Bybit shutters NFT marketplace as institutional faith dwindles amid broad market decline

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said Tuesday it is closing its NFT marketplace as the market for non-fungible tokens continues to weaken.

"As part of our efforts to streamline our offerings, Bybit Web3 will discontinue operations for its NFT Marketplace, Inscription Marketplace, and IDO product pages," the company said in a post.

Bybit's move follows both cryptocurrency exchange Kraken closing down its NFT marketplace and NFT marketplace X2Y2 announcing plans to cease operations at the end of this month. These institutional closures parallel an NFT market that has, despite showing infrequent signs of life, been experiencing a steady decline since late 2022.

Interest in pricey PFPs and digital art as NFTs has waned considerably in recent years. Extremely popular collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club no longer generate significant trading volumes on a monthly basis.

Last week, blockchain analytics firm DappRadar said that from the NFT market's peak in 2021 until now, "trading volumes for the most popular collections have declined 95%, while the number of traders dropped from well over half a million to less than 20,000 active wallets."

Expand Chart