Metaverse NFT trading volume surges past $311 million

Virtual land trading in the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has skyrocketed in the first quarter of 2023, reaching a whopping $311 million, according to a report by DappRadar. The report shows that virtual land trading hit an all-time high in the past quarter, with 147,000 trades recorded. This increase in trading volume was mostly attributed to Yuga Labs’ Otherside and MG Land, which dominated the virtual land trading space.

The Otherside metaverse’s Otherdeed NFTs, which are linked to land, saw an impressive 237% increase in trading volume from the previous quarter, amounting to $222 million in Q1 2023. The highest recorded sale for virtual land last quarter was an Otherdeed NFT that sold for 186 ETH (around $2.85 million). Sara Gherghelas, a blockchain analyst at DappRadar, suggests that Yuga Labs’ announcement of its “Second Trip” for holders of Otherdeed NFTs contributed to the uptick in trading volume.

Another reason for the increase in trading volume is due to NFT marketplace Blur’s “airdrop seasons and farming,” according to Gherghelas. “The NFT whales decided to farm [virtual] land, especially the MG Land project, which is an NFT collection.”

Aside from Otherside and MG Land, other virtual worlds, including The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Decentraland, also made it to the top decentralized apps (dapps) last quarter. However, lesser-known Createra Genesis Land emerged as the top virtual world dapp, with $14 million in trading volume. Createra Genesis Land raised $10 million in funding in January 2023 and focuses on enabling user-generated metaverse creations.

Furthermore, Decentraland’s upcoming Metaverse Fashion Week has increased the number of unique active wallets on the platform over the last week, boosting trading volume by 63%. Meanwhile, 10KTF, a digital fashion shop acquired by Yuga Labs in November 2022, experienced a significant spike in trading volume last quarter across several of its collections. “Everything related to 10KTF are the highest NFT collections traded this quarter,” noted Gherghelas.

Overall, DappRadar reports that $417.5 million was invested in blockchain gaming and metaverse projects in Q1 2023. As the popularity of virtual worlds and NFTs continues to rise, it is expected that the trading volume in this space will continue to increase as well.

Todayq news reported another DappRadar report on the blockchain and decentralized application (DApp) industry in January which revealed impressive growth of the non-fungible token (NFT) market. NFT sales soared to $101 million in 2022, up by over 67% from the previous year. The report shows that the Ethereum ecosystem dominates the market share at 21%, followed by Wax, Polygon, and Solana.

Interestingly, the Solana ecosystem saw a whopping 440% growth in transaction activity, while ImmutableX also experienced a remarkable 315% increase from the previous year. These numbers indicate the growing popularity of blockchain-based digital assets and decentralized applications.