06/10/2021 NFT sales surge to $10.7 bln in Q3 as crypto asset frenzy hits new highs

Visitors are pictured in front of an immersive art installation titled

LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Sales volumes of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) surged to $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, up more than eightfold from the previous quarter, according to data from market tracker DappRadar, as the frenzy for crypto assets reached new highs.

NFTs use blockchain to record the ownership of digital items such as images, videos, collectibles and even land in virtual worlds.

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Surging sales and hefty prices on NFTs - items which do not physically exist - have baffled many but the explosive growth shows no sign of abating.

The third-quarter figure was up from $1.3 billion in Q2 and $1.2 billion in Q1, DappRadar said.

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On the biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, sales volumes hit $3.4 billion in August. Activity remained strong even in September when global stock markets faltered.

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Cryptocurrency price gains during the COVID-19 pandemic are often cited as a driver behind the NFT market's growth -- because people use cryptocurrencies to buy NFTs -- but enthusiasts say that the crypto assets have value independently of market conditions.

To be sure, estimates for the size of the NFT market vary depending on what is included. Transactions which take place "off-chain", such as NFT art sales at auction houses, are often not captured by the data.

DappRadar's numbers, which include multiple blockchains and "off-chain" transactions, put total 2021 sales volume at $13.2 billion. Another market tracker, CryptoSlam, which excludes "off-chain" sales, says the figure is $9.6 billion.

Meanwhile, NonFungible.com, which tracks NFTs on the ethereum blockchain only, puts the 2021 total volume at $7 billion.

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The most expensive known NFT sale was a digital collage sold at Christie's for $69.3 million in March. Since then, no known NFT has come close to this price, but auction houses still hold NFT sales, often fetching millions.

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However, despite growing sales and celebrities and other investors jumping on the trend, the number of NFT buyers remains relatively small: there were just 265,927 active wallets trading NFTs on the ethereum blockchain in Q3, NonFungible.com said.

More than half of NFTs sold in Q3 were $101-$1,000, while those in the $1,001-$10,000 bracket accounted for 20% of sales, and 17% fetched less than $100, NonFungible.com said.

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Reuters Graphics

One NFT brand to see particularly high growth in Q3 was Art Blocks, a U.S.-based project which sells NFTs of algorithmically-generated digital artworks.

On Saturday, an Art Blocks NFT sold for 2,100 ether (around $6.9 million at the time). Average Art Blocks prices have risen to roughly $15,100 per NFT in September, up from $3,300 in July, according to CryptoSlam.

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Reuters Graphics

Gaming-related NFTs also surged, with the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity leading the "play-to-earn" sector with $776 million in Q3 revenues, DappRadar said.

Arts

https://www.reuters.com/technology/nft-sales-surge-107-bln-q3-crypto-asset-frenzy-hits-new-highs-2021-10-04/

Interesting NFTs
2.0
2.0
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
Stay Free (Edward Snowden, 2021)
This unique, signed work combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden. Produced using open source software. This auction is on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/appeals-court-strikes-down-nsa-phone-spying-program-aclu-lawsuit
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078drac
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