NFT sales surge 67.57% in one year, generate billions in trading volume: Report

• The number of non-fungible tokens sold in 2022 reached 101 million.
• The NFT market generated $24.7 billion in trading volume in 2022, a minor fall from $25.1 billion in 2021.

The number of Non-Fungible Tokens [NFTs] sold in 2022 reached 101 million, a surge of 67.57% over the previous year. The results were released as part of a Dapp Radar report on blockchain and decentralized application adoption in 2022.

As per the report, the Ethereum [ETH] ecosystem dominated the NFT ecosystem, accounting for 21% of the market and processing over 21.2 million transactions. Wax [WAXP] (14.5 million), Polygon [MATIC] (13.3 million), and Solana [SOL] (12.9 million) followed suit.

Transaction activity in the Solana and ImmutableX ecosystems increased by 440% and 315%, respectively, compared to 2021. Meanwhile, the data showed no change in the Binance [BNB] ecosystem, with approximately one million transactions expected in both 2021 and 2022.

Within the last two years, the dominant category of dApps on various chains shifted as well. DeFi apps dominated all but two of the 13 chains in 2021. There was a significant shift toward gaming and NFT dApps in 2022.

Ethereum and Cardano [ADA] remain the most active developers, with 223 and 151 active protocols, respectively. Modular blockchains such as Polkadot [DOT] and Cosmos [ATOM] saw their network developer activities rise by 16% and 131.7% respectively.

Source: Dapp Radar

NFT trades were worth $24.7 billion in 2022, down from 2021

According to a previous Dapp Radar report, the NFT market generated approximately $24.7 billion in organic trading volume across blockchain platforms and marketplaces in 2022. This represented a slight decrease from the $25.1 billion total recorded in 2021.

The data excludes trades suspected to be wash trades, or trades that have been manipulated in some way.

Source: Dapp Radar

2022 saw the transaction of 101 million NFTs, compared to around 58.6 million NFT transactions in 2021. In other words, most of the NFTs were traded at lower USD values due to falling NFT prices amidst a crumbling crypto market.

NFTs have continued to play an important role in the growing Web3 industry. They have also initiated a shift away from hype-based drops to utility-centric projects with long-term value.