NFT Sales Plummet 80% — Can Major Sports Events Power a Comeback?

As of June 15, Nonfungible data shows that NFT sales over the past 30 days totaled $59.03 million, a sequential decline of 80% from the prior 30-day period of $292 million. In addition, both the number of NFTs sold and the average sale price over the past 30 days saw a notable drop compared to the prior 30-day period, falling 11% and 77% respectively.

When looking at daily sales figures, the contrast is even more stark. NFTs hit an all-time single-day sales high of $102 million on May 3, after which daily sales gradually declined, bottoming out at $817,400 on June 13 — representing a peak-to-trough drop of 99%.

Some analysts believe the recent NFT downturn may be linked to broader market weakness. The NFT boom was fueled by "pent-up demand" following cryptocurrency gains, but as the overall market reversed lower, the space returned to calm. The Ethereum mainnet, which underlies most NFTs, has seen on-chain active addresses drop to levels last seen in mid-March, with daily average gas fees falling to a one-year low.

Despite the NFT market downturn, supporters remain optimistic about its future — not only are more and more major corporations and celebrities entering the space, but NFTs as an innovation serve as a bridge to digital assetization and represent the thriving native digital culture demand in the new landscape.

NFTs currently span sectors including gaming, art, collectibles, virtual worlds, sports, insurance, and domain names. Among these, collectibles, art, sports, and virtual worlds have been the primary use cases over the past year. Some believe that as the Euro Cup, World Cup, NBA, and other major sporting events heat up in the short term, the NFT sports segment will ignite, thereby driving broader NFT growth.

NFT Retreat: Sales Return to Early-Year Levels

Following the first wave of DeFi hype last year, NFTs were briefly hailed as DeFi's successor, but due to limited audience reach and persistent questions about real-world adoption, market enthusiasm for NFTs gradually cooled by the end of 2020.

Entering 2021, the bull market effect became pronounced — Bitcoin rose from $28,780 to $59,286 over the first three months, a gain of 106%, drawing an increasing number of people into the market. NFTs, a category that had never experienced a major breakout before, became a "value洼地" in the eyes of investors. After a period of accumulating momentum, the NFT narrative grew richer; well-known figures and investment institutions entering the space opened up想像力 in areas such as art, collectibles, sports, and celebrity IP.

Cryptoarthomepage showcases NFTs that have sold for high prices. Among the top ten artworks, four were sold in March 2021 and another four in April 2021. On March 11, artist Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" fetched a staggering $69.35 million at Christie's, sending shockwaves through the art world and marking what is considered the emergence of the NFT art sector.

Artwork Name

Throughout March, total trading volume for crypto art reached $206 million, a record high, representing a 22x increase from December 2020. Trading volume in the crypto art sector has since declined. As of June 16, crypto art trading volume for the month stood at $11.76 million; extrapolating at this pace, June's total would reach $22.05 million, a sequential decline of 65%, or 89% from the peak.

Cryptoart Data

According to Nonfungible data, beyond the art sector, collectibles led by NBA Top Shot and Crypto Punks accounted for the other major segment of the NFT market in Q1 2021.

Pie Chart

From The Block's weekly NFT trading volume chart, it is clear that the bars for NBA Top Shot (blue) and Crypto Punks (green) had a significant impact on overall trading volume.

Weekly Trade Volume of NFTs

Combining data from Crypto Slam, we compiled the following chart. During February and March, NBA Top Shot grew rapidly, with monthly sales reaching $224 million and $208 million respectively, but sales declined sharply in April and May; at the current pace, June's monthly sales are expected to be roughly flat with May. From the March peak of $224 million to May's low of $40.9 million, sales dropped 82%.

Crypto Punks saw a sharper decline in June, with sales of just $7.5 million as of June 16; at this rate, the month would see an 80% sequential drop in sales.

Top 2 Collectibles Monthly Sales

Nonfungible data shows that beyond the slowdown in NFT sales, the number of active NFT wallets also hit a new yearly low.

Number of unique wallets which bought or sold an asset.

Additionally, 95,250 NFTs were sold over the past 30 days, compared with 106,459 in the prior 30-day period. The average sale price over the past 30 days was $619.72, versus $2,739.35 in the prior 30-day period — representing sequential declines of 11% and 77% in both sales volume and average price respectively.

It is clear that the NFT hype wave is receding. Reports indicate this is directly tied to the broader market's poor performance over the past two months. The staggering gains in NFTs — especially crypto collectibles and art — were driven by sustained crypto asset appreciation. Capital sought "value洼地," and NFTs, as an emerging niche at the time, saw conceptual refinement; top-tier use cases began breaking through, expanding into gaming, art, collectibles, sports, ticketing, music, and other domains, meeting traditional industries' demand for NFT expression. Additionally, NFT development protocols grew more diversified, expanding from the ERC-721 standard to ERC-1155, improving trading efficiency while enabling greater interoperability and bundling of different token types. On-chain assets evolved from single-dimensional to increasingly diverse. Finally, the growth of underlying mainchains and on-chain ecosystems provided further tailwinds for NFTs — but when the broader market turns down, these factors alone cannot yet sustain further NFT growth.

