The End of NFTs?: Panic As Sales Plunge 92% Amid Market ‘Collapse’

The tech world is in a shambles after sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) fell 92%t since September.

 Wall Street Journal reports that NFT sales fell to a daily average of 19,000 this week, compared to 225,000 seven months ago. On Wednesday, Bitcoin fell below $28,000. There has not been such a steep decline since 2020.

Ether (ETH) neared $2,000, far below its high of $4,600 in November. 

If you buy Bitcoin and keep it at the exchange, you are net short, you are contributing to the price of Bitcoin going down, even if your goal is higher prices.

Here's why:

Listen to me pleb, this is important.
1/n

— Rufas Kamau ⚡ (@RufasKe) May 8, 2022

While a 92% dip can not be considered a minor decrease, NFTs are here to stay by all indications.

During the first quarter of 2022, NFT trades reached $8 billion.

“We are seeing more of a form of stabilisation, in line with the last quarter of 2021. Conversely, the volume of sales fell by nearly 50%, with a very marked slowdown in the volume of buyers and sellers,” according to NonFungible.

CNET reports that on Sunday, $52 million worth of NFTs were sold on OpenSea. But for some who have forked out a fortune on NFTs, the message is bleak.

An NFT purchased for $2.9M received an offer for a paltry $14000 offer. 

In March, Sina Estavi, CEO of the Malaysian blockchain company Bridge Oracle, paid $ 2.9 million for an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet.

The businessman recorded the tweet in the Opensea market last week and expected to sell it for at least $50 million. 

The Dorsey NFT was put up for auction in April by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sina Estav.

I decided to sell this NFT ( the world's first ever tweet ) and donate 50% of the proceeds ( $25 million or more ) to the charity @GiveDirectly
‌‌‌‌‌‌
🖇 https://t.co/cnv5rtAEBQ pic.twitter.com/yiaZjJt1p0

— Estavi (@sinaEstavi) April 6, 2022

“This NFT is not just a tweet, this is the Mona Lisa of the digital world.” 

He hoped to raise more than $25m from the sale and offered to donate half of the proceeds to charity.

“The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it, I might never sell it,” Estavi told CoinDesk via a WhatsApp message.

Estavi is rethinking the sale of the NFT.

“It matters to me who buys this NFT,” he to the Wall Street Journal, “because I think its value is much higher than can be described and anyone who wants to buy it will have to deserve it.”