2024 NFT Revenue Peak Last Year’s $8B Mark

The broader cryptocurrency (NFT) market defied expectations after surpassing last year's earnings milestone.

According to data collected by CryptoSlam, With less than a week to go in 2024, NFT sales for the year reached $8,717,920,832, surpassing 2023's total by $230,000.

Numbers

Last year, the sector recorded more than 91.55 million transactions, which brought in $8.71 billion per CryptoSlam. However, in 2024, the total transaction has decreased significantly, reaching only 70.89 million.

However, an increase in exclusive buyers and sellers helped balance the scales, with the former totaling 7.5 million and the latter 4 million. These were the highest recorded figures since 2017, closely followed by last year's 3.8 million sellers and 2022's 5.4 million buyers.

While there have long been discussions about the prospects of the NFT space, the buzz that once fueled it is dying down significantly. But analysts cautioned against writing off the industry entirely, an opinion confirmed by the year's performance, which some ways from 2022's record-setting 56 million transactions of $23.7 billion in sales, better than expected.

The sector's next best season was 2021, when it generated $15.7 billion in 34 million transactions involving 3.6 million unique sellers and more than 5 million buyers. The 2024 numbers are on pace to become the third-highest returns on record, narrowly beating last year's numbers.

The site was recently dealt a blow when the Nike-owned RTFKT project announced that it would be closing up shop in 2025 after raising nearly $50 million since its inception.

Monthly insights

Looking more short-term, the past month has presented a mixed outlook for NFTs. Global sales rose 19.43 percent to $912 million, with unique buyer and seller numbers down nearly 28 percent, reflecting a more selective market approach.

Additionally, transactions showed a 59.25% decrease from the previous month, suggesting that a smaller but more valuable exchange has seen growth in the sector.

Overall, Ethereum remains the top blockchain for NFT sales, contributing $495.7 million over the past 30 days. In second and third place were Bitcoin and Solana, which respectively earned $191.4 million and $107 million during that period.

Interestingly, the two blockchains went in completely opposite directions in terms of attracting buyers. CryptoSlam data shows that NFT buyers on the Bitcoin network rose more than 80% last month, while those on Solana fell by at least 37%.

Immutable and Mythos rounded out the top five blockchains by monthly NFT sales volume. The former recorded sales of 35 million dollars, a jump of 66.51% from last month, while the latter paid 36.72% from the same period, reaching only 25.4 million dollars.