Despite A Shaky Ethereum, The NFT Market Is Booming

Key Takeaways

• The NFT market is soaring despite a wider downturn in the crypto market.
• Collections like mfers, NFT Worlds, and Edenhorde have rallied over the last few days.
• Several OpenSea competitors have also emerged this year in hopes of cashing in on the boom.

After a breakout year for the technology in 2021, NFT hype is still going strong.

Ethereum NFT Market Roars

Ethereum holders might have had a difficult start to 2022, but savvy NFT collectors aren’t fazed by the recent market dip.

Many sought-after NFT collections have rallied over recent weeks even as Ethereum and other major assets trend down. NFT avatars—digital art pieces that have found a use case as social media avatars—have had a particularly strong run of late. mfers, a collection inspired by the popular “Are Ya Winning, Son?” Internet meme, has exploded in popularity this month.

Created by the digital artist Sartoshi, the cheapest pieces in the series of tokenized stick men currently costs 5.85 Ethereum, or around $16,000. mfers traded closer to 0.87 Ethereum at the beginning of the month and started the year at 0.13 Ethereum.

Other popular avatar collections to have benefited from the recent boom include Edenhorde, whose collection of 8,800 animated tribe members launched with a whitelist mint Monday and had fully sold out by Wednesday last week. Edenhorde has since racked up over 7,400 Ethereum in trading volume on OpenSea, and the floor price has hit 0.9 Ethereum (the NFTs minted at 0.145 Ethereum).

NFT traders have been rallying around other formats of digital collectibles, too. NFT Worlds, a Metaverse project in which players collect plots of digital land, has hit a floor price of 17.9 Ethereum, around $48,000. The price for the cheapest NFTs in the collection has more than doubled in a week.

The recent rally across sought-after collections comes as most major assets trade short of their highs. Ethereum, which is the main hub for NFTs, is 44% down from its record high recorded in early November. Despite rocky market conditions, NFTs have continued to soar throughout the beginning of the year.

The entry price to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, arguably the most in-demand NFT collection on the market, crossed 100 Ethereum for the first time last month, while several decentralized marketplaces have emerged with high-profile token airdrops in hopes of taking some of OpenSea’s lunch. Although the broader crypto market has struggled to find momentum this year, NFT hype is showing no sign of slowing down.

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