Ethereum shatters records and ends 20-day slump
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Ethereum led the non-fungible token (NFT) market on Thursday, posting over US$23 million in sales, according to CryptoSlam data. More than half of these sales came from one piece, CryptoPunks 635, which was bought for US$12.4 million at the Larva Labs marketplace.
Ethereum leads with record daily sales
Ethereum recorded 16,363 transactions made by 1,770 unique buyers and 1,354 unique sellers. The sliver coin broke a 20-day run of low daily sales under $10 million. This bounce back significantly adds to Ethereum’s overall sales volume, which is impressively now around $43.64 billion from about 47.56 million transactions.
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On the other hand, Bitcoin and Solana managed respective daily sales of $6.67 million and $3.72 million.
Bitcoin’s monetary results have been halted at less than US$10 million for four days on the trot. However, its total sales are inching closer to the coveted US$3.5 billion mark. So far, the sales have clocked in at US$3.43 billion. Bitcoin joined the US$3 billion club last month and is now roughly US$800 million short of Ronin, the third highest in terms of all-time sales volume.
With a high number of unique buyers, 10,862, and sellers, 10,221, Solana commanded a voluminous transaction total of 65,373 for the day. This leading digital asset is also inching towards a significant milestone, with its all-time figure currently at a hefty US$5.45 billion.
Polygon and Mythos Chain also posted significant daily sales. Polygon hit US$2.32 million from 65,536 transactions, while Mythos Chain logged sales of US$937,934.75 across 37,828 transactions. In terms of all-time sales, Polygon sits in fifth place with over US$1.5 billion.
Related: Ethereum Price Prediction & Forecasts
Rare CryptoPunk fetches $12.5 million
A high-value NFT brokerage called Fountain recently saw a rare Alien CryptoPunk sell for 4,000 ETH, which equals around $12.5 million.
The sale of CryptoPunk #635 happened on Thursday, as revealed by the NFT art group CryptoPunks. This is the third time in just two months that an Alien Punk has been sold for more than $10 million, showing that these unique pieces on the Ethereum blockchain still attract much interest from investors.
CryptoPunk 635 is an extraordinary piece from its collection, being one of just nine alien-themed punks. It boasts the fourth-highest sale price so far. Initially, the creators at Larva Labs owned it, but it last went under the hammer at Christie’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in May 2021.
The sale of CryptoPunk 635 to its new, unnamed owner was handled by Fountain, a broker specializing in high-priced NFTs. On Thursday, Fountain shared a statement celebrating their part in this sale and congratulating both the seller and the new owner.
The CryptoPunks digital art project was started in 2017 by Canadian developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. It features around 10,000 unique digital characters inspired by the cyberpunk theme. Created using an algorithm, no two characters are the same. Most are human-like figures, but rare characters like zombies, apes, and aliens exist.
CryptoPunks runs on Ethereum’s blockchain system, which allows these digital assets to be owned and traded decentralized. This system lets you own and trade each CryptoPunk securely without the need for a middleman.
Recently, a CryptoPunk with an alien theme was sold at an astonishing $16.03 million to a buyer who preferred to stay anonymous. This sale ranks as the second highest in the history of CryptoPunks. In another case, a piece from CryptoPunk’s series was sold for a jaw-dropping $23.7 million.
The CryptoPunks collection, valued in ETH, has seen a massive drop from its highest value in 2021. On October 8, 2021, the cheapest CryptoPunk was priced at 113.9 Ether, around $408,000. However, this price has fallen to only 36.9 Ether, roughly $117,000. This signifies a drastic 70% drop in value.
Like that, the Bored Ape Yacht Club saw a huge decrease in its base price. It went from 128 Ether previously to just 15.5 Ether—a massive 90% decrease. This dip in value is being seen across many different NFT collections.
On April 30, 2022, trading volumes reached an all-time high thanks to Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse collection. More than 200,000 Ether was traded on day one. However, since then, NFT trading volume has drastically dropped. Based on DefiLlama data, the daily trading volume is down 99%, with just 1,700 Ether traded daily.
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