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NFT Trading Volumes Collapse 97% From January Peak (bloomberg.com) 59

Trading volumes in nonfungible tokens -- digital art and collectibles recorded on blockchains -- have tumbled 97% from a record high in January this year. From a report: They slid to just $466 million in September from $17 billion at the start of 2022, according to data from Dune Analytics. The fading NFT mania is part of a wider, $2 trillion wipeout in the crypto sector as rapidly tightening monetary policy starves speculative assets of investment flows.
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NFT Trading Volumes Collapse 97% From January Peak

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  • by neilo_1701D ( 2765337 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:25PM (#62922325)

    To the surprise of utterly no-one - except the last in line of the "greater fool" theory of NFT sales.

    • by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:45PM (#62922375) Homepage

      We're not at the end of the line yet, there was still $466 million in trades this month.

      • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @10:08PM (#62922899)

        We're not at the end of the line yet, there was still $466 million in trades this month.

        How many of those trades were the NFT owner selling from one wallet they owned to another to create a fictitious history of value?

        • by ink ( 4325 )

          Ahhh, I remember the good old days of Ebay sellers buying their own items to inflate prices.

        • by torkus ( 1133985 )

          Or at least as commonly, them completing a zero-sum transaction/smart-contract (or whatever the technical term is) where nothing even changes hands at the end of the transaction besides a few dollars in fees.

          As I understand it they list an NFT for $5mm then, in a single smart contract, borrow the $5mm, buy the NFT, from themself to themself, and return the $5mm plus a small transaction/interest fee.

          Now that NFT has a $5mm sale transaction on the blockchain ... tadaa. Instead of asking how many trades were

    • by bazmail ( 764941 )
      You're saying the world is running out fools?
      Nope.

      They just retreated and will come at the next ponzi scheme spurred on by the sunken cost fallacy. It's nature's way.
    • It does give a heads up to people who think that Bitcoin has some intrinsic value and could never disappear overnight. Well not quite over night but it is dropping faster than a stone (NFTs that is ) Anyone owning an NFT and wanting to sell it has got no market liquidity. Surprising that there are any buyers out there at all as hard to see how you could resell and what is the purpose of owning an NFT? Maybe to decorate your home in the metaverse?
    • Who are the remaining 3% - all the scam marketers and tech writers?
      • Who are the remaining 3% - all the scam marketers and tech writers?

        As quantaman [slashdot.org] suggested above, people moving things between wallets to give the illusion of activity.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:25PM (#62922327)

    The elders in tech all said it was a scam. And they didn't listen, so now they get to lose everything.

  • WFSL (Score:5, Funny)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:25PM (#62922329)
    Watching from the sidelines laughing
  • Hm (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:29PM (#62922335)

    I'm sure glad I paid $60 million for a 128 x 128 pixel gif of a gorilla before the prices collapsed. Now I have a story to tell my grandkids about why they have no inheritance. They'll get to learn valuable life lessons like self reliance, bad luck, and an intimate understanding of systemic class oppression.

    • I'm sure glad I paid $60 million for a 128 x 128 pixel gif of a gorilla before the prices collapsed.

      You actually paid 60 million for a *link* to a 128x128 gif that may not even be valid any more! Hope you backed up the image somewhere just like anyone else could have done.

  • Hodl (Score:5, Funny)

    by queazocotal ( 915608 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:34PM (#62922359)
    HODL
  • shocked (Score:4, Funny)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:39PM (#62922369)
    completely shocked, no one could have predicted this was a bubble!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      The posters who used to say BTC was trouncing USD, beating it like an unwanted stepchild, are mighty quiet these days.

      • The posters who used to say BTC was trouncing USD, beating it like an unwanted stepchild, are mighty quiet these days.

        Yeah, where did they all go?

        They must still be around here somewhere and we need their insights to help us understand BTC more than ever.

        • by r1348 ( 2567295 )

          It might actually be useful to track them to see where the next global scam is.

          • by rnturn ( 11092 )

            ``...track them to see where the next global scam is...''

            That'd be my BiL. If it's a risky thing to invest in, he's into it.

      • They were not totally wrong, Forex looks like crypto market this year, USD goes parabolic and other currencies are going to 0.
      • US Dollar is really strong at the moment but it has a long way to go before it is worth $20000 like bitcoin. :D
  • Wtf? That is still about 100 000 times too high.

    Paying say 1-10 $ to be associated with some funny picture, ok, people can have that as a fairly harmless hobby.

    But the prices people paid and apparently still pay based on that sum is just a reminder that a fool and his money will soon be parted.

    • by splutty ( 43475 )

      That's just selling 1 NFT to yourself for 1M 466 times.

    • Speculators are catching on at this point. The lucky ones got out without losing their shirts. My guess is we're getting down to the money launderers. Money launderers (and other illicit traders) have always been the core of NFT and crypto. Everything else is just noise and cover.
    • Wtf? That is still about 100 000 times too high.

