Volatility X and zkEVM NFT Sales Growth Up 55% in Q4 2024, But Market Share Declines

Despite the increase in sales volume, Immutable saw a decline in both sellers and buyers on the day, reflecting higher transaction prices and fewer participants.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, total NFT sales on Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM increased by 55.3% quarter over quarter.

Messari's most recent analysis saw the figure rise from $51.2 million to $79.5 million.

Market Participation Plummets

Despite this growth, both average daily sellers and buyers decreased significantly, with daily sellers falling 43.0% from approximately 1,500 to 880, and daily buyers falling 38.1% from 1,300 to 800.

The sales surge was primarily driven by high demand for Guild of Guardians Heroes and Avatars NFTs, which accounted for more than 99% of the total NFT trading volume in the quarter. Most of the sales occurred on Immutable zkEVM, where Guild of Guardians NFTs are traded. Static zkEVM saw an average NFT sales volume of 73.3%, growing from around $484,000 in Q3 to $839,000 in Q4, increasing its share of total sales volume to over 97% in both chains.

During the same period, Immutable zkEVM saw a decline in user engagement following strong Q3 results. In fact, average daily transactions fell 21.1% quarter-over-quarter, from 595,000 in Q3 to roughly 469,000 in Q4. Similarly, average daily active addresses decreased 23.8%, from 267,000 to 204,000, and average daily new addresses decreased 29.8% to 32,000 at the end of the quarter.

This decline in activity mirrored broader trends in the GameFi market, which according to Gearbox showed a slowdown after booming in Q3 due to popular game releases such as Guild of Guardians, Immortal Rising 2 and Illuvium.

Over the past year, Immutable has gradually expanded developer access to zkEVM. In October, the platform removed its deployment authorization list, which allowed smart contracts and apps to be deployed without permission. This move lowers the barriers to entry for developers, positioning the immutable zkEVM for more developer activity in the coming months.

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In Q4 2024, average daily transaction fees at Immutable zkEVM decreased by 17.0% quarter-on-quarter, from an estimated 574 IMX to 477 IMX. Mesari attributed this decline to reduced network congestion, which was a result of low transaction activity at the time. In order to improve the user experience, Immutable has implemented a policy of covering all gas charges for players with Immutable Passports to pay gas charges, thereby reducing friction in the transaction process.

In the year By the end of 2024, Total Locked (TVL) decentralized finance (DeFi) on Immutable has dropped to $13.8 million. This decline is likely due to the IMX token price falling more than quarter-over-quarter, reducing the US dollar value of the locked-in assets.

However, TVL, measured in IMX, showed a positive trend, increasing 17% over the quarter to 10.33 million IMX, suggesting that the increase could have been driven by capital gains despite the weaker dollar.

Unchangeable SEC problem

In the year On November 1, 2024, Immutable announced that it has received a Notice of Wales from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – an enforcement action regarding its 2021 IMX token sale. Immtable released a statement expressing concern over the announcement, which previously provided limited contact and minimal details.

The company highlighted that the announcement raised questions about the timing and transparency of the process shortly after it first spoke directly to security regulators.

Fast forward to 2025, the SEC closed several of its crypto investigations without any enforcement charges, with investigations into OpenSea, Gemini, Robinhood Crypto and Uniswap. However, investigations into Inflexible, and other platforms such as Crypto.com and Unicoin are still ongoing.