last week.