NFT revenue in 2024 surpasses last year's $8 billion mark

The broader non-fungible token (nft) market has defied expectations after surpassing last year's revenue milestone.

Data collected by CryptoSlam shows that with less than a week left in 2024, nft sales for the year totaled $8,717,920,832, surpassing the 2023 figure by approximately $230,000.

The numbers

Last year, the sector <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/cryptoslamio/status/1871601157564772717″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-wpel-link=”external”>recorded over 91.55 million transactions, generating $8.71 billion for CryptoSlam. However, in 2024, total transactions fell significantly, reaching only 70.89 million.

However, an increase in the number of unique buyers and sellers helped balance the balance: the former totaled 7.5 million and the latter reached 4 million. These are the highest figures recorded since 2017, the closest being the 3.8 million sellers recruited last year and the 5.4 million buyers in 2022.

There have long been discussions about the prospects of the nft space, and the hype that once surrounded them is fading considerably. But analysts have urged not to write off the industry entirely, a sentiment justified by the year's performance, which, while well below record 2022 sales of $23.7 billion from 56 million transactions, has been notably better than expected.

The next best period was 2021, when the sector raised $15.7 billion from 34 million transactions involving 3.6 million unique sellers and more than 5 million buyers. The 2024 figures are on track to be the third highest returns ever recorded, marginally surpassing last year's figures.

The space also recently suffered casualties when the Nike-owned RTFKT project announced it would close in 2025 after earning nearly $50 million since its launch.

Monthly outlook

Looking more short-term, the last month presented a mixed outlook for nfts. While global sales volumes rose 19.43% to $912 million, unique buyer and seller numbers fell almost 28%, reflecting a more selective market approach.

Additionally, transactions saw a 59.25% drop from the previous month, suggesting that fewer but more valuable exchanges may have boosted the sector's growth.

Overall, ethereum remains the top blockchain for nft sales, contributing $495.7 million in the last 30 days alone. In second and third place were bitcoin and Solana, which respectively generated 191.4 million and 107 million dollars in that period.

Interestingly, the two blockchains went in completely opposite directions in terms of attracting buyers. Data from CryptoSlam shows that nft buyers on the bitcoin network have skyrocketed more than 80% in the last month, while those on Solana have fallen by at least 37%.

Immutable and Mythos brought together the top five blockchains by monthly nft sales volume. The first recorded sales worth 35 million dollars, an increase of 66.51% compared to the previous month, while the second lost 36.72% of its figure in the same period, reaching only 25.4 million dollars.

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