NFT Market Volume Climbs Amid Sharp Decline in Active Addresses

Ethereum maintained its position as the market leader with $16.83 million in sales, though the chain saw a 6.36% decline compared to the previous period. Conversely, Bitcoin experienced a significant surge, with sales climbing 50.12% to $9.44 million. This Bitcoin rally was heavily skewed by institutional-scale activity, as the five largest individual sales across the entire NFT landscape were all Bitcoin-based BRC-20 tokens.

The discrepancy between rising sales and falling user counts is stark. Total transactions increased by 48.75% to 917,549, yet buyer addresses fell to 41,959. This paradox is best illustrated by collections like $X@AI and $X@AGI on the Bitcoin network. The former generated $2.90 million in sales through only nine transactions, with a single trade accounting for roughly 72% of its weekly volume. Meanwhile, the Polygon-based Courtyard collection led by transaction volume, moving $6.67 million through over 100,000 individual trades, highlighting a distinct shift toward physical-backed digital assets.

While Ethereum and Bitcoin continue to anchor the market, other networks showed mixed results. Polygon saw a 7.73% increase in sales to $7.71 million, while BNB Chain rose 25.99%. However, the broad decline in buyer addresses across all top six blockchains indicates that the current growth in dollar volume relies on a diminishing pool of active participants rather than a surge in retail interest.