NFT sales hit a record $25 billion in 2021 – data from Dappradar shows – despite signs of slowing growth at the end of the year.
During 2021, we have seen a jump in the popularity of NFTs, with Google Trends reporting that in August 2021 alone, global interest in NFTs increased by 426%. NFTs have been a constant buzzword in the Dalai Lama’s charity NFT collection ever since NFT Bored App number 3,547 was mistakenly sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.
Major brands seize the opportunity to be part of the NFT revolution in 2021: from Coca-Cola and Gucci to Cashing, Stella Artois ‘tipping’ NFTs and Vodafone’s first SMS NFTs to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.
DappRadar reported that NFT sales volume stood at $24.9 billion in 2021, compared to just $94.9 million in 2020. They recorded that around 28.6 million wallets traded NFTs in 2021, up from some 545,000 in 2020.
The data was aggregated across ten different blockchains, which are used to record who owns the NFTs. It is important to consider that volume estimates vary by individual data provider, depending on what exactly is included in the data. ‘Off-chain’ transactions, such as major NFT art sales at auction houses, are usually not captured by data.
Other data shows 2021 NFT sales at a lower volume: CryptoSlam said 2021 totals were $18.3 billion and NonFungible.com said 2021 sales were $15.7 billion.
Research by OpenC showed that NFT sales peaked in August, then declined in September, October and November. Sales peaked again in December at Christmas time. These fluctuations in the popularity of NFTs do not seem to be related to fluctuations in the price of cryptocurrencies, which are often used to buy NFTs, as bitcoin and ether surged between September and November 2021.
