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NFT sales drop down 44% in Q2 as memecoins capture market attention

Despite a broad market decline, PolitiFi and animal-themed memecoins saw large gains in the second quarter. This surge occurred even as the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) experienced a steep drop.

According to Henrik Andersson, Apollo Crypto’s chief investment officer, this influx, combined with a general crypto market downturn, contributed to a 44% decline in NFT sales in Q2. Data from CryptoSlam reveals that NFT sales plummeted from $4.14 billion in Q1 to $2.32 billion in Q2.

Memecoin sales chart (USD).

Market Challenges

“Q2 was tough, with Bitcoin dropping by 15% and many altcoins performing even worse,” Andersson told Cointelegraph. He also noted that memecoins are likely capturing some of the market’s attention that might have otherwise gone to NFTs.

While NFT sales have slowed, memecoins continue to thrive, with $3.4 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours alone, according to CoinGecko. The rise in PolitiFi memecoins linked to the U.S. presidential election and new celebrity tokens on Ethereum and Solana have fueled this trend. Notable memecoins like MAGA (TRUMP) and Pepe saw price increases in the second quarter.

Developments in Bitcoin-based Ordinals could also shift focus away from traditional NFTs in the coming months, Andersson noted. However, activity on Ordinals and Runes has decreased recently, with Runes transactions falling 88% from their peak in June. 

Ordinals inscriptions and Runes have contributed less than 2 Bitcoin (BTC) per day in miner fees over the past week.

Hope for an NFT Resurgence

NFTs did see a minor resurgence in the last quarter of 2023, with sales exceeding $3 billion. This includes a $1.77 billion sales month in December 2023, the highest since NFT summer started to decline in June 2022. 

Major NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club still hold substantial market caps of $994.9 million and $345.9 million, respectively, according to CoinGecko data.

Memecoin projects list.

The largest Ordinals projects, NodeMonkes and Bitcoin Puppets, have market caps of $121.1 million and $94.2 million.

Despite the recent challenges, there is hope that NFTs could see a resurgence in the latter half of 2024.

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