(This article is a report from Messari, compiled and translated by NFTGo)
This article is a compilation of the
Messari report, provided by
NFTGo.
NFT analysis platform
NFTGo has released data showing that the total market value of the crypto industry is now over two trillion US dollars, with the NFT market value exceeding 15 billion US dollars, accounting for approximately 1%.
In addition to well-known avatar and art NFTs, there are various types of NFTs, including:
- Avatars – BAYC, Punks, VeeFriends
- Game assets – Loot, Sorare, ASm AIFA Genesis
- Utility assets – membership assets
- Metaverse assets – Sandbox non-land assets
- Digital land – Sandbox LAND, Decentraland
- Social – HeadDAO, LinksDAO, MetaHero Universe
- Intellectual property – Adidas, Budverse Cans, Pepsi Mic Drop, Twitter collection
- Music – Deafbeef, Eulerbeats, Kloud
- Financial/DeFi – Uniswap liquidity positions, yield-bearing NFTs
Currently, the total market value of NFTs has reached 18 billion US dollars, with avatar NFTs accounting for the largest share at 8 billion US dollars, exceeding the total market value of the second to fourth-ranked NFT categories.
Game, art, and collectible NFTs follow closely behind, with market values ranging from 2.3 to 3.3 billion US dollars, which are also the areas of most consumer interest. However, as some NFTs can be classified into multiple categories, it is challenging to categorize each NFT accurately. For example, if Nike issues avatar NFT projects, would these NFTs be classified as IP or avatars? As the NFT market matures, the definition of these types will become clearer.
In terms of percentages, avatar NFTs account for nearly 50% of the market value, while the market value share of other subcategories is mostly in the single digits.
The top NFT categories will continue to expand with the development of the NFT market, such as art NFTs. Compared to the global art market valued at 17 trillion US dollars, the art NFT market is just the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, collectible NFTs and similar types will gradually fade over time, while practical NFTs, including membership and cash flow rights, will stand out.
The total trading volume in the NFT industry has exceeded 28 billion US dollars. With new entrants continuously joining, more companies are leveraging existing IP or launching new IP to issue non-fungible tokens, ensuring the industry's continued prosperity. Avatars, art, and collectible NFTs dominate the trading volume, but more importantly, these NFTs are mostly static, meaning they provide little additional utility value apart from representing ownership and Discord access. While static NFTs are valuable, the demand for non-static NFTs, such as game assets, utility assets, and music NFTs, will continue to rise as investors seek enhanced experiences through their holdings.
Apart from game NFTs, the percentage distribution of trading volumes for other NFT categories closely mirrors their market value distribution. It is noteworthy that the trading volume share of game assets is lower than their market value share, indicating that many game assets in collections may not have been traded.
While cumulative data can reflect many insights, they may not provide a forward-looking perspective. The 30-day trading volume statistics show a surge in trading volume for game NFTs, revealing their higher market value but lower cumulative trading volume. Since market value calculations typically rely on the most recent transaction prices of the NFT collections, market value growth often outpaces trading volume.
On one hand, the growth in trading volume of game NFTs may signify a further recovery in the gaming industry, as homogeneous game tokens drive the growth of the gaming industry's market value. On the other hand, NFTs may serve as a lagging indicator, with the surge in homogeneous game tokens acting as a catalyst for the development of game NFTs. In the future, the performance difference between the homogeneous and non-homogeneous game token markets will be a critical indicator of the gaming industry's development trajectory.
Apart from the gaming market, there is a significant disparity between the trading volume and cumulative total of the NFT art market, with some trading volume coming from avatar NFT projects. Cryptographic art sales will continue to be dominated by four major platforms, namely Art Blocks, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, and SuperRare.
Ultimately, the long tail of intangible assets will be tokenized on-chain, and the types in the NFT market will become increasingly diverse. Despite the overall downtrend in the crypto market in recent months, the NFT market continues to break new records. NFT traders and investors should keep in mind two seemingly opposing viewpoints - in the long run, the NFT market will continue to evolve, growing into a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars; however, at certain times, the NFT market may also be generally overvalued.
