GALA was the top-gainer among the NFT rally that began last week and was last seen changing hands at $0.042.
Following a rousing start to the year, there were double-digit gains over the past week among gaming and non-fungible token (NFT)-linked digital currencies. Notable tokens to experience an early 2023 rally include Gala (GALA), Apecoin (APE), Decentraland (MANA), and The Sandbox (SAND).
According to data from CoinGecko, the general crypto market capitalization is up 6.7% to $884 billion since the turn of the year. So far, this momentum shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
As it stands, NFT trading volume has seen a considerable upswing over the past week, increasing 31.56% to $207.358 million.
GALA is the current rally leader among the top 100 digital currencies by market cap, with a 140% surge since last week. As of press time, the native token powering Gala’s crypto gaming ecosystem was changing hands at $0.042. This development also represents a 13% increase in value over the last 24 hours. As it stands, GALA is the 98th-largest digital currency by market capitalization. However, despite the crypto’s commendable weekly gains, it is still down 94.8% from its record high of $0.8248 in November last year.
Coinglass reports that GALA futures positions, which amount to $31.82 million, have been liquidated over the past week. Furthermore, approximately a quarter of those liquidations were long positions, with blown-out short trades constituting the rest.
Beyond GALA, BAYC, Other Popular NFT Collections Also Record Week-Long Rally
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) underpinning token APE and its upcoming metaverse initiative Otherside also climbed 23.5% over the past week. For example, as of press time, Apecoin is changing hands at $4.87, representing a 4.2% rise over the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Bored Ape NFT trading volume soared 32.38% over the past seven days to crest at $18.061 million. This spike in value was enough to cement BAYC’s position at the summit of the most-traded NFTs over the past week.
On the heels of the recent BAYC rally is another Apecoin-related NFT collection, Mutant Ape Yacht Club. This NFT collection surged 60.75% in trading volume across the past week to $13.310 million.
Beyond GALA and APE’s week-long nuclear ascent in value, numerous other gaming-adjacent crypto projects also saw serious gains within the same period. For instance, the Decentraland-underpinning token MANA rose 29% to $0.40 over the last seven days. This bullish development also reversed MANA’s monthly losses, although the coin is still down 89% on a yearly basis.
The Sandbox’s native SAND token gained 26.5% over the same period but as of press time, was trading down 0.5% on the day. The current price of SAND is around $0.51.
NFT Trading Volume Increase Set to Continue?
The recent positive development in the trading of NFTs should come as a welcome relief to investors and observers. Furthermore, many of these market participants’ confidence should be riding high in hopes of a sustained rally. Throughout much of last year, the crypto market wallowed in the pits as contagion crippled most bullish run attempts. However, as the 2023 market continues, the crypto market proves that while it might be down, it is not out.