Monthly NFT trading volume reaches all-time high of $6 billion in January

Monthly non-fungible token (NFT) trading volume in January has already reached a record high of $6.13 billion, according to The Block Data Dashboard. 

Monthly NFT volume grew 129% in January relative to December. Much of the increase was due to the latest contender in the NFT marketplace scene, called LookRare, which accumulated nearly $2 billion in volume after its launch on January 10

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

LooksRare poses a threat to OpenSea — the dominant NFT marketplace controlling approximately 90% of volume — because of its LOOKS token. Users receive LOOKS when buying or selling NFTs on the platform and can earn further rewards by staking the token on the platform. 

LooksRare is not without issue, however. The Block Research notes that much of LooksRare’s trading volume is due to wash trading, in which individuals trade items between themselves to artificially drive up volume and prices. 

Aside from Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces, total NFT sales on Solana surpassed $1 billion in all-time volume in January as well.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.