Market Analysis after Blur Airdrop: Record Trading Volume, Overtaking OpenSea; Proof CEO: Still Heading Towards Zero Royalties

Produced by the well-known NFT community Proof, in the latest episode of "Daily NFT Countdown," Proof's Research Director Sam shared with the audience the changes in the NFT market after the Blur airdrop, and also shared on Twitter the impact of future royalty mechanisms on trading platforms.

Impact of Blur Airdrop on NFT Market

According to Sam's statistics, the volume of NFT transactions in the market has hit a new high in the past 9 days since the Blur airdrop, with 81% of the volume coming from Blur and only 15.4% from OpenSea.

However, when looking at the number of unique buyer wallets, there is little change compared to before, even a slight decrease. Additionally, the data shows that despite the high volume of transactions on Blur, the number of users on OpenSea is still about twice that of Blur.

Since the number of buyers has not increased but the transaction volume has significantly risen, it indicates an increase in the average transaction value per buyer. The table below shows that the average transaction value of NFT buyers has increased significantly, with each buyer spending around 2.5 ETH.

Sam stated that this phenomenon is due to users continuously engaging in low-buy and high-sell flips on Blur, with an average of 1.5 transactions per NFT. This clearly confirms that the Blur airdrop has attracted many airdrop hunters, as continuous trading or bidding on Blur accumulates points to receive more token airdrops.

However, this phenomenon has not driven up the market value of NFTs. Whether it's large-cap projects like BAYC or Cryptopunks, or mid-cap projects like Pudgy Penguines or Goblins, most of the market values are showing a slight decline.

Proof Director: Heading Towards Royalty-Free

In addition to analyzing market data, Sam also made predictions about the changes in royalty payments in the NFT market.

Despite ongoing debates about NFT royalties in recent months, both major NFT markets, Blur and OpenSea, have adjusted their royalty policies this week in the name of protecting creators' rights, with both platforms currently charging a minimum of 0.5% royalty.

Regarding the royalty adjustments, Sam believes that in the initial weeks, people will choose to pay royalties. However, as time goes on, most people will still choose to use markets that do not require royalty payments.

Sam attributes this to two reasons:

1. Paying royalties can increase loyalty points on the Blur platform, but with the airdrop release, this mechanism has been proven to be too vague
2. The rewards for the Blur third-quarter airdrop will be less attractive, making it less appealing

"I think this is something that happens when 'free-riding' can be done in a choice and anonymous manner. Initially, people want to believe that they are supporting creators, but as time goes on and everyone chooses not to pay royalties, they choose to save their money as well," Sam said.

Chart: avg rate people CHOSE to pay creators on Blur.

1) First few weeks, people chose to pay

2) As time went on, most migrated to 0% (then 0.5% when that became the minimum)

I think this is what happens over time when free-riding is optional and anonymous. pic.twitter.com/pWClrd2Sft

— NFTstatistics.eth (@punk9059) February 19, 2023