4 Minutes
Market snapshot: NFT sales tick upward as crypto prices recover
Reported by Vignesh Karunanidhi; edited by Anthony Patrick — After several weeks of steep declines in participation, the non-fungible token (NFT) market is showing tentative signs of stabilization. Overall NFT sales rose 4.7% week-over-week to $106.6 million, according to CryptoSlam, helped by a broader rebound across major cryptocurrencies.
Macro crypto context
Bitcoin (BTC) climbed above $115,800, up roughly 5.2% over seven days, while Ethereum (ETH) traded in the mid-$4,600s and briefly pushed toward $4,700 — a weekly gain of about 9.1%. The global crypto market capitalization expanded to roughly $4.07 trillion from last week’s $3.81 trillion, offering renewed liquidity and buyer confidence across NFT marketplaces.
Participation drop offsets modest volume gains
Despite higher dollar volumes, market participation remains sharply lower. Buyer counts plunged 69.84% to 180,693 and seller counts fell 70.87% to 123,713. NFT transactions edged up 2.6% to 1,754,295, indicating that fewer market participants are responsible for the recent uptick in trading volume. Ethereum wash trading also declined significantly, down 52.47% to $3.1 million, suggesting a reduction in self-dealing activity on the leading NFT chain.
Blockchain performance leaders
Not all blockchains moved in the same direction. Ethereum retained the largest sales share with $34.1 million, though that represented a 7.45% weekly decline. Gaming-focused chains and collections outperformed: Mythos Chain surged to second place with $14.3 million (up 41.63%), Polygon logged $13.6 million (down 13.82%), and BNB Chain posted $10.3 million, a 7.96% increase. Bitcoin-based NFT sales rose 19.49% to $9.4 million. Immutable (IMX) posted one of the strongest jumps among major chains, up 69.41% to $8.7 million, while Solana rounded out the top seven at $5.5 million, up 12.06%.
Collections: gaming NFTs and nostalgic blue-chips gain traction
Gaming collections dominated the week’s leaderboard, reflecting continued investor appetite for utility-driven NFTs. Courtyard (Polygon) remained the top collection with $12.6 million in sales, although it fell 13.81% from the prior week and saw buyer and seller numbers decline sharply. DMarket climbed to second with $8.9 million (up 83.55%), and Guild of Guardians Heroes reached third with $4.8 million (up 67.68%).
Pudgy Penguins jumps 110%
One of the standout moves came from Pudgy Penguins, which vaulted into the top-six collections with $3.2 million in sales — a 110.52% surge. The collection more than doubled its transaction count (up 111.43%) and recorded substantial growth in both buyers (up 20%) and sellers (up 93.10%), highlighting renewed interest in established avatar projects.
Notable high-value NFT sales this week
Large secondary-market sales continue to surface among legacy CryptoPunks and other blue-chip NFTs, including:
- CryptoPunks #2368 — 89 ETH (~$408,599)
- CryptoPunks #5702 — 57.95 ETH (~$264,994)
- CryptoPunks #8464 — 48.5 ETH (~$225,753)
- CryptoPunks #6557 — 50 ETH (~$220,923)
- CryptoPunks #5935 — 46.5 ETH (~$216,444)
What this means for NFT traders and collectors
The current patch of recovery suggests selective strength: gaming NFTs, certain marketplaces, and legacy collections are attracting capital even as overall participation remains depressed. Traders and investors should watch on-chain metrics — buyer and seller counts, wash-trading indicators, and chain-level inflows — to gauge whether this modest recovery turns into a sustainable uptrend. With Ethereum and Bitcoin reclaiming some momentum, NFT liquidity could broaden, but lower participation means short-term moves may remain volatile.
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