Crypto Paradox: NFT Sales Crash While Ethereum Hits Record Highs—What’s Really Happening?

Ethereum’s price soars—but NFT buyers vanish. The disconnect is sharper than a trader’s suit after a margin call.

The Great Decoupling

Punks, apes, and pixel art are collecting dust. Even as ETH breaks all-time highs, NFT sales volume keeps sliding—proof that crypto’s speculative frenzy has limits (or that bored whales finally found a better casino).

Liquidity Leaves the Party

Blue-chip collections aren’t immune. The same traders who flipped JPEGs for Lambos now chase ETH staking yields—because why gamble on art when you can earn 4% pretending to secure a blockchain?

The Bottom Line

NFTs were never about utility. They were a liquidity funnel for degenerate capital. Now that funnel’s pointed elsewhere—and the ‘digital ownership’ narrative looks as hollow as a VC’s roadmap.

Where are all the NFT buyers?

According to data from CryptoSlam, market participation has contracted with NFT buyers plummeting by 89.83% to 73,900, and NFT sellers falling by 91.14% to 42,878. NFT transactions have increased by 1.60% to 1,781,919.

This slump comes at a time when Bitcoin (BTC) price has dropped to the $116,000 level.

At the same time, Ethereum (ETH) has shown a spike of 19% in the last seven days to $4,100. The global crypto market cap is now $3.93 trillion, up from last week.

Ethereum maintains its dominance in sales

Ethereum has maintained its dominant position with $58.5 million in sales, though declining 23.43% from the previous week. Ethereum’s wash trading has fallen by 61.64% to $5.5 million.

Polygon (POL) has climbed to second place with $17.8 million, surging 56.90%. bitcoin holds third position with $14.2 million, down 19.47%.

BNB Chain (BNB) has risen to fourth place with $13.6 million, jumping 33.54%. Mythos Chain sits in fifth with $9.6 million, declining 1.75%. solana (SOL) rounds out the top six with $8.2 million, falling 33.49%.

The buyer count has dropped across all major blockchains, with Polygon leading the drop at 97.43%, followed by BNB Chain at 95.64% and Bitcoin at 94.41%.

Courtyard on Polygon has reclaimed the top spot in collection rankings with $15.9 million in sales, surging 67.72%. The collection has seen growth in transactions (117.90%) and buyers (152.55%).

CryptoPunks has fallen to second place with $11.4 million, declining 43.68%. The collection has experienced drops across all metrics including transactions (56.52%), buyers (39.13%), and sellers (54.10%).

Pudgy Penguins show modest recovery

Pudgy Penguins holds third position with $4.9 million, showing modest recovery with 12.76% growth. Despite the overall market decline, this collection has maintained stability.

SpinNFTBox on BNB Chain has entered the top five with $4.6 million, exploding by 56.31%. The collection is dominated by a single seller despite having 838 buyers.

DMarket sits in fifth place with $4.5 million, declining 2.64%. Sorare has entered the rankings in sixth with $4 million, falling 43.54%. Guild of Guardians Heroes rounds out the top seven with $3.8 million, down 0.82%.

Notable high-value sales from this week include:

• CryptoPunks #1021 sold for 720 ETH ($2,569,908)
• CryptoPunks #9797 sold for 140 ETH ($503,547)
• CryptoPunks #7414 sold for 100 ETH ($341,596)
• CryptoPunks #7211 sold for 75 ETH ($292,320)
• CryptoPunks #3291 sold for 72 ETH ($281,019)