According to a DappRadar report, non-fungible token (NFT) trading rose throughout virtual worlds in the first quarter of 2023, totaling $311 million so far this year.
The report indicates that the number of trades in virtual land has increased significantly in the recent quarter, setting a new record at 147,000 trades. This growth is credited to the dominant platforms in this space, such as Otherside by Yuga Labs and MG Land.
The first quarter saw a significant increase in trading volume for Otherdeed NFTs, which are associated with land in the Otherside metaverse, with a total of $222 million traded, a 237% rise from the previous quarter. A single Otherdeed NFT was sold for 186 ETH, equivalent to around $2.85 million, which was the highest recorded sale for virtual land in the past quarter. Yuga Labs announced the date of its “Second Trip” for Otherdeed NFT holders earlier this month, which likely contributed to the increase in trading volume.
Sara Gherghelas, a blockchain analyst at DappRadar, has attributed the increase in trading volume to the NFT marketplace Blur’s “airdrop seasons and farming.” As per Gherghelas, the “NFT whales” have shown interest in farming virtual land, particularly in the MG Land project, which is an NFT collection.
The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Decentraland also made the list of top virtual world decentralized applications (dapps) in the previous quarter. However, Createra Genesis Land topped the list with a trading volume of $14 million. In January 2023, A16z led a $10 million fundraising round for Createra Genesis Land, which focuses on enabling user-generated metaverse creations.
The report indicates that the approaching Metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland has raised the number of unique active wallets on the network by 63% in the past week and the trade volume on the platform. Moreover, 10KTF, a 2021-launched digital fashion store bought by Yuga Labs in November 2022, saw a significant increase in trade volume across a number of its collections over the previous quarter.
According to Gherghelas, the highest NFT collections traded this quarter are all related to 10KTF. She further noted that after Yuga Labs announced the acquisition of 10KTF, there was a significant increase in NFT trading volume.
DappRadar also stated that the blockchain gaming and metaverse projects received a total investment of $417.5 million in the first quarter of 2023.
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