- Solana NFTs saw $295 million in volume during April
- Integration with OpenSea has boosted entire ecosystem
- Near-zero gas fees and low barriers to entry mean new NFT traders increasingly flocking to Solana
- Not Okay Bears derivative on Ethereum highlights how far Solana has come
NFTs exploded onto the scene in 2021, with $17 billion in sales throughout the year. So far this year, despite the extreme risk-off environment with assets red across the board, this report from Chainalysis shows that volume in the NFT space is stabilising.
With every long-term indicator pointing towards longevity in the space, I thought it would be interesting to assess where these sales are taking place, and whether Ethereum still remains king.
One trend jumped out pretty swiftly – the growth of Solana.
OpenSea
In the short history of NFTs, the vast majority of volume has occurred on Ethereum, mostly on OpenSea, the marketplace built originally for Ethereum. That is beginning to change, however. OpenSea recently integrated with Solana, a watershed moment for Solana NFT collections that to date had been limited to marketplaces exclusively for Solana collections, such as Magic Eden and Solanart.
In another poignant moment, a derivative collection called Not Okay Bears was removed yesterday from OpenSea, after complaints from Okay Bears collectors. Traditionally, it has been the other way around – knock-off collections launching on Solana, but a high-profile imitation on Ethereum feels like a seminal moment for Solana.
Sticking with Okay Bears, they are currently the hottest collection on Solana, trading at a floor price of 222 SOL ($11,500) and with a stout volume of 1.5 million SOL ($77 million) over the last month – and