OKX real-time market data shows Bitcoin has fallen nearly 40% from its high, with recent attempts to break above $41,000 repeatedly failing, causing bullish sentiment to stall in the short term. The June FOMC outcome has been announced — the Federal Reserve will maintain the 0–0.25% benchmark interest rate, but given better-than-expected economic recovery, this meeting may mark a turning point toward QE tapering.

NFT Powers the Fan Economy, Poised as the Next Growth Engine

CoinGecko data shows NFTs currently represent 1.1% of the total crypto asset market cap, valued at $18.89 billion. In our article published on March 4, "NFT Sales Surge as Data Takes Off — Is an NFT Bull Market on the Way?" , we captured the NFT token market cap chart from March 4, when NFT market cap was just $4.98 billion, representing 0.3% of total crypto asset market cap. More than three months later, NFT market cap has grown 279%.

Top 100 Coins by Market Capitalization

Another stats

Given its small market size and high potential, combined with NFTs' close integration with DeFi and the onset of financialization, many are optimistic about NFTs. The various trends in the NFT space evoke memories of DeFi's rise. Currently, DeFi's market cap stands at $81.92 billion, representing 4.9% of the total.

As for the most competitive NFT track, the fan economy — which connects collectibles, art, music, and sports — is considered one of the most prominent real-world NFT use cases.

Take music as an example. In February, Mike Shinoda, co-lead vocalist of Linkin Park, released and auctioned a piece of music he created as an NFT (One Hundredth Stream) on a platform, ultimately selling for $30,000. In late February, renowned DJ and producer 3LAU released 33 limited-edition NFT albums titled "Ultraviolet," with total auction proceeds reaching $11.6 million. In March, rock band Kings of Leon released their NFT album "When You See Yourself," generating over $2 million in sales. In April, Grammy winner The Weeknd released new music via an NFT series, with sales reaching $2.29 million… The "NFT + Music + Fan Economy" combination has brought disruption to musicians and the industry: beyond granting artists greater control and autonomy and new revenue streams, it allows fans to get closer to their idols and enjoy the pleasure of owning global exclusive items from their favorite artists.

Currently, with the Euro Cup and World Cup heating up, sports collectible projects such as NBA Top Shot and Sorare have already proven the success of the sports-NFT partnership — NBA Top Shot set sales records of $224 million and $208 million in February and March respectively, while Sorare achieved sales of $11.34 million in March, a 608% increase from the beginning of the year.

UEFA recently announced it will award the first blockchain trophy in Euro Cup history. Ant Chain is the official global partner of UEFA Euro 2020, and the achievements and honors of winning players during the tournament will be permanently stored on Ant Chain.

Beyond the sports collectibles and data identity verification mentioned above, fan tokens, as a class of collectible digital assets, grant fans certain rights to strengthen the relationship between clubs and supporters.

Chiliz, a blockchain-based sports platform, aims to provide blockchain-based solutions for the sports industry and enable fan participation in the token economy. Sports teams and other organizations can create their own fan tokens through Chiliz, using them as a medium of exchange within their communities. To date, the Chiliz platform has issued fan tokens for numerous leading clubs including Barcelona (BAR), Juventus (JUV), Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), AC Milan (ACM), Manchester City (CITY), AS Roma (ASR), Galatasaray (GAL), Atlético Madrid (ATM), OG, and UFC. Fan token holders can participate in club-related polls through Chiliz's fan engagement app Socios.com, access VIP rewards, enjoy exclusive club and sponsor discounts, and participate in augmented reality features, chatrooms, games, and competitions.

CHZ, Chiliz's native token, has risen alongside the platform's strategic partnerships with renowned clubs. OKX market data shows that in March, as the Champions League was in full swing, CHZ climbed from $0.082 to $0.508, a gain of 520%. The fan token of the popular club Paris Saint-Germain also delivered outstanding performance during that period.

Beyond CHZ and fan tokens from well-known clubs, the All Sports public chain platform uses SOC as its medium, leveraging blockchain technology to combine the sports industry with applications and commercial scenarios along the sports ecosystem. Based on smart contracts and token systems, it provides developers with various sports prediction markets — its weekly gain reached 55.21% last week.

It is worth noting that the "Sports + Fan Token" segment tends to fluctuate based on tournaments and team performance. Those who entered the space earlier will recall that the last World Cup triggered an explosion in the NFT sports segment, only for these tokens to return to平静 after the events concluded. Therefore, market sentiment should be carefully considered when positioning. As 2021 is a major year for sports — with the Olympics, Euro Cup, Copa América, and other top tournaments all taking place this year — the "Sports + NFT" model is expected to enter a new period of opportunity.

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