NFT Trading Volumes On OpenSea Explode Amid Bored Ape Mania

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are set for yet another wild year, as the craze around them intensifies. The last example is the renewed speculative frenzy on Yuga Labs’ “Bored Ape Yacht Club” (BAYC) and “Mutant Ape Yacht Club” (MAYC).

The mania skyrocketed trading volumes on the largest NFT marketplace to date – OpenSea, which generated a record  $255.8 million worth of 24-hour volume on January 3. However, OpenSea is still far from its 24-hour trading volumes all-time high of $322 million, which occurred on August 29, 2021.

Looking at the monthly trading volumes data, OpenSea managed to close December at $3.24 billion – just five percent below its August all-time high of $3.42 billion. However, given the $700 million in trading volumes since the start of 2022, those figures might soon be in the past.

The biggest reasons for the skyrocketing of OpenSea are the Bored Ape/Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collections, which managed to generate most of the trading volumes over the past 30 days, with MAYC and BAYC generating $189.7 million and $182.6 million, respectively. However, MAYC leads BAYS with $93.2 million in terms of seven-day volumes, while BAYC follows closely with $88.4 million.

Meanwhile, according to data from OpenSea, a piece of the BAYC NFT collection trades for around 67 ETH, which is roughly $250,000. A BAYC NFT sells for a lot less, as MAYC NFTs are currently going for 15.87 ETH, or $59,300.

The big surge in popularity may be also due to pop-culture icons, such as Eminem, Britney Spears, and Dave Chappelle, who have onboarded the BAYC NFT trend.

Furthermore, data from Dune analytics suggest the NFT craze created nothing but a popularity climb. While monthly trading volumes and the number of NFTs sold on both the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains are in a slight decline, both the monthly active traders and daily volumes are blooming.

Interestingly, data from Dune also shows a strong secondary market for NFTs, as of press time, over nine million NFT transactions went over on Ethereum, totaling $18.5 billion in total NFT transactions volume. The leader, however, in terms of transaction volumes, is the CryptoPunks collection, recording 648,934 ETH, or close to $1,9 billion in volume, with a CryptoPunk NFT having a floor price of 67.69 ETH, or $258,779.55.

Furthermore, BAYC is going to enter the gaming sector, as Yuga Labs collaborated with Animoca Brands in developing and publishing a blockchain-based game, which involves the BAYC NFT collection.

“NFTs have emerged as a store of culture. There are very few icons that are able to represent the surging world of NFTs as powerfully as Bored Ape Yacht Club,”  Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, noted.