NFTs and games remain intact amid coldest winter

While the coldest crypto winter toppled all areas of crypto, NFTs and blockchain gaming industries remain bullish. NFT trading volumes increased by 23%, while the blockchain gaming industry attracted record investments.

The total market cap fell by 34% since the Terra disaster, which pushed the market into a winter. Since then, all areas of crypto have been having a hard time. Even the most prominent crypto companies have been laying off up to 25% of their staff. Crypto exchanges, mining companies, and even the pro-crypto regulations came to a halt amid the bear market. Troubles of leading crypto companies like Celsius,  3 Arrows Capital, and BlockFi further released fear and accelerated the bearish sentiment.

NFTs

Even though the NFTs also took a hit from the bear market kindled by the Terra collapse, they are still bullish.

Overall sales counts have increased by 59% since the second quarter of 2021. This increase looks insignificant compared to the trading volumes, which have been up by 553% since the same quarter.

When analyzing NFT trading volume in the last months, it appears to be down by 70% since May when measured by U.S dollars. However, during the same period, when measured in Ethereum (ETH) the fall was smaller, being down by 55%.

In comparison, NFT, the market cap, when measured in ETH, shows growth despite the bear market. Its lowest was recorded at 3 million ETH in October, and its highest at over 6 million ETH in April. As of June 2022, NFT trading volumes linger around 5 million ETH.

The report states:

“Year-over-year, the stats look even more impressive as Ethereum-based collections have grown by 2093% while Polygon grew 456%, with an overall increase of 1999%.”

The study also notes that Opensea lost market share to the new platforms such as LooksRare, x2y2, and Solana’s Magic Eden. Opensea’s recent experiences with phishing attacks might have a part in this distribution. Regardless, Opensea remains the leading NFT marketplace.

Gaming

Blockchain-based games also still manage to record a bullish sentiment amid the winter.

Even though the blockchain gaming industry fell by 5%, the rest of the industry fell by an overall 26%. The report states:

“This is a bullish indicator for blockchain games as many have speculated that game dapps would lose most of their player base if they stop being financially profitable to the average user. It was proven not to be the case. “

Spliterlands emerged as the most played blockchain game. It had been for eight months now, with over 350,000 active daily users with only a slight drop of 4%.

Alien Worlds, Farmers World, Upland, and Axie Infinity, followed Splinterlands as the top five blockchain-based games.

Even though Axie Infinity came fourth, a recent study showed it was the most searched NFT community in 122 countries.

Mentioned in this article

Ethereum Terra Classic OpenSea Magic Eden LooksRare BlockFi Celsius Network Three Arrows Capital Axie Infinity

Author

Zeynep Geylan

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.

@zeynepgyln LinkedIn Email Zeynep

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