NFT Market Roars Back: 22% Sales Surge Hits $107M as Pudgy Penguins Defy Crypto Winter

Blue-chip NFTs shake off the bear market blues—Pudgy Penguins lead the charge with a Lazarus-like recovery. Traders pile back in like it’s 2021, proving even JPEGs can have second acts (and that crypto bros never learn).

Behind the numbers: Ethereum still dominates settlement, but Solana’s discount gas fees siphon off volume. The usual suspects—bored apes, pixel punks—tag along for the ride. Meanwhile, traditional finance guys quietly update their ’digital art’ PowerPoints for the third time this year.

Closing thought: When even cartoon penguins outpace your hedge fund’s returns, maybe it’s time to rethink that 60/40 portfolio.

Ethereum still holds the lead

Ethereum continues to lead blockchain NFT sales with $26.3 million. This is a 10.03% increase from the previous week. Ethereum’s wash trading has decreased by 13.89% to $3.1 million.

Polygon (POL) has surged to second place with $19.8 million in sales, showing a growth of 102.45%. Mythos Chain holds the third position with $14.5 million, though sales are down 3.93%. Bitcoin maintains fourth place with $13.5 million, a 7.18% decrease.

BNB (BNB) Chain has entered the top five with $9.5 million in sales, up 160.48%. Solana (SOL) rounds out the top blockchains with $9.2 million and has shown modest growth of 3.45%.

In collection rankings, Courtyard on Polygon has reclaimed the top spot with $17.3 million in sales and posted a 98.93% increase. The collection saw transactions surge by 91.39% and buyers grow by 91.91%.

DMarket remains in second place with $9.4 million in sales, though down 5.04%. Guild of Guardians Heroes has climbed to third with $5.5 million, showing growth of 52.08%.

DKTNFT on BNB Chain has entered the fourth-place rankings with $4.8 million. The collection experienced growth of 334,637.93% in sales and 37,525% in transactions.

CryptoPunks has fallen to fifth place with $3 million in sales, down 16.73%. The collection saw declines across all metrics, including transactions (18.42%), buyers (58.82%), and sellers (46.15%).

Pudgy Penguins shows signs of recovery in seventh place with $2.4 million in sales, up 65.87%. The collection saw increased transactions (24.10%) and sellers (28.07%), though buyer numbers remained flat.

Notable high-value sales from this week include:

• Pudgy Penguins #6873 sold for 200 WETH ($360,238)
• CryptoPunks #6472 sold for 144 ETH ($264,271)
• CryptoPunks #2892 sold for 125 ETH ($231,157)
• BOOGLE #5DmKCchdChjStzLdsRVLMdSYzfB4w1ecdL5 sold for 1,400.02 SOL ($203,520)
• Autoglyphs #168 sold for 85 ETH ($155,713)