The mega-hype surrounding the Bored Ape Yacht Club has died down, but the market for the prestigious NFT is not dead, as recent sales show.
In the wake of this year's crypto crash, the hype around non-fungible tokens (NFT) has visibly faded. Prices have fallen sharply, and trading volumes have plummeted for most projects. However, some «blue chip» Ethereum NFTs are still fetching substantial prices.
For example, a «Bored Ape» sold for just under $1 million on Wednesday. The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #232 changed hands on the secondary market on the Opensea platform for 800 Ethereum, equating to about $927,000. What's special about this bored ape is its gold-colored fur, which less than 0.5 percent of bored-looking primates have. Meanwhile, number 1268 also found a new owner for 780 Ethereum on Thursday.
Still Worth a Fraction
Many NFTs of the once-hyped Bored Ape series have lost considerable value in recent months, including the piece that singer Justin Bieber purchased for the Ethereum equivalent of $1.3 million earlier this year. Currently, his Bored Ape is presently worth around $69,000.
Unsurprisingly, prestige NFTs like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club continue to dominate trading. But the extent to which these two collections make up a large portion of the 50 most expensive sales suggests that the market is shifting, judges DappRadar, a kind of app store for decentralized apps (DApps). Each week, the company highlights the most expensive NFT sales and the most interesting ones from the past seven days.
Expensive, but Down Significantly
Of the 50 most expensive NFT sales last week, 42 were either a Bored Ape or a CryptoPunk, meaning 94 percent of the top sales were for just two collections. According to DappRadar, this shows that many owners are selling their top-priced NFTs. Apes and Punks have retained comparatively high value since FTX's collapse, although it appears that NFT holders are looking to free up their Ethereum cryptocurrency by selling these still expensive assets.
A look at the averages shows just how much prices have fallen. The average selling price for Bored Apes was $68,430 last week, far below the average all-time high of $312,101 in April. For CryptoPunks, the average selling price was still $88,300 whereas at their peak CryptoPunks had a minimum price of $429,564.