Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain are seeing a demand explosion in August. Monday was perhaps the peak of NFT mania as the leading marketplace OpenSea <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/opensea-becomes-first-nft-marketplace-to-surpass-1-billion-in-monthly-volumes/">registered</a> its highest daily trade volumes. To top this off, payments giant Visa announced a day later that it was looking into collectibles and had purchased a CryptoPunk for over $150K worth of Ether. The news sent many buyers into a frenzy and pushed the prices of already expensive collections even higher.
<h2>Visa’s CryptoPunk Purchase Sets a “Poignant Milestone” for Ethereum NFT Sales</h2>
OpenSea has registered back-to-back trading records this month. Earlier this week, it was reported that the marketplace had surpassed $1 billion in monthly trade volumes. However, at the same time platform reached a new high of $196 million in daily sales volume. 

According to data from Dune Analytics, this is a remarkable jump from Sunday’s record of $125 million. Collectively, the platform now sits at $1.83 billion in <a href="https://dappradar.com/ethereum/marketplaces/opensea">monthly trade volumes</a>, which represents a five-fold increase from July’s $325 million.

The recent upswing in OpenSea’s daily activity can be attributed to the skyrocketing demand for certain influential collections, especially <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/nft-marketplace-opensea-delists-cryptopunks-clone-polygonpunks/">CryptoPunks</a>. Created by Larva Labs, CryptoPunks are some of the earliest NFTs consisting of 10,000 pixelated characters. 

Financial services company Visa too couldn’t <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/visa-forays-into-nfts-with-cryptopunk-purchase-worth-165k/">resist</a> the lure of CryptoPunks and recently bought a token from the collection for over $150,000. Visa’s purchase was one of the 380 CryptoPunk sales closed yesterday. 

In an interview with Decrypt, Alex Svanevik, co-founder and CEO of crypto analytics firm Nansen, highlighted that Visa’s announcement was a watershed moment for the NFT market. He said:

“Visa revealing its purchase of CryptoPunk #7610 yesterday acted as a poignant milestone, suggesting NFTs are gaining legitimacy in mainstream markets.”
<h2>NFT Market Resumes Growth After Brief Dip</h2>
Earlier this year, NFTs took the world by storm when digital artist Beeple sold his work "Everydays - The First 5000 Days" for $69 million at a Christie’s auction. However, the hysteria generated from that sale disappeared this summer and NFT purchases began to shrink across the board.

Despite the decline, sports clubs, corporates, and celebrities rallied strongly behind the market and new offerings continued to drop in various places. These efforts resulted in a comeback in July, which culminated in a second boom for the market. 

Dune Analytics noted that the total sales volume for NFTs has climbed to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021 compared to $13.7 million in the first half of 2020. In fact, 45,000 new wallets engaged with NFts in the months of May and June alone.

“This indicates a good proportion of new users who became interested in NFTs at the very beginning of the 2021 hype then remained active over the following months,” the analytics platform stated in its NonFungible report.

Visa’s CryptoPunk Purchase Adds Fuel to Ethereum NFT Boom

Visa's recent purchase of a CryptoPunk NFT for over $150,000 has provided an addedf boost to Ethereum NFT sales.

Divya is a postgraduate from Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in International Relations and a professional writer with more than 5 years of experience writing for the web. She is an avid reader interested in the global financial system and the effects of decentralization. At Cryptoknowmics, she hopes to deliver clear and understandable content to inform readers about the latest events in the crypto sector.

Visa’s CryptoPunk Purchase Adds Fuel to Ethereum NFT Boom

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