OpenSea NFT trading volume surges as Bored Ape mania intensifies

NFT trading volumes on OpenSea are surging in January amid a renewed speculative frenzy on Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).

According to data posted by “rchen8” on Dune Analytics, OpenSea has generated more than $700 million worth of trading volume since the start of 2022, with Jan. 3 being the biggest day of the year with a whopping $255.8 million worth of 24-hour volume.

While popular onlookers as Wu Blockchain have asserted that the volume on Jan. 3 was a record high for OpenSea, previous data posted by rchen8 on Dune Analytics shows that Aug. 29 saw the all-time high (ATH) of $322 million.

In December, OpenSea’s monthly volume topped $3.24 billion and fell just 5.3% short of the platform’s ATH in August of $3.42 billion. With the NFT marketplace already conducting more than $700 million worth of trading volume within the first four days of January, the record highs may soon be broken if the momentum continues throughout this month.

Bored Ape mania

A factor that may be contributing to OpenSea’s surging volumes, is the recent mania surrounding the BAYC and MAYC NFTs along with a basket of other projects from Yuga Labs.

Data from CryptoSlam shows that the MAYC is currently the top-ranked NFT project in terms of seven-day volume on secondary markets at $93.2 million, with the BAYC NFTs following closely behind at second with $88.4 million.

Related: Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs catch up to CryptoPunks, flips floor price

Over the past 30 days, the MAYC and BAYC projects have generated $189.7 million and $182.6 million apiece, making them the third and fourth highest ranked NFT collections at the time of writing.

In terms of 24-hour volume, MAYC has garnered $18.7 million worth of secondary volume, while the BAYC has generated $14 million. According to OpenSea, the current floor price for BAYC NFTs is a hefty 67 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $250,000, while the MAYC NFTs are currently going for 15.87 ETH, or $59,300.

In January so far, several Pop-culture icons such as rapper Eminem, musician Britney Spears, and comedian Dave Chappelle all reportedly snapping up BAYC NFTs for six-figure sums this month.

BREAKING: @DaveChappelle just purchased @BoredApeYC #8343 for 99 ETH ($371,343.06) Welcome

Wallet created today, and ENS held the domain davidchappelle.eth for him and allowed him to mint 2 it hours ago

Ironically, his name on OpenSea is “FollowtheWhitePeople” pic.twitter.com/E7B3ynpqCy

— m0rgan.ethᵍᵐ ‍♀️ (@Helloimmorgan) January 2, 2022