on the crypto
“I paid $ 103 for a non-fungible token (NFT) on OpenSea and now I don't know what to do with it,” said one person who decided to buy his first digital collectible just for fun. Like her, today hundreds of users around the world are waiting for the trade to rebound after plummeting more than 70% in the past month.
In a businessinsider publication, writer Katie Canales recounts how, after going through a long process, she became the owner of an NFT that featured the image of a cartoon pig's face. But after a traumatic experience, due to the difficulties of the OpenSea operation, she realized that she wasn't worth it, because now she just has to wait.
Drastic decline in NFTs
“All I can do now is wait for Rave Pigs, the NFT collection my new artwork is a part of, to explode in popularity as much as the Bored Ape Yacht Club,” said Canales.
However, the wait could be eternal, as the average price of collectible tokens has dropped 48% since November last year, according to data from NonFungible, a platform specializing in the NFT market.
The trading volume of the overall market has fallen by more than 70% in the last month, while the daily volume traded on OpenSea has fallen by 80% after a month.
This whole scenario is raising concerns in the community where many are still wondering what to do with their digital collectibles.
The sharp decline in trading volume and average price in a short time is making many NFT owners lose money. They also question the long-term vision of many of these projects.
"I can't believe I paid $ 10.000 for this"
What happened to a collection of NFTs launched last month literally describes what is happening in the market for these digital assets.
Pixelmon, an initiative that promised to be an NFT version of Pokémon, made its public debut in the days following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And as traditional stock markets collapsed, thousands of excited buyers paid up to 3 Ether (quotation ETH), about $ 10.000 at the time, for each monstrous egg.
With each transaction, users generated tens of millions of dollars for developers. However, when the eggs hatched, the crudely drawn and ill-animated creatures fell far short of the promises their developers had made prior to launch.
"I can't believe I paid $ 10.000 for this," said one user who became a meme, as reported by the media.
The drop in sales in the NFT market can perhaps be attributed to the Russia-Ukraine war, but beyond that, one should also stop and think about the damage done to the ecosystem by deceptive projects like Pixelmon.
Not all projects are deceptive
Some are ecosystem-friendly enough, but all suffer the consequences when the community loses interest. This is something that the index that measures the average price of the 10 most popular NFT projects, whose trading volume has dropped 25% in the last month, is showing. Since the beginning of 2022, major projects have lost 17% of their value.
While all of this is happening, the projections for 2022 are good, as the NonFungible team released last week in their 2021 annual report. They note that the size of the global NFT market is set to gain momentum due to the growing value that consumers they are putting on various use cases for these assets.
