NFT Trade Volume Rebounds But Gaming Still Dominates Blockchain Industry

Last month proved to be an exciting one for the dApp industry, with surging interest for NFTs and heightened activity in the crypto gaming space dominating the blockchain scene. 

A new report from DappRadar shows that NFT sales hit the roof last month thanks to high-profile drops of new collections like Otherdeeds and Moonbirds. NFT trading volume hit an incredible $6.3 billion during the month, only the third time in history it has broken through the $6 billion barrier in a single month. 

A huge chunk of that trading activity came from highly anticipated new NFT drops by Yuga Labs and the PROOF Collective, which together generated more than $1.2 billion in transaction volume. 

Yuga Labs, the creator of the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, stole the show with the April 30 launch of its new Otherdeeds NFT collection. The Otherdeeds NFTs represent virtual land plots in Yuga Labs’s new Otherside metaverse and as such they were in big demand. A total of 55,000 NFTs were minted that day, generating a cool $760 million in transaction volume and also causing one of the biggest ever spikes in Ehetreum’s gas price, with fees reaching a high of 2.5 ETH ($5,800) at one point during the mint. 

Not to be outdone, PROOF Collective, a private group of around 1,000 NFT creators and collectors, underlined its emergence as one of the hottest Web3 brands with the launch of its pixelated owl collection Moonbirds, driving almost $500 million in transaction volume. With that, Moonbirds came from nowhere to become the 11th most heavily-traded NFT collection in history just days after its launch. 

NFT sales were also driven by a surge of activity on the Solana blockchain, which benefited massively from its recent integration with the world’s most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, DappRadar said in its report. That integration meant Solana-based NFTs suddenly gained a lot more exposure to the community, resulting in a 91% jump in sales volume compared to the previous month. 

The hottest Solana collection in April was DeGods, which generated $44 million of the total $295 million in NFT sales volume on the blockchain last month. Another strong performer was the Okay Bears NFT collection, which did $23 million in trading volume. 

Blockchain Games Maintain Their Bounce

April was also notable for how blockchain gaming continues to drive activity in the wider Dapp ecosystem. Last month, blockchain game dapps accounted for 52% of unique active wallets (UAWs) in the space, maintaining their dominance of the industry that has stretched back to last October, DappRadar said. 

The most popular networks for blockchain games were BNB Chain, Wax, Hive and Polygon, though increased activity was also witnessed on ecosystems such as Avalanche and Harmony. The top five blockchain games according to wallet activity remained unchanged, with Splinterlands topping the leaderboard, followed by Alien Worlds, Farmers World, Upland and SecondLive. However, it’s notable that games such as Axie Infinity and Crazy Defense Heroes, which helped establish the so-called play-to-earn gaming industry, have now fallen outside of the top ten. 

DappRadar also drew attention to the growing popularity of a new niche within the blockchain gaming industry, known as “Move-to-Earn”, which melds the concept of gaming with fitness apps. One of the hottest apps in the M2E space is Stepn, a lifestyle dapp that rewards users with Green Satoshi Tokens (GST) for walking, jogging and running. To begin earning, fitness fans must first purchase an NFT sneaker that allows them to begin tracking their activity on the Stepn mobile app. 

The popularity of Stepn is evidenced by the price of admission, with Stepn NFT sneakers currently averaging a floor price of $1,200. Altogether, Stepn NFTs have amassed over 32,000 SOL, or $2.83 million in trade volume. 

Stepn’s GST token has also made significant gains over the last month, running counter to the rest of the crypto industry which has been moving sideways. GST ended the month trading at $6.42, up 40% from the end of March. Meanwhile Stepn’s governance coin Green Metaverse Token (GMT) jumped by an incredible 327% to $3.25. 

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