21 thousand percent growth in the volume of NFT transactions in 2021; An exploding market

As the data shows, $17 billion was traded in the non-traditional token (NFT) market last year; A figure that has grown by 21,000 percent compared to 2020.

According to CryptoSleet, almost everyone is aware that the cryptocurrency space has been one of the best performers in the cryptocurrency space over the past year. A new report from Nonfungible, a company active in the field of providing data related to the NFT market, shows the extent of this growth. The NFT space saw over $17 billion in sales last year, representing a 21,000% increase over 2020, with a transaction volume of $82 million. The research company L’Atelier, which has prepared a report in this field, says that the total volume of NFT transactions in 2021 was 17.6 billion dollars.

Atypical tokens that started 2021 as digital artworks have grown in popularity over time. This concept now includes Metaverse avatars, game items, collectibles, and more.

This jump showed itself when Beeple, a famous American artist, sold an NFT for $69 million; What has made him one of the most valuable living artists in the world. This space also led to the growth of groups such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which has established itself as something of a cult in this growing space.

Available information shows that the analytical website “Nonfungible.com” published one of the most conservative estimates of the trading volume of NFTs in 2021. According to the forecast made by Chainalysis, the volume of transactions in this space in 2021 was about 40 billion dollars.

Gauthier Zuppinger, one of the founders of Nonfungible, believes that this difference is due to the way they work. He said his company focused only on legitimate transactions and did not account for any business activity leading to money laundering or bot-related transactions.

The role of Metaverse in the growth of the NFTs market

Another factor that increased interest in NFTs last year was the metaverse. After Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta and focus on bridging the gap between the real and virtual worlds, interest in NFTs and the Metaverse peaked.

Even though digital earth and other metaverse projects became popular in late 2021, the field has generated $514 million in sales. Collectible NFTs had the largest volume of transactions with $8.4 billion, followed by gaming NFTs with $5.2 billion in sales.

With the increase in the volume of transactions, the entry of users to the market also increased significantly. In 2021, the number of wallets that purchased NFTs reached 2.3 million; While in 2020, there were only 75,000 addresses in this amount.

However, recent data shows that due to the recent OpenSea hacks, user interest in NFTs has waned during this time. According to data published by CryptoSlam, the trading volume of some of the top NFT projects has decreased significantly in the last 30 days.

Regulators still do not interfere in the NFT market

Despite the high volume of transactions, the legislators of different countries still do not involve themselves in the space of NFTs. On the one hand, there are people who see NFTs as an ideal way to prove ownership of digital content, and on the other hand, some believe that this market somehow encourages abusers.

Most trading in NFTs is price speculation and there is now evidence of NFTs being used for money laundering.