NFT sales jumped 57% in a week — and the buyers came back faster than the traders. Weekly sales of non-fungible tokens climbed to roughly 55.5 million USD in the seven days ending September 26, up 57.17% from the previous week, according to data from CryptoSlam, while the number of buyer addresses surged almost 40%.
By Imani Davis | September 26, 2026
The Hook: The Buyers Are Returning
After a long stretch where NFTs were written off as a relic of the last bull market, the weekly numbers tell a different story. Buyer addresses rose 39.65% to 160,565, and seller addresses climbed 39.19% to 150,410, according to CryptoSlam data reported by crypto.news. Transactions rose a more modest 5.93% to 825,513.
That gap matters. Buyers growing much faster than transactions means new participants are entering the market — not just the same traders churning the same collectibles at a faster pace. One caveat: CryptoSlam counts wallet addresses, not people, so one collector with five wallets counts five times. Still, the direction is clear: interest is widening, not just deepening.
The rebound came alongside strength in the two largest cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin up several percent over the week and Ethereum — the network where most NFT trading happens — also gaining. Total crypto market capitalization sat near 2.97 trillion USD, per CoinGecko data cited in the report.
On-Chain Evidence: Ethereum Dominates the Leaderboard
Ethereum led all blockchains with about 30.33 million USD in weekly NFT sales — more than half the global total — and that figure was up a striking 113.52% from the prior period. Its 19,043 buyer addresses grew 40.61%. Behind it, the field spread across chains that serve very different crowds:
- Ethereum — 30.33 million USD in sales, up 113.52%.
- Polygon — second with 7.44 million USD, up 6.66%, though its listed wash-trading volume was far larger at 18.50 million USD.
- Bitcoin — third at 5.13 million USD, up 18.33%, boosted by two of the week’s largest individual sales.
- Base — fourth at 3.30 million USD, up 87.59%, powered by the Beezie collection.
- BNB Chain and Immutable — 2.66 million USD and 2.39 million USD respectively, with Solana close behind at 2.03 million USD.
The Core Conflict: A Rally Built on Whales or a Real Recovery?
Dig into the collection data and the picture gets more complicated. CryptoPunks, the OG Ethereum collection, ranked first with 8.24 million USD in sales — a leap of more than 1,000% — but on just 85 transactions. That is a handful of whales making large purchases, not a crowd. Courtyard on Polygon ranked second at 6.56 million USD while its transactions and buyer addresses actually declined.
The week’s biggest single sale shows the same concentration. Beezie #4365, a collectible on Base, sold for 1 million USD — settled in 1 million USDC — and represented about 59% of that entire collection’s weekly volume. The next two largest sales were Bitcoin-based BRC-20 NFTs that went for roughly 519,000 USD and 409,000 USD. Together, the five largest trades of the week totaled about 2.70 million USD — roughly 5% of all NFT sales.
So the rally is real, but its foundations are narrow: big collectors are making big bets on premium pieces, while broad retail activity grows more slowly. Whether that’s a healthy rebuilding phase or a thin market dressed up by a few headline trades is the question the next few weeks of data will answer.
Market Implications: What This Means for Your Collection
If you own NFTs, the week’s strength is the first genuinely encouraging demand signal in a while — floor prices follow volume, and Ethereum’s doubling of sales is the kind of flow that lifts the whole ecosystem. If you’ve been priced out of blue chips, the data suggests liquidity is returning first to the top of the market, where whales move first.
Two cautions before you treat this as a trend. First, wash trading — people trading with themselves to inflate volume — remains significant on some chains, which is why analysts separate reported sales from suspicious volume. Second, one million-dollar sale can skew a small collection’s numbers dramatically, as Beezie’s week proves. Percentages on small bases flatter.
The Verdict
A 57% weekly jump in NFT sales with buyers up almost 40% is a legitimate green shoot — the strongest in a long time. But with whales responsible for the largest chunks of volume and single sales distorting collection rankings, this is a recovery led from the top. Watch whether transaction counts and mid-tier collections catch up in the coming weeks. That, not another headline-grabbing CryptoPunks trade, will tell you whether the NFT market is truly back.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
8.24M in punks volume on just 85 transactions is not a recovery, thats like 6 guys with money to burn lol
85 transactions for 8.24m in punks is whales rebalancing, not a market. the 39% buyer jump is wallet inflation
tbf the article flags the wallet counting problem. one collector running five wallets counts five times in that 39% buyer jump, so the real influx is softer than the headline
that Beezie #4365 sale at 1M USDC was literally 59% of the entire collection volume for the week. one buyer IS the market there
one buyer doing 59% of beezie volume and the headline still says buyers flooding back lmao
Same pattern as every rally since 2021. Whales move first, retail follows later and holds the bags. Transactions only grew 5.93%, come back to me when that number leads
Exactly. And with transactions at 5.93% growth, the buyer count is mostly people aping a single cheap mint and never coming back. Retail flood is cope
59 percent of collection volume from one wallet is the least decentralized bull case i have ever seen. that floor is one bid away from zero
one bid away from zero is dramatic but one wallet away from a 40 percent floor cut isnt. same whale, same risk either way
that Beezie buyer swept a couple of the cheaper ones earlier this month too if you trace the address. one person really is the whole floor rn
@wallet_windex traced that address too, same buyer across the beezie sweep and a couple of the punk listings. one whale propping the floor is a bull case for exactly one wallet
one 1M USDC sale being 59 percent of beezie volume should be the headline. remove it and the collection did basically nothing
8.24m in punks on 85 transactions and the headline still says buyers flooding back. someone in pr is doing the whale marketing for free lol
buyer addresses up 40% but transactions only grew 5.93%? so everyone bought exactly one thing and dipped lol. even window shoppers at a mall generate more repeat traffic
39 percent more buyers doing basically the same transaction count means the airdrop farmer wallet multiplier is alive and well
buyer addresses up 40 percent against 5.93 percent transaction growth is the stat of the week. unique wallet metrics stopped meaning anything once airdrop farmers learned to multiply
wallet inflation plus 85 transactions for 8.24m, this rally is six whales and a spreadsheet. the 57 percent jump is marketing copy for one beezie buyer
buyers up 39 percent while transactions grew under 6 means the new wallets bought one cheap mint each and ghosted. call me when repeat buyer count leads the stat sheet