cointelegraph.com
The non-fungible token ($NFT) sector surged to a market capitalization of more than $9.3 billion as Ethereum-based collections increased along with the price of Ether.
$NFT data tracker $NFT Price Floor showed on Wednesday that the overall market capitalization for $NFT collections had hit $9.3 billion, a 40% uptick from July. According to DappRadar data, NFTs had a market capitalization of $6.6 billion last month.
Ether ($ETH), which recently pushed past the $4,000 milestone, has been a key driver behind the $NFT market surge. At the time of writing, $ETH traded above $4,600 and had a market capitalization of over $557 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Since many NFTs are based on the Ethereum mainnet, their sales and valuations are denominated in $ETH. Because of this, bullish momentum of the crypto asset translates into higher market values and increased activity in the $NFT space. At the time of writing, the top 10 $NFT assets by market cap were Ethereum-based.
$NFT market cap has surged 40% since July
CryptoPunks retains its spot as the top $NFT collection by market capitalization. $NFT Price Floor data shows that the collection is worth at least 526,900 $ETH (about $2.4 billion).
In the last seven days, CryptoPunks had almost 4,200 $ETH in volume, worth almost $20 million. During the week, the collection had 90 total sales, averaging at $217,331 per $NFT.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) follows CryptoPunks in the rankings with a valuation of $602 million, while Pudgy Penguins follows closely with $591 million.
Related: $8.5 million $NFT sales surge to $574 million in July, second-highest in 2025
Pudgy Penguins added to a crypto treasury
Still, while BAYC leads in valuation, the Pudgy Penguins collection tops BAYC in terms of seven-day volume. DefiLlama data suggests that Pudgy Penguins had a volume of $8.7 million in the past week, while BAYC had $6.3 million.
In a Cointelegraph interview, Pudgy Penguins CEO and owner Luca Schnetzler (better known as Luca Netz) said the collection’s expansion into a physical toy brand saved the company from bankruptcy in 2022.
Since then, the collection has been a leading $NFT brand, rivaling other blue-chip collections.
This week, blockchain company BTCS Inc. said it added three Pudgy Penguins to its corporate treasury.
Apart from the three collections, other top 10 $NFT collections by market cap include Art Block’s Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro, Autoglyphs, Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs, Lil Pudgys, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Moonbirds and Milady Maker.
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