NFT market slumps over 7%: Ethereum leads, Polygon shines with 27% surge

The non-fungible token (NFT) market experienced another sluggish week, with overall sales dipping by 7.5% over seven days, reaching $121.4 million on June 1. 

Top blockchains by sales volume

Over the last seven days, Ethereum (ETH) has stayed in first place as the leading blockchain for NFT transactions after overtaking Bitcoin (BTC) last week.

According to data from CryptoSlam, the blockchain maintained its dominance with total sales of $37.43 million, despite an 11.24% decrease from the previous week. 

Bitcoin, the second most active blockchain for non-fungible token sales, raked in $27.21 million — reflecting a 12.88% drop.

Solana-based NFTs generated just over $19 million, marking a slight 0.52% decline.

Interestingly, Polygon (MATIC) stood out with a 27.10% increase in sales over the previous week, totaling approximately $15.6 million. Immutable X (IMX) also showed positive movement, with sales climbing 12.23% to $8.49 million.

Monthly sales volume

Over 30 days, sales volume top-five ranking was pretty much the same as the weekly one, with only Blast replacing Immutable at #5. Ethereum registered $163.7 million in sales throughout May, a figure that was 55% lower than the blockchain’s April numbers. 

Bitcoin suffered a 73.44% drop in terms of monthly sales volume, bringing in $158.5 million. This was despite having the best sales numbers in at least two weeks in May.

Solana (SOL) earned just north of $94 million over 30 days, denoting a 45.8% dip from its April levels. And despite being in the green for the last two weeks, Polygon’s May NFT sales volume were down 34.60%. 

Blast, however, bucked the negative trend, showing a remarkable 519.17% increase in sales volume over the past 30 days. The layer-2 chain ended the month with more than $49 million worth of NFTs traded in the period.

Curiously, Blast also had the highest increase in terms of monthly wash trading numbers, with over $1.2 million recorded, representing a whopping 931.23% jump from April.

Most expensive NFTs

In terms of individual pieces, Azuki #3374 from the Ethereum blockchain sold for a substantial $393,112 — the highest-priced cryptographic token of the week.

It was followed by a notable sale on the Bitcoin blockchain, where an Ordinal inscription fetched $305,258. Solana also made an appearance with Boogle #061, selling for $206,936.

Over the entire month, CryptoPunks #741 was the most expensive NFT, fetching $792,046 on May 13. Another Bitcoin Ordinal inscription came in second after changing hands for $681,497. 

CryptoPunks #3619, sold by malcode-vault.eth for 215 ETH, translating to $627,990, was the third priciest NFT in May. It was followed by Azuki $3374 and yet another CryptoPunk, #4926, which earned its owner $329,252.

NFT collection rankings

Among the week’s top NFT collections, Uncategorized Ordinals took the lead with $7,810,518 in sales, despite a 15.31% decrease from the previous week. Guild of Guardians on Immutable X secured the second spot, with sales rising 18.48% to $5.65 million. 

Other notable collections included DMarket in third place, Nodemonkes in fourth, and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) wrapping up the top 5.

As for the entire month, Bitcoin’s Uncategorized Ordinals collection maintained its number one spot, with more than $48.6 million in sales. However, the figure represented a concerning 70.13% dip in terms of monthly sales volume. 

The second most traded NFT collection in May was Blast’s Fantasy Top, whose sales volume skyrocketed 674.89% to fetch more than $46 million over the period.

Another NFT collection whose monthly sales volume registered an uptick was Guild of Guardians, going up nearly 67% to push it into fifth place.