1 in 3 NFT Collections Fail, Blockchain Analysis Shows

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are apparently petering out a little, with one in three collections “essentially expired” without much trading activity, Bloomberg reported Saturday (March 26), citing blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

Another third have been trading below the amount it costs issuers to mint the tokens. Nansen reportedly looked into around 8,400 collections comprised of 19.3 million individual NFTs.

The failed projects have been mounting and long-time crypto observers have been reminiscing on the bust of initial coin offerings (ICOs) from 2018 — at that time, thousands of digital tokens quickly lost value after regulators warned they’re probably unregulated securities.

NFTs could be like ICOs, in that they became wildly popular in crypto with speculators looking to take advantage of the interest along with the surging prices. An anonymous collector known in the Bloomberg article as WhaleShark said the similarities were “uncanny” and the reasons were the fast flows of the money and ignorant buying into the space.

NFT sales have been ebbing recently, with the 30 day sales volume down 40% from the previous month, according to the report. OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, has seen its trading volume down by 67% in the past month.

Industry participants have pontificated that the decline is more a sign of the cooling of the demand for NFTs — not because there’s been a bust necessarily.

PYMNTS wrote that Madonna has been a recent entry into the NFT field, having bought one from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which has become a widely known type of NFT.

See also: Madonna Becomes Latest Celeb Aboard Bored Ape

The acquisition was valued at $500,000 on Friday (March 24), and Madonna has now entered a group of celebrities who have bought NFTs that also includes Eminem, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber.

“I finally entered the MetaVerse,” Madonna wrote on Instagram and Twitter (where she changed her avatar to an image of the cartoon ape), the report noted. “My very own Ape!”

The singer also gave her thanks to MoonPay, a cryptocurrency firm allowing people to buy NFTs. She said everyone needs “protection from Evil Eye.”