NFT Trading Activity Surged by 940% YoY, with the Number of Active Wallets Jumping to 179,000 in October

Over the past few months, non-fungible tokens or NFTs have skyrocketed in popularity, drawing more and more attention from investors.

According to data presented by BlockArabia, NFT trading activity surged by 940% YoY, with the number of active wallets reaching 179,000 last week.

Almost 60,000 New Active Wallets in Month and a Half

NFTs or non-fungible tokens have entirely taken over the blockchain space. From games to digital items like artwork, these virtual assets are quickly reaching more and more people.

However, before entering the market, the user should have an assigned NFT wallet to keep their collectibles. They can also use it to transfer NFTs for trading, selling, and buying tokens.

So far, there have been three major spikes in the number of active NFT users, considering the number of unique wallets that either bought or sold an NFT. The first moment, in December 2017, was connected to the popularity of collectible CryptoKitties, when the number of active wallets surged from 800 to over 56,000 in just three weeks. However, this figure dropped significantly in the following months and remained below 10,000 by January 2020.

Statistics show that last year witnessed a rise in the number of NFT users, with the number of wallets reaching 16,800 in October. By January 2021, this figure jumped to over 18,000.

The second major spike in NFT users happened in March when the number of wallets jumped to nearly 50,000 after media reporting the largest NFT sales to date. That month, the digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his work for a staggering $69 million at Christie’s. According to the auction house, the sale positioned him among the top three most valuable living artists.

NFT trading activity more than doubled between July and August, with over 116,000 active wallets worldwide. This makes August 2021 the third moment of sudden growth in the market, most likely caused by sales in Axie Infinity, an NFT game that got immensely popular in Southeast Asia.

Statistics show the number of NFT users has continued surging since then, with almost 60,000 new active wallets in the last month and a half only, the biggest jump to date.

More than 425,000 NFT Primary Sales in a Month

The NFT primary market refers to the first sale of an artwork and indicates its baseline value. However, the secondary markets, including all subsequent resales, show a community’s interest and engagement with work, giving creators and collectors a sense of its true potential.

Statistics show the number of primary sales amounted to around 38,800 in October last year. By January, this figure jumped to 56,000 and continued rising. Between June and August, NFT primary sales witnessed a fourfold increase, with the total number surging from around 77,000 to 308,000 in this period.

Last week, the monthly number of NFT primary sales hit over 425,000, nearly 1,000% more than in the same month a year ago.

Statistics show the number of secondary or user-to-user sales increased nearly eleven times year-over-year and hit over 500,000 as of last week.