Solana NFT Sales Volume Nearly Doubled Last Month, Is Ethereum Threatened Post-Merge?

The overall NFT sales volume remained largely flat in September, despite the trouble in the larger crypto sector. From the hype in the first ten days of the month to the cooldown just several days later, the crypto market fluctuated around the $950 billion mark in terms of market capitalization.

However, despite the stagnant overall NFT market, some individual NFTs are holding relatively well, with NFTs on Solana’s network increasing in popularity. Indeed, data from DappRadar shows the NFT sector received $947 million worth of NFT trading volume over the course of September. In August, the NFT market accounted for $927 million and nearly $916 million in July.

Nevertheless, the NFT market is still far away from its former glory in 2021, where DappRadar recorded about $5.36 billion worth of organic NFT trading volume. This relates to an 82% market shrinkage.

DappRadar Senior Blockchain Analyst Pedro Herrera highlighted the fact that crypto prices have fallen significantly since the start of the year and this causes outflows. Ethereum, which is the main network for NFTs, saw ETH drop 65% in value year-to-date.

Furthermore, Herrera stressed that crypto investors became more risk-averse, as the data suggests fewer high-value sales in the mix than at the start of 2022.

“It's just the market adjusting the value for some NFTs. Definitely, there was a bubble in terms of how certain collections were priced out, which led to million-dollar sales.” Herrera added, claiming that demand for NFTs is still strong and not fading away.

Amid the turmoil in the crypto sector, Solana NFTs seem to be increasing in value, as the network saw almost $133 million worth of Solana NFT sales last month. The figure is nearly double the $68.5 million mark from August 2022.

Is Ethereum in trouble after the merge?

Skeptics have predicted troublesome times for Ethereum after the much-anticipated “Merge” event, which doubles as the biggest software upgrade in the short history of cryptos.

However, the “Merge” was completed almost silently, and it was described as a "rather boring event", by Alex de Vries of the Free University in Amsterdam. The transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm to a proof-of-stake basically eliminated miners.

Miners were outraged because their $22 million-per-day business model evaporated overnight. The elimination of miners decreased Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99%, but miners opposed it, stating that "those rigs do not magically turn back into invested capital.”

Furthermore, Merge opposition added that proof-of-stake allows a bigger centralization, since just three companies now account for more than half of "validators", according to research by Dune Analytics.