Solana’s NFT Sales Plunge While Bitcoin Ordinals Increase
An NFT from the y00t collection at Solana. Photo: Magic Eden.
Solana’s secondary non-fungible token (NFT) sales fell nearly 50% in May, to $44.9 million from $85.7 million in April. Discard SOL NFT Composite, a measure of NFT activity on the Solana blockchain, also fell 12.13% during May.
The fall in Solana’s NFT market coincides with a rise in Ordinals, a type of NFTs on the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin’s monthly NFT sales volume skyrocketed 474% in May, reaching over $189 million, according to CryptoSlam data. This increase positioned Bitcoin as the second most popular NFT chain, a title often held by Solana.
“The only reason for the big change in the Solana ecosystem is simply the impact of Bitcoin NFTs,” said Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist at Forkast Labs. “Since Bitcoin NFTs launched in late January, you can see Solana’s numbers dropping steadily. Sellers, buyers, total transactions are all 50% or less than they were before Bitcoin NFTs.”
Bitcoin’s monthly NFT sales multiplied by more than six times, growing from $32 million in April to $195.7 million in May. The Bitcoin blockchain recorded its 10 millionth Ordinals inscription on Monday, Dune Analytics data showed.
“People who use Solana are probably already Bitcoin users, but it doesn’t work the other way around. I would assume that many people who use Bitcoin don’t touch chains other than Ethereum. The point here is that the Bitcoin blockchain appeals to every crypto and NFT trader, and the same cannot be said for Solana, Petscher said.
The recent rise in memecoins has also contributed to Solana’s declining NFT sales, according to Brian Boisjoli, product manager at Forkast Labs.
“The majority of people traded memecoins instead of NFTs,” said Boisjoli, who has also traded memecoins over NFTs in recent fashion. “It suggests that people are going to chase the hot item and let the last one shine [NFT] in the dust.
Interest in memecoins surged in April, led by tokens such as Pepe and Floki being listed on major crypto exchanges such as Binance. Pepe rose nearly 7,000% in two weeks after its launch on April 17 and is up over 2,100% since its launch, according to CoinMarketCap.
The number of unique NFT buyers on Solana fell to 56,729 in May from 83,241 in April, according to CryptoSlam.
“Once the memecoin season settles down, I’m sure the capital will return to NFTs,” Boisjoli added.
Will Bitcoin Reach Ethereum’s NFT Sales Volume?
Bitcoin’s May NFT sales of $195.7 accounted for nearly half of Ethereum’s monthly total of $356 million, which is the largest blockchain by NFT sales volume. Monthly NFT sales volume fell 21.98% on Ethereum, and the Forkast ETH NFT Composite fell 4.35%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s monthly sales volume increased by 377.25% during the same period, according to CryptoSlam.
“People should really be aware of how significant and disruptive Bitcoin NFTs are. Especially if you think that Bitcoin NFT volume may eclipse Ethereum’s in the future. At that point, there will be some demand for blockchains other than Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ethereum’s layer 2, Petscher said.
He added that Bitcoin will continue to take market share from alternative chains to reshape the NFT landscape.
The new BRC-721E token standard launched on Monday enables the transfer of Ethereum-native NFTs to Bitcoin. The new standard burns the ERC-721 NFT permanently on Ethereum, allowing users to claim the recreated version of the NFT on Bitcoin as a BRC-721E inscription.
See related article: Bitcoin and Ethereum: Two Titans Battle for NFT Supremacy
