NFT market in for more pain as diamond hands lose confidence

• About 4.63% of all Azuki collections held by diamond hands were sold in recent weeks.
• BAYC witnessed some recovery as floor price rebounded to 32 ETH.

Premium non-fungible token (NFT) collections began to fall out of favor as floor prices fell and demand decreased. The market slump has negatively affected long-term holders’ sentiment.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, sales of leading NFTs held by their owners for more than one year have significantly increased over the last three weeks.

Azuki is the biggest victim

Unsurprisingly, Azuki topped the list with about 188 of its collections getting dumped by diamond hands. These sales accounted for nearly 1.88% of the total Azuki NFTs present in the market.

A further drilldown of the data revealed that of all the Azuki collections held by diamond hands, a significant 4.63% have been sold off over the past three weeks.

Azuki has been in the eye of the storm ever since the release of its collection Elementals. The launch was met with fierce backlash from Azuki’s community members, with many accusing the collection of being nearly identical to the original collection released last year.

As the negative word of mouth spread, buyers started to dump Azuki collections leading to a crash in its floor price. Since the fiasco, the price has plunged by 58%.

BAYC gets engulfed in contagion

The demand for blue-chip collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC] also fell drastically in recent weeks. About 89 BAYC NFTs were offloaded by diamond hands, according to Nansen data, accounting for nearly 2% of their holdings. In terms of number of sales relative to long-term holders, BAYC’s was the second-highest, trailing only Azuki.

BAYC’s floor price plummeted to 27 ETH during the first week of July, the lowest in two years. However, the Yuga-owned entity recovered somewhat, rising to 32 ETH at the time of publication, data from NFT Price Floor revealed.

Bitter NFT winter

The NFT market was going through a difficult phase. After reaching the peak in March, its downfall started and decelerated right through the second quarter.

According to data from CryptoSlam, daily sales volume have dipped considerably since the Elementals controversy. The number of unique buyers followed a similar trajectory, reflective of the gloomy state of affairs of the market.