OpenSea: Ethereum and Polygon NFTs plunge – what’s the reason behind it

• Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs on OpenSea ended April at their lowest sales volume yet.
• Blur continues to outshine OpenSea as its market share grows. 

According to data from Dune Analytics, the sales volume of Ethereum [ETH] and Polygon [MATIC]-based NFTs on leading marketplace OpenSea fell to its lowest so far at the end of April 2023. 

Information from the on-chain data provider revealed that Ethereum-based NFT sales in the marketplace soared to a nine-month high of $643.61 million by the end of February. However, with a 4.63% market-wide decline in NFT sales in March, OpenSea closed Q1 2023 with a 40% drop in sales volume of its Ethereum-minted NFTs. 

Still trending downwards in April, this fell by an additional 26%, as sales volume within the 30-day period totaled $285.31 million. 

Source: Dune Analytics

NFTs in Q1

Following a record-breaking NFT sales volume of $109.12 million in February, sales of Polygon-based NFTs on OpenSea closed the first quarter of the year with a whopping 98% decline. With even less trading activity in April, this fell further by 98%. During that 30-day period, sales volume was a mere $34,109, per data from Dune Analytics.

Source: Dune Analytics

The general market drop in the number of NFTs sold in March lingered into April as the count of Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs sold on OpenSea fell steeply. Regarding Ethereum-minted NFTs on OpenSea, 585,303 NFTs were sold in April.

This represented a 28% decline from the 817,971 total NFTs sold in March and a 49% fall from the 1.13 million total Ethereum-based NFTs sold at the beginning of the year.

Source: Dune Analytics

As for Polygon NFTs on OpenSea, sales plummeted by 99% in April, with only 331 NFTs sold compared to the 35,337 NFTs sold in March. According to Dune Analytics, this represented the lowest monthly count of Polygon-minted NFTs sold on OpenSea since June 2021. 

Source: Dune Analytics

OpenSea remains in Blur’s shadows

Since the year began, OpenSea has faced intense competition from Blur, whose market share has grown tremendously since it became operational in October 2022.

According to data from DappRadar, while OpenSea logged a quarterly increase of 68.41% in its trading volume in Q1 2023, in March, its trading volume fell by 35%, and its market dominance fell to 22%, the lowest since February 2021.

As of this writing, OpenSea’s share of the NFT market has fallen to 20.2%. Blur’s market share, on the other hand, stood at 68%, per data from Dune Analytics. 

Source: Dune Analytics