Nansen Report: $2.7 Billion Spent on Ethereum NFTs in H1 2022
According to new market research published by blockchain data firm Nansen, crypto users spent 963,227 Ether (ETH), worth approximately $2.7 billion, minting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain in the first half of 2022. An overwhelming majority of this minting took place on OpenSea.io.
The report highlighted that minting occurred across 1.088 million unique wallet addresses on Ethereum during this period. In comparison, it noted that only about $107 million worth of NFTs were minted on BNB Chain and $77 million on Avalanche, with a total of 263,800 unique wallet addresses involved in NFT minting on these chains.
On May 22 alone, 69 NFT collections launched, resulting in a daily minting volume that surpassed 120,000 ETH. In total, there were 28,986 NFT collections minted and sold on Ethereum during the first half of the year. Notably, over two-thirds of these NFT projects raised less than 5 ETH, while 140 collections raised well over 1,000 ETH. Cumulatively, the top five NFT collections on Ethereum accounted for 8.4% of overall minting, which includes Pixelmon-Generation 1, Moonbirds, VeeFriends Series 2, Genesis Box, and World of Women Galaxy.
Nansen’s analysis revealed that about half of the amount raised by NFT collections stayed with the projects, while the other half circulated to non-entity wallets. However, the platform noted that they could only trace direct transfers from the NFT projects’ addresses to immediate transaction addresses, limiting the insights on how funds were further utilized after NFT drops.
Aside from in-depth research, Nansen is also known for index aggregates, such as the NFT-500, which tracks the performance of the top 500 NFT collections on Ethereum, adhering to both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards. Last year, the firm secured $12 million in investments from Andreessen Horowitz to enhance its services and research capabilities.
