The world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) experienced a sharp decline in the last month, announcing their slowest sales since the beginning of 2021. According to CryptoSlam data, sales figures for these digital collectibles dropped to $296 million in September, accounting for a 20% decrease from $373 million in August. This is a significant downshift from the booming sales of $1.6 billion seen in March of 2024, which was the peak period for digital collectibles.
January 2021 was the last time the sales volume for NFTs fell below $300 million, tumbling to $109 million. In addition, there was also a 32% reduction in the total volume of NFT transactions from 7.3 million in August to 4.9 million in September.
Yet, amid the declining trends, some positive statistics were observed, too. The average transaction value for NFTs did see an upswing of 18% in September, from $50.71 to $60.
This drop in NFT sales coincides with increased attention the market has been receiving from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, received a Wells notice from the regulator, alleging that the platform may be housing unregistered securities.
The regulations became more pronounced mid-September when Flyfish Club, an NFT-themed restaurant, faced a $750,000 fine from the SEC for its NFT sales. This action was met with criticism from SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, stating that selling NFTs was simply an alternative method of selling memberships and they shouldn’t be subject to securities laws.
Despite this ongoing pressure from SEC, Luca Schnetzler, the CEO of popular NFT collection Pudgy Penguins, has dismissed the regulator’s steps as “nonsense.” Schnetzler argued that if the SEC was to target OpenSea, it would also have to take action against other big-time players exploring the NFT marketplace, including Sotheby’s, Nike, and Pokemon.