coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Moonrock Capital has bought a Degen Ape Academy NFT for $1.1 million worth of SOL
- This marks the first $1 million sale for an NFT on the Solana blockchain
- Solana is gaining traction as high fees lead users to seek alternatives to Ethereum
Solana's NFT ecosystem gains traction as Degen Ape Academy NFT sells for over $1 million
The Solana blockchain has seen its first million-dollar NFT sale. Blockchain investment firm Moonrock Capital bought an NFT from the Degen Ape Academy collection a 5,980 SOL (around $1.1 million at the time of purchase).
Moonrock Capital just acquired the 13th rarest @DegenApeAcademy NFT for 5980 $SOL ($1,109,170.40) pic.twitter.com/STkwJetRl1
— Moonrock Capital (@MoonrockCapital) September 11, 2021
The Degen Ape Academy collection draws heavily from CryptoPunks and other collections that were inspired by it, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Pudgy Penguins. The collection follows a familiar premise; it has 10,000 NFTs that use the same basic template but have traits of different rarities. When the collection was first launched, users were able to mint and claim an NFT from the collection for 60 SOL each.
Examples of NFTs from the Degen Ape Academy collection. Image source: degenape.academy
While Degen Ape Academy is an original collection of NFTs, some developers have been also taking advantage of the platform’s low fees to launch clones of popular Ethereum-based NFT collections. This includes projects such as Solanapes and SolPunks, which are clones of Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, respectively.
Even though the project has been commonly criticized as a low-effort copy, MoonRock Capital also appears to be bullish on SolPunks, as it purchased an NFT from the collection for almost $260,000 worth of SOL.
Solana’s NFT ecosystem is gaining traction primarily because of the high transaction fees on Ethereum, the most prominent blockchain platform for NFTs. While the average transaction fee has seen a sharp decline in the last few days, Ethereum users are still paying an average $18 per transaction, according to Bitinfocharts. Transaction fees peaked on September 7, when the average transaction fee was a whopping $59.6.
Some crypto influencers and celebrities are also shitfing their allegiance from Ethereum to Solana. For example, popular YouTuber KSI is now featuring a Solana Monkey Business NFT on his crypto Twitter profile. About a week ago, KSI complained about Ethereum’s high transaction fees and said that he was going to start buying NFTs on the Solana blockchain instead.
SOL, the native asset of the Solana blockchain, has been a tremendous performer this year. Since January 1, the price of SOL has increased by a massive 10,540%, which is the second-best performance in the cryptocurrency top 100 (Axie Infinity’s AXS is ahead with an 11,090% year-to-date gain).