NFT Market Reaches New Heights Despite Concerns

The NFT market is booming again, but there are signs of questionable practices within the space.

Sales of the blockchain-backed digital items reached new peaks this month, with an all-time seven-day high of $375.4 million on Aug. 6, according to NonFungible.

NBA Top Shot is generally credited with catalyzing the NFT craze within sports. In the first eight months since its October 2020 launch, the Dapper Labs-created marketplace has hosted over $700 million in sales. On Wednesday, Dapper Labs debuted its first WNBA moments.

• The company, which licenses NBA content, raised $305 million in March at a valuation of over $7.5 billion.
• MLB Champions, an MLB-sponsored NFT marketplace that ran from 2018-2020, has had a revival in the secondary market, with 30-day sales ballooning from just over $3,000 in late July to over $551,000 on Thursday.
• MLB releases NFTs through Fanatics-owned Candy Digital as of June.
• Sorare, which sells soccer NFTs, raised $532 million at a $3.8 billion valuation in July.

However, the NFT market may have issues with “wash trading,” according to blockchain market analyst Nansen — which involves traders coordinating to repeatedly buy and sell the same asset to create an inflated perception of demand.

Even with that caveat, Nansen is bullish on the future of the NFT industry.