The powerful performance of crypto assets in 2024 is presented as one of the great events of this year 2024. However, there are also exceptions to this rule, such as the negative performance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since the beginning of the year, only 0.2% of investors have positive returns in this market.
This is a desperate situation, especially for those who believed that the market would recover along with Bitcoin and altcoins. However, the reality is that blockchain-based collectibles are in a critical state. 98% of collectible tokens are completely stagnant with no signs of life in terms of trading.
This data corresponds to the State of the 2024 NFT Drops report by NFT Evening. In fact, that work states that 98 out of 100 NFTs are dead and “ it is time to face some hard truths .” It is important to note that the aforementioned research work corresponds to the period between January and August of this year. Likewise, the aforementioned portal collected the data from OpenSea and Dune Analytics in collaboration with Storible.
In total, 29,079 NFT drops were analyzed this year in terms of performance. The result of this research confirms that 98% of NFTs are “dead ” and only 0.2% offer returns to investors.
Will NFT performance improve in the coming months?
If the regulatory environment in the United States improves, NFT adoption by large wallets may receive a boost. It should not be overlooked that this market plays a very important role in fundamental sectors such as the multi-billion dollar gaming industry.
Added to this is the long-term potential associated with the development of metaverses. Simply put, the NFT market will sooner or later be valued among the top market caps worldwide. However, the time frame separating them from this goal is now more than blurred.
In the short term, there is no complete guarantee that the sector will improve, considering that it did not do so in 2023 and 2024. To get an idea of the state of this sector, it is highlighted that 98% of NFTs minted in 2024 have less than 10 sales during the first week on the market.
For that same percentage, prices tend to fall by 50% or more within an average of three days after market launch. Likewise, for 84%, their all-time highs are the mintage price itself.
Despite these negative numbers, the industry is still of interest to creators. In fact, the best time for growth seems to be during bear markets. In this sense, the data shows that between January and August, 3,635 collections were launched per month. This represents a high participation rate.