Ethereum is losing ground as Solana now accounts for a quarter of total NFT volume

Cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital posted a chart showing Solana NFT volume increase, accompanied by the text:

“Solana’s share of total NFT trading volume has increased from 7% to 24% in the last 6 weeks.”

Solana is establishing itself as a viable alternative to ETH for NFTs

The chart showed that since mid-August, NFT volume on the Solana chain has trended upwards, leading to a peak of 40% in early September.

A dip followed this, but the last two weeks or so have seen a resurgence to the point where Solana accounts for nearly a quarter of total weekly NFT volume.

During this time, the number of weekly Solana coins also increased, suggesting a positive correlation between newly circulated non-fungibles and on-chain trading volume. In other words, newly minted Solana NFTs are finding buyers.

Of interest, “other blockchains” accounted for significantly less volume than ETH or SOL. However, since the beginning of September, other blockchains have expanded their market share along with Solana, accounting for approximately 18% of the market.

The data indicates that Ethereum is becoming less popular for NFTs, despite moving to Proof-of-Stake and addressing the issue of carbon/energy intensive usage.

NFT calculations continue to decline

Despite the victory for Solana and other blockchains, the relatively short timeframe for change casts doubt on whether this is a lasting trend.

In any case, the NFT marketplace has been in great difficulty over the past year. According to data from nonfungible.com, sales and number of unique buyers have decreased since October 2021.

In this period, until February 2022, sales have been somewhat upbeat. From May onwards, however, NFT sales have leveled off. May 1 is an outlier when sales increased to $811 million. Sales for September 29 are $14.8 million.

Unique NFT buyers are showing a downward trend, with a peak of 79.4,000 on November 5, 2021. This has fallen to 10.9,000 as of Thursday – a decrease of 86%.

Marketing manager at Proofed, Callum Carlstrom, is not too worried. He commented that the decline is linked to broader macro and cryptocurrency factors. However, he remains confident that “NFTs will be back in vogue” when macro conditions pick up.