In the last two months, OpenSea began to cool down from its New Year’s bull run and many nonfungible token (NFT) pundits began to speculate about the beginning of a bear market once sales took a slight downward trend after closing out a record-breaking $5 billion in total volume sales in January.
However, for the last seven days, the total sales volume has already exceeded the $1 billion mark and just a week into April, it seems the NFT markets are waking up to a resurgence of blue-chip caliber projects. Cue the “spring awakening.”
OpenSea Monthly Volume. Source: DuneAnalytics @rchen8
Traders searching for the next Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) project have patiently waited for another project to come in with the same force and brand equity. Some top contenders have been emerging. Azuki Zen, revealed on Jan. 21, has amassed over $574.6 million in total volume, and RTFKT Studios and Takashi Murakami’s CloneX NFT avatar project has accumulated over $546.7 million. In the last seven days alone, CloneX has increased its total sales volume by over 180%.
NFT investors are coming to understand the benefit of investing for the long-term with teams that have delivered. RTFKT Studios catalyzed the community collective quest-solving for its MNLTH NFT, airdropped to all CloneX holders and valued at $22,135. As such, those who held their MNLTH were essentially airdropped over $22,000 simply for being a CloneX holder. This further illustrates for collectors and traders the value of grail NFTs.
Now that liquidity is pumping and circulating, it seems Q2 is here to blaze trails and the NFT markets appear to be ignited by more mature NFT communities and investors.
What will spark the next BAYC?
NFT projects are beginning to understand the value of intersecting culture, community and commerce through what BAYC cultivated, and many have explored ways to establish their own.
On a spectrum from estranged collector to maxi, NFT projects that have recently launched have paid close attention to not only building close-knit…
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