NFT volume sees annual low in June, but first-time buyers remain consistent

Blockchain analytics service Nansen has published its Q2 2022 NFT Index report, which shows the market dynamics and quantitative performance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) over the past three months.

The report identifies and determines key factors contributing to the well-documented NFT bear market, including Ethereum-based volume and transaction metrics, as well as market capitalization, among others.

Beginning with an analysis of NFT volume statistics on Ethereum measured per week over a monthly time frame, the report found that June recorded the lowest number of the calendar year.

Calculated across six marketplaces – OpenSea, LooksRare, Mints, X2Y2, 0x and CryptoPunks – the NFT space, at least on a financial level, experienced a significant weakening throughout June to close to 600,000 Ether (ETH) traded per week .

In stark comparison, the month of May recorded around 1.3 million in weekly ETH volume, of which around 900,000 occurred on OpenSea alone.

Despite this short-term deflationary environment, the beacons of long-term optimism and reassurances about the long-term demand for the space flicker when looking at the charts of returning monthly users and first-time buyers.

Related: NFT Markets Fall as Weekly Sales Volume Plunges 30%

The former has experienced large fluctuations since the turn of the year, from 55,000 returning monthly users in February to 35,000 in May, before rising again to around 48,000 in June.

First-time buyers, on the other hand, have remained relatively consistent at 5,000 users since March of this year, suggesting that the appetite for NFTs on Ethereum as a speculative mechanism and entertainment medium has had modest appeal.

This long-term bullish thesis is confirmed by the monthly user count, which remains at the 650,000 level, albeit down slightly from last month’s 700,000.

Related: Ethereum analytics firm Nansen acquires DeFi tracker Ape Board

Assessing indices across the breadth of the NFT space, the report stated that all “recorded a bounce in June (measured in ETH), except for Gaming NFTs at the end of Q2 2022.”

Blue Chip-10, Social-100 and Metaverse-20 were the highest performing NFT ETH indices throughout the month of June, with the latter making the most notable strides to reach over 1000 on the index scoring system.

After witnessing this slight increase in index performance through June, Nansen stated, “NFT’s trend reversal started earlier than the broad cryptocurrency market,” before noting that a “risk-off sentiment is still very evident in the NFT market and the limited liquidity […] suggests that this uptrend may not be sustained.”