Global NFT spending on track to reach all-time high, with $37bn spent so far

Spending on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to soar in 2022, with $37 billion already sent to NFT marketplaces so far this year, new research from blockchain data platform Chainalysis shows.

NFTs have become very popular over the past year, and according to the firm’s latest report, activity in the NFT space is stabilizing and spending is expected to reach an all-time high by the year’s end.

Chainalysis found that collectors sent over $37 billion to NFT marketplaces in 2022 so far, putting them on pace to beat the total of $40 billion sent in 2021.

“NFTs have been one of the most dynamic and prominent parts of Web3 over the last two years,” said Ethan McMahon, Economist at Chainalysis.

“To a large extent, the current excitement around NFTs stems from their utilization in buying and trading digital art. But the potential of this technology is far greater as it can be used to not only give the holder ownership over the digital data, or media associated with the token, but also real-world assets.”

As the popularity of NFTs continues to grow, so too has the number of active NFT buyers and sellers. In Q1 2022, 950,000 unique addresses bought or sold an NFT, up from 627,000 in Q4 2021. Overall, the number of active NFT buyers and sellers has increased every quarter since Q2 2020.

In Q2 2022 (as of May 1), 491,000 addresses have transacted with NFTs, putting the NFT market on pace to continue its quarterly growth trend in the number of participants.

Chainalysis also tracked the monthly share of internet traffic to NFT marketplaces by geography and found that while some regions were more interactive than others, web traffic to marketplaces in the Middle East spiked in mid-2021, and has since stabilized, accounting for around 5 percent of total global traffic.

“While there have been some significant monthly fluctuations, for most part we see that NFT collectors — with a transaction size between $10,000 to $100,000 — make up the bulk of activity. Institutional investors — those with transaction values greater than $100,000 — are, however, nipping at their heels, and even make up the majority of activity in certain weeks when extremely large purchases have been made,” McMahon added.