Apecoin, Decentraland Rise Amid Report NFT Sales ‘Not Badly Off’ in 2022 ⋆ ZyCrypto

• Despite the heavy downfall of cryptos, NFTs showed resilience last year.
• The positive report has accelerated the price of APE, SAND, and MANA.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)-related cryptocurrencies surged Thursday on the report that the asset class did not perform poorly in 2022, despite the bear run. According to data from DappRadar, NFT sales volumes in 2022 ducked to $25.1 billion from $24.7 billion in the prior year.

The analytics firm reported that the number of trades made last year was 101 million, an improvement from 2021’s 58.6 million, meaning the digital assets fetched a lower value per unit. The decline in dollar terms is tied to the crypto winter, partly caused by macroeconomic factors, the collapse of Terra Luna and its stablecoin, and the contagion around the demise of FTX.

OpenSea ranked top in NFT trades with more than $297 million in December. The marketplace’s sales increased in April with the NFT land plots for Otherside by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). OpenSea’s trading volumes recorded a sharp decline between May and June from $3.3 billion to $1 billion, showed the report.

BAYC Was the Top-Performing NFT in 2022

Bored Ape Yacht Club was the top-selling NFT in 2022, according to CryptoSlam, posting estimated sales of $1.6 billion. Most of its sales were made between January and May before the price dropped from a high of $429,000 to a low of $60,000.

Meanwhile, NFT-related tokens are responding positively to the reports. Apecoin’s APE surged 14% in the past week to peak at $4.18. The jump has increased the market cap of the BAYC’s token to $1.4 billion. Similarly, Sandbox token SAND rose 10% during the period, while Decentraland (MANA), another blockchain big on NFTs, added an equivalent margin.

On the other hand, Solana continues to suffer from the collapse of FTX. Towards the year’s close, its major NFT projects, yOOts and DeGods announced their exit from the blockchain. yOOts is planning to move to Polygon, while DeGods will launch on Ethereum this quarter. The outflow deepens Solana’s woes, considering the two projects accounted for over two-thirds of its NFT sales.