Ethereum Price Struggles but These NFT Prices Are Pumping

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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June 26, 2023 06:58 EDT

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The price of Ethereum’s native token ETH may be struggling, but some NFTs are flying high in the market following the network’s highly anticipated transition to proof-of-stake.

The NFT collections that seems to have enjoyed a boom in popularity over the past week include Bored Ape Yacht Club, RENGA by DirtyRobot and Gods Unchained, which recorded weekly trading volumes of $6.6m, $6.1m and $4.9m, respectively, according to DappRadar. The biggest gainer among them was Gods Unchained, which saw its trading volume rise by 391% compared to the week before.

While Bored Ape Yacht Club is relatively well-known, RENGA by DirtyRobot and Gods Unchained are less known NFT collections in the community.

The Web3 domain name service Ethereum Name Service was ranked as the 6^th most traded NFT collection over the same time period, after ranking as the most popular NFT collection earlier this month.

Despite some NFT collections seeing a surge in popularity, however, the overall trading volume on the dominant marketplace OpenSea still fell over the past 7 days. According to data from DappRadar, OpenSea’s overall volume was down 22.4% for the past 7 days compared to the prior 7 days, coming in at $80.9m.

The second-ranked NFT marketplace was Magic Eden on the Solana (SOL) network, which came in with a seven-day trading volume of $27.2m.

The news of the surging popularity of some NFT collections was first reported by Bloomberg last week, with the news outlet calling the rising prices “a bright spot amid overall declining sales for NFTs.” It added that NFT sales have been hit hard by the crypto winter, and said NFT sales have fallen 675% in August compared to the same month last year.

Further, Bloomberg also pointed to the Merge and its implications for NFTs, claiming improvements in terms of transaction speed and cost on Ethereum could be a boon for NFT collectors.

It’s worth noting, however, that the Merge itself is not expected to deliver any improvements in terms of transaction speed or cost. As confirmed by the Ethereum Foundation, it is simply a change of the consensus mechanism of the network, not a scaling upgrade.