Monthly NFT buyers dip below 800K as searches ‘fall off a cliff’

The unique number of NFT buyers in February dipped below 800,000 for the first time since October, and search volume for nonfungibles also dropped significantly.

According to data from CryptoSlam, there were 796,009 NFT buyers on secondary markets in Feb. (down 12% compared to Jan.) that accounted for roughly $2.6 billion worth of sales (down 40% on the month before).

A caveat to that however, is that January was a massive month for NFTs which may suggest the decreases in February are simply part of a relatively healthy pullback. January saw a record number of unique secondary NFT buyers at 904,13 and OpenSea also posted record sales volume in January totaling around $5 billion before pulling back to around $3 billion last month.

Looking at Google Trends, however, it appears that global keyword search volume for “NFTs” has also dropped significantly. Over the past week, interest has dropped roughly 60-70% from the heights of late January (Jan. 23- Jan.29.)

The U.S. represents the most interest globally at the time of writing while Japan currently shows the lowest interest in NFTs out of 61 nations, despite local tech and telecommunications giant Rakuten launching an NFT marketplace late last month.

NFT proponent and managing partner of NFT investment fund Sfermion Andrew Steinwold likened the current pullback to the bull market and subsequent crash of 2017/2018, as he questioned whether interest will pick back up again anytime soon.

Worldwide NFT search volume fell off a cliff

Reminds me A LOT of the crypto 2017 bull market and subsequent 2018 bear market

How long will the disinterest last until it starts to pick back up? Or will it? pic.twitter.com/4iQxcpLuYP

— Andrew Steinwold (@AndrewSteinwold) March 2, 2022

Specific reasons why general interest has waned so dramatically over the past month are unclear, although top platform OpenSea was the victim of a $1.7 million hack in February among other things.

The Russian and Ukrainian conflict may have also shifted the focus to cryptocurrencies, as global attention appears to have shifted to use cases such as digital payments, fundraising and storing value amid uncertain times.

Related: SEC investigating NFT market over potential securities violations: Reports

March so far

CryptoSlam’s data also shows that 10 out of the top 12 NFT supporting blockchains have also seen a decrease in sales volume over the past 24 hours. The top two, Ethereum and Solana, have posted dips of 4.24% and 11% each, while the biggest losses are Avalanche and Panini with 27.79% and 36.20% respectively.

Third-ranked Flow and sixth-ranked Arbitrum are the only networks to see gains, with 20.89% and a whopping 539%.