NFTs Roar Back: $530M July Trading Volume Surpasses DeFi Activity

Digital collectibles just pulled off their best month in years—while DeFi degens got left holding the bag.

After months of being written off as dead, NFTs just flexed a $530M trading rebound in July. That's enough to eclipse decentralized finance's on-chain activity for the first time since 2022's speculative frenzy.

The comeback nobody predicted

Blue-chip collections like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks saw floor prices stabilize while new generative art projects attracted fresh capital. Meanwhile, DeFi's TVL barely budged—proving once again that crypto investors prefer speculative JPEGs to actual yield-bearing protocols.

Market analysts point to three factors driving the revival: celebrity endorsements (again), improved marketplace UX, and that timeless crypto motivator—FOMO. 'It's 2021 all over again,' quipped one overleveraged trader, 'except this time we're using bridges that don't get hacked weekly.'

The NFT resurgence comes as traditional finance struggles to explain why their tokenized assets aren't seeing similar demand. Maybe Wall Street hasn't figured out how to mint exclusive apes in business suits yet.

NFTs volume surge in July

DappRadar data showed that NFT trading volume surged by 96%, reaching $530 million in July. However, the total number of transactions fell by 4%, with only 5 million NFTs changing hands during the month.

The trend reveals a clear shift in buyer behavior, with fewer NFTs changing hands but selling for significantly higher prices. In fact, the average NFT sale price more than doubled, rising from $52 in June to $105 in July.

Platforms catering to power users and creators saw the most growth during the period. Blur accounted for as much as 80% of Ethereum-based NFT trading volume, driven by professional traders and its Blend lending feature.

Meanwhile, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, remained the most active in daily user count, with approximately 27,000 traders, thanks to its long-tail listings and multichain support.

Meanwhile, Zora, a platform built for creators on the Coinbase-backed Base network, gained momentum with its LAYER 2 solution and native ZORA token, which reduced NFT minting costs.

DappRadar concluded that these numbers show the significant evolution within the NFT landscape from the early market HYPE to the increasing utility of these digital assets.

According to the blockchain firm, the space is no longer limited to art and digital collectibles. Instead, it has expanded into practical use cases such as digital identity, event ticketing, gaming, and real-world asset tokenization.

DeFi grows too

While NFTs made waves in July, DeFi also continued to experience impressive growth. DappRadar reported that the total value of assets locked (TVL) in DeFi surged by over 30%, reaching $259 billion by the end of the month.

Notably, the sector reached a new all-time high of $270 billion on July 28, driven by growing user demand and fresh liquidity injection across lending, trading, and tokenized assets.

Meanwhile, a standout trend in DeFi came from tokenized stocks, with wallet interactions increasing from approximately 1,600 to over 90,000. This surge contributed to a 220% increase in the market cap of tokenized stocks, signaling that real-world assets (RWAs) are gaining substantial traction.

Across assets, ethereum continued to lead DeFi, commanding $166 billion in TVL, far surpassing Solana’s $23 billion.

ETH’s significant rise can be attributed to a nearly 60% price surge in July, likely driven by positive regulatory developments, alongside staking rewards reaching 29.4% APY.

On Solana, Hyperliquid emerged as a key player, accounting for 35% of blockchain revenue in July. The platform saw rising demand for derivatives and now processes over 60% of 24-hour perpetual trading volume, with $15.3 billion in open interest and $5.1 billion in USDC bridging.