blockworks.co
Rising bitcoin and ether prices have offered short-term reprieve for battered crypto markets, but floor prices for Bored Apes and CryptoPunks have barely budged.
Both bitcoin (BTC) and ether ($ETH) are up nearly 40% year to date, both reaching highs not seen in around five months.
On the other hand, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks’ floor prices — representing the last sale price of the cheapest $NFT in each collection — are down between 5% and 8% since Jan. 1, hovering at 66 $ETH ($107,000) and 63 $ETH ($102,000), respectively.
Floor prices for other buzzy $NFT collections are suffering a similar fate, per NFTFloorPrice. Azuki’s floor is up a meager 8% year to date while Art Blocks’ Chromie Squiggles’ has dropped 17%.
Average sale prices, however, are faring better. All aforementioned projects have seen upticks between 14% and 35% over the past 30 days, led by Azuki.
Those figures were propelled by trades at the top end of each collection — the most expensive sales for Chromie Squiggles, Azuki and CryptoPunks are up hundreds of percentage points over the past 30 days, while BAYC’s has dropped 27%.
Marketplace volumes have also surged since the start of December, when about $160 million in NFTs flowed through venues like OpenSea and Blur, the buzzy new platform promising to reward $NFT traders with a token airdrop on Valentine’s Day, next month.
Those marketplaces recorded nearly $231 million over the past week, per a Dune Analytics dashboard, marking their highest point since May — a 40% jump.
“This shows how $NFT trading volume is subject to market sentiment and bitcoin’s volatility, after bitcoin experienced a 50% move over the past few weeks,” Marcus Sotiriou, market analyst at GlobalBlock, told Blockworks.
ApeCoin rallies alongside $NFT volumes
While BAYC trade volumes have diminished 30% over the past 30 days, creator Yuga Labs has seen success with an adjacent $NFT collection. Sewer Pass, launched on Jan. 18, is a free mint meant for existing BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders.
Sewer Pass is a significant development for many speculators who wondered how Yuga’s ecosystem would develop beyond BAYC. It essentially provides access to a game called Dookey Dash, which is a component of Yuga’s ‘Jimmy the Monkey’ storyline. The game started on Jan. 18 and can be played until Feb. 8.
Sewer Pass NFTs have crossed $14 million in secondary sales volume, raking in $700,000 in secondary sale revenue (based on a 5% royalty for Yuga as of Jan. 20, according to Galaxy Digital).
Those gains have been reflected in ApeCoin (APE), the cryptocurrency central to Yuga Labs’ in-development BAYC metaverse, which has jumped nearly 65% year to date.
Less positively, German automobile maker Porsche debuted its first $NFT this week, but it failed to take off as its floor price fell within hours of the mint.