NFT Markets Post Record-Breaking Week

Markets for digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens (NFT) have climbed to record highs in trading volume and average prices in the past week, particularly over the weekend.

• Trading volume of NFTs on Ethereum reached $171 million, up 338% from the equivalent week in the previous month, OKLink, an OK Group market intelligence subsidiary, told CoinDesk.
• OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, saw record-breaking trading volume in the past two days. Volume reached $35 million on July 31 and $49 million on Aug. 1 according to on-chain activity monitoring platform DappRadar. Excluding July 31, OpenSea had an average daily trading volume of $8.3 million in July, with a high of $14.4. million on July 17.

• The volume of trading for CryptoPunks reached $78.4 million over the weekend, OKLink said. Today, the average price for CryptoPunks reached a record-high 66.919 ETH ($175,520) on OpenSea.
• Another collection, ArtBlocks Curated, also saw record average price of 8.1216 ETH ($20,990) on July 31, according to OpenSea data.
• Average prices for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) digital collectibles hit an all-time high on OpenSea on Sunday. The average price for one of the 10,000 Bored Ape collectibles was 11.2614 ETH ($29,200), according to platform data.
• A July 30 article in the New Yorker was published just days before the BAYC community came together at a meetup in Venice Beach, California. The collective also held a simultaneous event on virtual world Decentraland.