NFT Sales Rise 24.57 Percent to 47.14 Million USD as Bitcoin Volume More Than Doubles

The NFT market just posted its strongest weekly performance in months. According to data from CryptoSlam captured on October 17, weekly NFT sales climbed 24.57 percent to 47.14 million USD, as buyer participation exploded and Bitcoin-based collections staged a dramatic comeback.

The rebound arrives after a long stretch of declining interest in the collectibles sector, and it comes with an unusual twist: while overall transaction counts actually fell, the number of unique buyer addresses more than tripled, suggesting that fresh demand — not churn — is driving the recovery.

Weekly sales hit 47.14 million USD

CryptoSlam’s rolling seven-day dashboard recorded 47,138,650 USD in total NFT sales, a 24.57 percent gain over the preceding seven-day period. Based on the tracker’s rounded growth rate, the prior week’s total stood at approximately 37.84 million USD, meaning the market added roughly 9.30 million USD in incremental volume week over week.

The comparison differs slightly from the snapshot published seven days earlier, when crypto.news recorded weekly sales of 39.85 million USD with 778,055 transactions and 30,332 buyer addresses. The rolling windows capture different cutoffs, but the direction is unambiguous: money is flowing back into NFTs.

Participation metrics tell the more striking story. Buyer addresses rose 252.23 percent to 107,061, while seller addresses climbed 192.38 percent to 89,117. Transactions, however, moved in the opposite direction, falling 32.35 percent to 507,562. Fewer trades spread across far more participants points to broader accumulation rather than high-frequency flipping — although CryptoSlam notes that buyer and seller figures count wallet addresses, which do not necessarily represent separate individuals.

Ethereum holds the crown, Bitcoin more than doubles

Ethereum retained first place among blockchains with 19.59 million USD in weekly sales, up 18.48 percent, according to CryptoSlam data cited by crypto.news. That gave the network roughly 41.6 percent of the global total — more than the combined 16.63 million USD recorded by second-ranked Polygon and third-ranked Bitcoin. Ethereum’s buyer addresses surged 261.50 percent to 15,371, and the tracker separately identified 1.61 million USD in wash-trading volume.

Polygon posted 8.38 million USD in sales, down 1.99 percent, with buyer addresses up 172.77 percent to 27,419. But the standout performer was Bitcoin, whose NFT sales more than doubled, rising 132.05 percent to 8.25 million USD. Bitcoin’s buyer count jumped 269.59 percent to 4,594, and the network’s separately tracked wash volume was a modest 86,406 USD.

Further down the table, BNB Chain recorded 4.10 million USD, up 116.91 percent, with buyer addresses up 251.70 percent. Immutable ranked fifth at 2.55 million USD, down 5.19 percent, and Base completed the top six with 1.88 million USD, down 7.33 percent. Combined, the six leading networks generated approximately 44.75 million USD, or about 94.9 percent of global sales.

Bitcoin inscriptions dominate high-value sales

CryptoSlam’s detailed sales ranking was led by three Bitcoin transactions. The largest was an 8888 BRC-20 inscription, identified by the prefix 85760015743bc7e, which fetched 2,968,838 USD — or 36.3755 BTC — approximately two days before the snapshot. That single sale represented roughly 36 percent of Bitcoin’s entire weekly NFT volume.

Two X@AI BRC-20 entries followed: one inscription sold for 638,447 USD, or 7.6924 BTC, around six days earlier, and another for 514,872 USD, or 6.3536 BTC, roughly two days before capture. The highest non-Bitcoin entries included a Uniswap V3 Positions NFT-V1 on Ethereum, which changed hands for 217,865 USD settled in USDC, and a Cardano ADA Handle sold for 205,082 USD.

Courtyard leads collections as Pudgy Penguins rebound

Among collections, Polygon-based Courtyard held first place with 7.68 million USD in sales, up 1.65 percent, across 133,157 transactions. The 8888 BRC-20 category ranked second at 2.97 million USD — its entire volume coming from that single record sale, up 807.52 percent as a category.

Ethereum’s Argonauts took third with 2.75 million USD, up 104.70 percent, while Pudgy Penguins followed at 2.56 million USD, a 77.03 percent gain across 407 transactions. The penguins’ resurgence follows separate coverage of American collector Adam Weitsman, who said he bought 117 Pudgy Penguins over the October 10-11 weekend — a purchase he described as support for the project as it prepares for the December shutdown of the Abstract chain. CryptoPunks, by contrast, placed seventh with 1.34 million USD, down 45.49 percent from just 15 transactions.

What the numbers mean for the market

One week does not make a trend, and the weekly figures remain a fraction of the multibillion-dollar volumes recorded during the 2021 boom. But the composition of this recovery is notable. A single whale inscription accounted for more than a third of Bitcoin’s volume, Ethereum’s growth was broad-based, and Polygon’s Courtyard — a tokenized physical-asset project rather than a speculative PFP collection — continues to lead the collection rankings.

The explosion in buyer addresses alongside falling transaction counts also hints at a market maturing away from wash-trading-heavy dynamics, even as CryptoSlam still flags significant wash volume on Polygon and Base separately from its rankings.

For context, CoinGecko listed Bitcoin near 81,523 USD and Ethereum around 2,429 USD during checks on October 17, with the total cryptocurrency market capitalization at approximately 2.84 trillion USD, down 0.87 percent over 24 hours. Broad crypto prices remain soft — which makes the NFT sector’s week of gains stand out even more.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. NFT markets are highly volatile and illiquid. Always do your own research before making any purchase decisions.