CryptoPunks sparks NFT sales jump

Just when you thought the NFT market was buried under crypto wreckage, it flickers back to life. Sales of these digital tokens have perked up, climbing 4.5% to $102.8 million in the last week, according to CryptoSlam data.

This minor rebound arrives even as the broader crypto market wobbles. Bitcoin took a dip below $83,000, Ethereum is lingering around $1,800, and the overall crypto market cap has softened to $2.71 trillion from $2.77 trillion the previous week. Yet, against this backdrop, NFT transactions show a pulse.

More players are jumping into the NFT game. The number of buyers surged almost 29% to 451,436, and sellers increased by over 26% to 285,272. Interestingly, the total number of transactions saw a slight dip of 2.8%, settling at 1,614,680.

Ethereum remains the top platform for, shall we say, creatively inflated trading volumes, accounting for $2.6 million in wash trades. On the bright side, even this questionable activity is down nearly 10% from the week prior.

Looking at collections, Courtyard on Polygon is currently the sales leader, racking up $15.7 million, a 33% increase. DMarket trails in second place with $8.5 million, despite an 18% decrease. However, the real comeback kid is CryptoPunks, which exploded with a 141% sales surge to $6.3 million. Leading this charge was CryptoPunks #2967, fetching a cool 420 ETH, or $843,070, making it the week’s priciest NFT.

CryptoPunks didn’t stop there; several others joined the high-roller club this week:

  • CryptoPunks #6935: 135 ETH ($271,890)
  • CryptoPunks #3007: 120 ETH ($239,342)
  • CryptoPunks #2301: 115 ETH ($234,959)
  • Autoglyphs #364: 105 ETH ($210,172)