‪Ethereum Dominates NFT Market With $8.5 Billion In Q1 2022 Sales

Key Takeaways

• Messari reports that NFT secondary market sales reached new ATH in Q1.
• Ethereum continued to outperform in NFT sales volume.
• Despite recent reduced sales, NFT adoption is breaking new ground.

The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market has extended strides made last year into 2022. In Q1 of the year, the NFT market reached a new record high of $10 billion in secondary sales volume according to a report by Messari.

Ethereum completely dominated in NFT sales volume

Citing data from the NFT industry data aggregator CryptoSlam, Messari’s NFT Q1’22 Market Rundown highlighted the market leaders during the period. Of the record-breaking $10 billion secondary market NFT sales, $8.5 billion of the sales volume was channeled through the Ethereum blockchain.

This figure represents an 84% dominance for the pioneer smart contracts blockchain, Ethereum. The next NFT enabling blockchain by secondary market sales volume was Solana which recorded $700 million in secondary market NFT sales during the period.

Ronin, Avalanche, Flow, and Polygon rounded off the top six blockchains by sales volume. These six blockchains were responsible for 98% of NFT secondary market sales volume in the quarter Messari found.

Ethereum’s dominance is no surprise as it has long been the de facto leader in both NFT sales and DeFi total value locked. Four of the top five NFT collections ranked by all-time sales volume namely by CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, and Art Blocks are domiciled on the Ethereum blockchain.

Messari’s report also noted the dominance of OpenSea as the leading NFT marketplace in Q1. Meanwhile, relative newcomer marketplace ImmutableX reported $70 million in NFT volume during the last 60 days. The most popular types of NFTs remain static NFTs, the report remarked.

NFT adoption isn’t slowing down

One implication of the findings is the fact that the popularity and acceptance of digital collectibles are reaching new highs. One driver of their popularity has been metaverse patents being filed by organizations across various industries. 

Recently, the US Air Force filed a metaverse patent to trademark its future virtual reality project “Spaceverse.” The filing explained that the secure digital world will someday be used for training and other activities by the airforce.

Per a Fortune report, even companies in China which has a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies have been filing metaverse patents that will utilize NFTs. Fortune stated that in 2021, over 1000 Chinese tech companies filed 10,000 applications to register metaverse-related trademarks.