Major NFT index rose about 10% in January, outperforming Ethereum | CoinDesk JAPAN

The index that tracks the price of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) rose nearly 10% in January, outpacing Ethereum (ETH).

(Nansen.ai)

Nansen’s NFT-500 index, which tracks the 500 most valuable NFT stocks, is up about 9.35% year-to-date, with the Blue Chip 10 up a similar amount. Ethereum rose about 2% during the same period, according to data from CoinDesk.

Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, said in an interview with CoinDesk at Taiwan Blockchain Week that the price of NFTs will continue to rise in the crypto winter of 2022-2023. He pointed to the new maturity and diversity of the NFT space as a reason for the recovery.

“Most of the speculators in the NFT and GameFi space have left, and those who remain are genuinely interested, so the base has been strengthened,” he said.

January’s rally was unique as NFT prices failed to keep up with Ethereum’s year-end gains. But in search of practicality, or real-world use, traders appear to have changed their minds.

This rise came even as the average NFT price fell 13% to $107, according to CryptoSlam data. Although the number of transactions increased by 30% in the same month, sales decreased by 36% to $1.1 billion (approximately 165 billion yen, at an exchange rate of 1 dollar = 150 yen). That’s because wash trades, a form of market manipulation in which buyers and sellers collude to manipulate demand, account for 39% of all trades.

Some crypto asset sectors related to NFTs are not doing well.

The CoinDesk Culture & Entertainment Select Index (CNES), which includes Metaverse tokens Axie Infinity (AXS), The Sandbox (SAND), and Decentraland (MANA), fell 22%.

｜Translation: CoinDesk JAPAN
｜Edited by: Toshihiko Inoue
｜Image: OpenSea
｜Original text: NFTs Outpaced Ether’s Gains in January