Are NFTs still a thing? Well, it seems like they might not be as hot as they used to be.
There’s this study done by dappGambl, and what they did was look at the prices of a bunch of NFT collections. What they found was kind of surprising. You see, out of the 73,257 NFT collections they checked out, a whopping 95% of them had no value at all.
That means nearly 23 million people have these NFTs that are basically worthless. The researchers who did the study want to remind everyone that the NFT world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Sure, we heard stories of digital art pieces selling for millions and people making it big overnight, but there’s also a lot of risk and potential for losing money.
Now, in case you’re wondering, NFTs are like digital versions of art or collectibles, and they’re tied to a blockchain, mostly Ethereum. Back in 2021 and 2022, NFTs were all the rage. At one point, people were trading NFTs like crazy, and it added up to a whopping $2.8 billion every month!
During that time, there were these famous collections, like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, selling for millions. Even famous folks like Stephen Curry and Snoop Dogg jumped on the NFT bandwagon. It was like a party, especially when cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were sky-high, nearly $70,000 each!
But now, Bitcoin’s price has dropped to just above $27,000, and things are looking a bit different. dappGambl’s study tells us that 79% of all NFT collections are still sitting there, unsold. There are more NFTs for sale than there are people buying them, and that’s not helping bring back the excitement.
Even if you don’t look at the less valuable NFTs, most of them don’t have much worth these days. Out of the top 8,850 collections by their market value, 18% of them are worthless, and 41% are priced between $5 and $100. Less than 1% of them have a price tag higher than $6,000. That’s a far cry from the million-dollar deals we heard about not too long ago. So, it’s safe to say the NFT party might be winding down a bit.
“It becomes clear that a significant portion of the NFT market is characterized by speculative and hopeful pricing strategies that are far removed from the actual trading history of these assets,” the researchers said.
“Additionally, this apparent disconnect between listed prices and actual sales could suggest that many sellers are waiting for another massive surge in NFT interest akin to the boom witnessed in 2021, which may not ever occur again.”
