Monthly returning buyers of Ethereum-based NFTs bounced back to 45,000 in June after seeing less than 35,000 in May, according to blockchain analytics service Nansen’s Q2 NFT report. The firm analyzed six indexes of NFTs denominated in ETH, finding that the gaming index got hit the most, 59.6% down from the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, blockchain gaming giant Axie Infinity saw a sharp drop in its user base of 83% in the second quarter, while the overall volume of unique active wallets (UAW) of blockchain games fell only 7% during the same period despite the weakness noticeable in the market as a whole.
Capital Flooding to Blue-Chip Projects
Nansen’s report tracked six major marketplaces hosting Ethereum-based NFTs, noting that the weekly trading volume only reached 600,000 ETH in June. In comparison, the previous month recorded around 1.3 million.
During a turbulent period, trading volume for these NFTs has returned to blue-chip collections as investors tend to take a cautious approach, said Louisa Choe, research analyst at Nansen.
“ETH inflows and circulations are concentrated in Blue Chip or large-cap NFTs within the NFT market. Such a phenomenon hints at the risk-off attitude among NFT market participants.”
Sustained interest in renowned projects is shown in which CryptoPunk #4464 was sold for 2,500 ETH on Tuesday, which equaled over $2.6 million at the time of the sale. In terms of ETH price, this NFT ranked fourth in CryptoPunks NFT sales of all time.
However, the report also indicated that limited liquidity in the NFT market suggests the slow recovery in June may not be sustainable. It is partly demonstrated in the drastically declined interest in the gaming NFTs, which function as virtual assets for various blockchain games.
Blockchain Games Remain Resilient
The broader decline in crypto assets, along with the drop in NFT activity, had a prolonged impact on gaming NFT sales, according to DappRadar’s Q2 gaming report shared with Crypto Potato.
“Organic sales of gaming NFTs fell 29% compared to the previous quarter, while the price of in-game assets was also negatively affected due to the fall in value of many game-related cryptocurrency tokens.”
Nonetheless, the report found the sector in strong resilience against DeFi and on-chain NFT activities, which fell 17% and 24% Q/Q respectively. To put things into perspective – Gaming Dapps accounted for 52% of all blockchain activity at the end of Q2.
Among all top blockchain games, Axie Infinity witnessed a collapse of its user base by 83% in the quarter due to the over $600M exploit that led to its crumbled credibility.
Splinterlands remained the most played blockchain, with 283,729 UAW at the end of the quarter, while Alien Worlds ranked second, whose UAW was down only 4% in Q2 compared to the period of the previous three months.
Additionally, games based on blockchains other than Ethereum experienced rapid growth despite unfavorable market conditions. Sunflower Lands on Polygon had its UAW increased by 10,000% to over 11,000 users, and Gameta on Solana ended the quarter with more than 30,000 UAW, DappRadar noted.