      Paying say 1-10 $ to be associated with some funny picture, ok, people can have that as a fairly harmless hobby.

      But the prices people paid and apparently still pay based on that sum is just a reminder that a fool and his money will soon be parted.

      The NFT people make the Magic The Gathering people look like normal, healthy human beings.

      At least with Magic The Gathering you actually own the cards you paid for.

      • MtG assets at least have a use: playing Magic: The Gathering.

        This is much more like Beanie Babies, or Franklin Mint collectibles.

        Ain't nothin' to be done with them.

        • by Megane ( 129182 )
          Nope. Beanie babies are still useful as a dog chew toy, and a Franklin Mint plate can still be eaten off of. An unwanted NFT is just smoke.
  • To the MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

    Except the rocket never made it out of the atmosphere.

  • So it seems a long way of saying "morons got edumacated" is:

        "rapidly tightening monetary policy starved speculative assets of investment flows"

    Hahahahahaha, you SCHMUCKS !
  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:11PM (#62922447)
    Pure, delightful, exquisite schadenfreude.
  • Quite an arc, really (Score:4, Interesting)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:14PM (#62922459) Journal

    NFTs weren't invented by Beeple, but he really blew the whole thing wide open. What some people didn't understand is that Beeple had previously spent 10 years doing online art, was skilled at using production tools, and had a unique sort of surreal style that was legitimately appealing (at least to some people) as art.

    ie, you weren't going to just snap your fingers and make $millions unless you were either talented or... lucky. The less creative stuff like "crypto punks" was really just in the right place, at the right time, and happened to hit upon something that could go viral. If there was any skill there at all, it was in understanding the memetic conversation and tapping in to it--Bored Ape Yacht Club was the prime example of that, and there were a few others.

    If you happened to latch on to the right theme (whales, apes, diamonds, etc.) and commissioned art that was OK, *and* it captured the imagination then you won the lottery.

    So of course there were going to be millions of other people that would try, and most of them would have no talent and no luck. Even some of that junk might sell in a bull market until people realized how much there was and so here we are.

    It was an interesting show, and I too watched it from the sidelines because when people start talking about markets going "parabolic", at least they are honest in some sense because a parabola has two sides. Another name for parabola is "ballistic trajectory". BOOM!

    • I disagree with this. At one time you could make an NFT collection with paying some online artist, run some sort of social media campaign and scam a good number of people and basically print money. They were doing it everday. A few scammers got a whole lot of money (which they probably spent on stuff like bitcoin investments etc)
  • by Phact ( 4649149 )

    I should sell some NFTs of Tulip Bulbs [wikipedia.org]!

  • and there isn't any eternal punishment for running a scam like this...the average B-school prick is still left with the following quandry: do I double down on the corporate resources spent on my crazy marketing stunt of embedding crypto tokens into fast food ordering apps, and claim success, or do I skedaddle as fast as I can, legally change my name, and try to do it to another company?

  • It was a tax scam (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @07:01PM (#62922693)
    There's a major loophole that lets rich people use art to get out of paying taxes. That loophole was closed and a bunch of rich people were hoping to open it back up again with nfts. The irs, predictably, just said it's all art and so the law closing the loophole still applies whether it's an nft or a painting. As soon as that happened people stopped buying expensive nfts and that in turn chased the marks and suckers away from the cheaper ones.
    • by rwyoder ( 759998 )

      I remember seeing the explanation for how the scam worked, but had not heard of it being closed.
      See Youtube -> Wendover Productions -> The Art Market is a Scam (And Rich People Run It)

    • And as for all these folks telling us to buy art to preserve our savings (even when others are buying canned goods and emergency rations), keep in mind that the US gov't doesn't really want you doing that. This is why the capital gains tax on collectibles (Picassos and baseball cards, both) is 28% -- considerably higher than most folks marginal tax rate unless you are filing income over 170k as an individual or twice that as a couple filing jointly.

      Which is why the folks who invest in art as an investmen
  • I invested all my life savings including my dog's retirement plan in a picture of a uninterested looking monkey picking his nose.
    Well, not the picture, only the link to that picture.
    Maybe I can make an NFT of the link to double my investment return.

  • Sales of the Brooklyn Bridge soar.

    There's always another sucker.

  • Shortly after Otherdeed minted out. Volume dropped by 90% within days actually. It was a big story here and gas price hit $3000 for minting a single token vs $1 or so nowadays. This story is fucking shit and got everything wrong somehow.

  • ...of bankruptcies.

    Once upon a time there were crypto kitties. People paid thousands and even tens of thousands for them. Remember those? No?! Well there's a reason for that!
  • You mean to say there are still buffoons throwing their money at that nonsense? How quaint.
  • Next, can we get some stats on Enron's economic activity, and how many new customers Madoff got this month?

  • Who needs these things? While the world is certainly full of idiots, the number of rich idiots is quite small.

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