Cryptoverse: Punk apes and a resurrection of NFTs

It’s alive! The NFT market is twitching out of its torpor, defying reports of its demise.

Total NFT sales on the ethereum blockchain – which hosts most trading – jumped to $780.2 million in January from $546.9 million the month before, according to market tracker CryptoSlam.

Digital art collectibles were among the big hits. “Bored Ape Yacht Club #5840” – a cartoon monkey shooting green lasers from its eyes – went for $822,730, for example, while “CryptoPunks #7674” – a pixelated character smoking a pipe – fetched $433,555.

The average NFT sale price was a more modest $372.38, according to CryptoSlam.

The $780 million of sales seen last month is a fraction of the roughly $5 billion seen last January and $2.7 billion in May, before the market took a non-fungible nosedive along with much of the crypto world.

Nonetheless the market’s been inching back since November after hitting a low of $324 million the month before, according to CryptoSlam data, with some traders betting on a future for NFTs in gaming and branding.

“We will see another 2021-style run when we are able to really bring on board the next big wave of participants into the space,” said Teng Yan, lead researcher at Delphi Digital, estimating that there are between 30,000 to 50,000 people who are actively trading NFTs right now.