By Logan Hitchcock, Centreless
The NFTs market struggled in early 2024, with major series struggling to retain value amid continued bearish sentiment. With trading volumes shrinking and reserve prices generally falling, many began to question whether the NFT market could rebound.
However, as the year draws to a close and enters its final quarter, renewed bullishness is emerging in the broader cryptocurrency market, setting the stage for a year-end recovery. Of course, don’t expect too much. This isn’t the gold rush of 2021/2022, but NFT believers are still welcoming the shift in atmosphere.
Pudgy Penguins led the way, with the once-fading series beginning to see a new lease of life after a change of ownership in 2022, reaching an all-time high of over $100,000 in anticipation of its token airdrop.
This resurgence comes as competition in the NFT market intensifies in 2024. Platforms such as Magic Eden, Blur, and OpenSea compete for market dominance and drive innovation by incorporating new blockchains and transaction types.
From a slow start to an exciting finish, 2024 once again proved to the world that the NFT space is as vibrant and unpredictable as ever, powered by the passion of the community and a relentless pursuit of innovation.
Here are some themes for the NFT space in 2024.
Bitcoin Ordinals gaining a foothold
Although Bitcoin Ordinals (more or less Bitcoin NFTs) were launched in early 2023, they really came to prominence this year, thanks to major infrastructure upgrades and growing adoption. Early challenges, such as the lack of user-friendly wallets and marketplaces, have faded with the emergence of wallets like XVerse and Unisat, which make holding Ordinals safer and easier.
Meanwhile, with markets like Magic Eden and OXK providing critical support, trading has become smoother, a significant improvement from the chaotic early days of trading Bitcoin Ordinals via spreadsheets on Discord servers.
This infrastructure evolution has paved the way for standout projects to come to the fore and helped “drive a renaissance in bitcoin activity,” Franklin Templeton said.
Bitcoin Puppets and NodeMonkes led the way, jumping from modest minting prices to peaks of 0.469 BTC ($33,000) and 0.897 BTC ($56,000) respectively, according to Magic Eden data. While these prices have fallen back to 0.138 BTC ($14,000) and 0.125 BTC ($12,650) respectively, following a significant increase in the price of BTC itself, their impact on the Ordinals ecosystem remains significant. Other high-profile projects, such as Quantum Cats and Ordinals Maxi Business, have found similarly enthusiastic collector bases.
NFT Market Evolution and Expansion
This year has been pivotal for the NFT market, with OpenSea, Magic Eden, and Blur shaping the landscape in their own unique ways. Blur maintains a dominant position in Ethereum NFT trading, but its influence has waned over the summer as the NFT bear market continues. In addition, its founding team has turned its attention elsewhere, launching Blast, an Ethereum layer 2 network.
On the other hand, Magic Eden stole the spotlight with bold innovations in 2024. It pioneered the trend of Bitcoin NFTs and added a decentralized exchange for Runes (Bitcoin’s version of meme coins) after the halving. The hype around the brand culminated with the launch of the ME token by its ME Foundation, which airdropped more than $700 million to protocol users.
Meanwhile, OpenSea, a leading marketplace during the 2021 boom, has re-emerged as a leader in the NFT world at the end of the year. First, CEO Deven Finzer bluntly stated that the company was willing to "stand up and fight" when it came under scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September.
Soon thereafter, as testing of the OpenSea 2.0 marketplace revamp began, a wave of excitement built around the platform, ultimately sparking speculation about a possible future token launch. This speculation grew as users reported on loyalty programs during closed beta, and as the OpenSea Foundation was registered in the Cayman Islands.
Brands come and go
During the NFT craze in 2021, big brands such as Nike and Adidas rushed into the field. But in 2024, the bear market and the fading of NFT sentiment prompted some giants to retreat.
One of the most notable exits was Nike's decision to shutter RTFKT, the fashion and technology studio it acquired in 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Nike's move comes after Starbucks ended its Web3 loyalty program Starbucks Odyssey, which was run on the Polygon blockchain.
DraftKings, a major player in the fantasy sports and sports betting industry, abruptly halted its NFT business, shutting down its long-running DraftKings Reignmakers fantasy game. The move comes amid a class-action lawsuit filed by users and the continued unresolved issues surrounding regulation in the space.
However, while some big brands have pulled back, at least one brand is making big waves in the Web3 space. McDonald’s has partnered with the NFT series Doodles for a holiday-themed campaign. The collaboration brought NFT branding into the real world, with McDonald’s stores offering custom holiday coffee cups. This shows that even in the quieter NFT market, some brands still see potential for creative integrations.
Token craze
Perhaps no single narrative has gained as much momentum and attention over the past few months as NFT projects and their connection to fungible tokens (sometimes referred to as utility tokens because of their ecosystem).
While the launch of NFT series or associated tokens is not a new phenomenon, the rise of tokenization in 2024 and the increasingly optimistic regulatory environment in the United States under President-elect Donald Trump have brought token issuance back into the spotlight.
Most notably, Pudgy Penguins launched its ecosystem token, PENGU, on Solana this month. The token can be claimed by over 7 million unique wallets, providing over $1.5 billion in collective stimulus funding to NFT holders and many other eligible parties.
But Pudgy Penguins isn’t the only one going the token route in 2024. This year alone, NFT franchises Memeland, Milady, and Mocaverse have all issued tokens to their NFT holders and ecosystem participants.
As of the time of writing, all three tokens have a market cap of over $100 million and remain there — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This narrative is likely to continue to gain steam in 2025, when Azuki is expected to release the much-anticipated ANIME tokens to users and other Web3 users on its ecosystem, AnimeChain. Additionally, Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, is expected to continue to heavily promote ApeCoin (APE) on the recently launched ApeChain.
