The NFT market may seem complicated for outsiders. Using blockchain technology for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may sound like a strange concept, but they have increased interest over the last year.
This has led to some fascinating NFT statistics and trends that you can learn more about here.
In early 2021 there was a sharp rise in weekly sales of these digital assets online, as well as several records being broken, with many people looking at them intently, wondering what their worth might be down the line.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital collectibles that hold unique data, live on the blockchain, and cannot be copied or reproduced.
This means that each NFT is uniquely identifiable and can only exist once in the world.
Collecting NFTs has never been easier with CryptoKitties, Etherbots, Etheremon GO, Gods Unchained, to name a few.
We have compiled a list of the top NFT statistics for 2025 to help you better understand the trendy Non-Fungible Token.
Key NFT Statistics 2025
- The NFT market was worth $41 billion in 2021.
- “The Merge” is the most expensive NFT ever sold – it went for $91.8 million.
- There are $10-$20 million worth of NFT sold in the blockchain every week.
- The complete value of NFT sales in 2020 was $250 million.
- The first NFT was created in 2014.
- More than 50% of NFT sales are less than $200.
- 250,000 people trade NFTs every month on OpenSea.
Detailed NFT Statistics 2025 (Including Facts & Trends)
Now we’re going to look at some NFT statistics with more general facts followed by other incredible nuggets of information like which ones have been sold for the most money.
General NFT Statistics & Facts 2024
How Many NFT Buyers Are There?
There are currently a significant number of people buying Non-Fungible tokens.
For example, in April and May alone, more than 30 thousand unique wallets bought NFTs from popular marketplaces such as nonfungible.com on any given day this month!
This is down slightly from the 39,000 buyers throughout March but still up significantly compared to less than 10 thousand in 2020 for most months with only 1 or 2 thousand individual sellers each time.
How Much Does an NFT Sell for on Average?
It’s hard to put a number on the average price of non-fungible tokens.
Most marketplaces have averages based on one large sale and can be misleading – you may think you know how much it costs, but this is just because they sold something worth $10K+.
It’s best to look at what’s been selling in recent months instead; that way, we’ll better understand what people are willing to pay without being influenced by huge outliers.
On OpenSea from March 14 through 24, there were over 1/3rd sales under 100$, 53% more than 200$.
For most, prices don’t go past 300$. Know what you’re getting into before buying an expensive piece of digital art; production costs range from $70-$150.
What Is the Energy Usage of NFTs?
Have you ever thought about the power consumption of your favorite crypto?
Digiconomist.net project that one Ethereum transaction expends about 120kWh of energy, which is just over four days’ worth for an average U.S household!
With so many NFT sales relying on the Ethereum blockchain and there being thousands each day, it’s easy to see how much electricity cryptocurrency can use in one year – more than $6 billion annually, according to Greenpeace International Research Director Gary Cook.
Although some companies like Decentraland are looking into alternative methods such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), this isn’t enough yet because PoW still dominates at 50%+.
The Ethereum Foundation is working on a proof-of-stake model to reduce the energy per transaction. The project has been in progress for years.
It could make transactions as little as 35Wh during its completion, equivalent to that of a small U.S town rather than some medium-sized countries which use more power annually when making their cryptocurrency coins via an older Proof Of Work system.
What Is the Largest NFT Marketplace?
NFT statistics show that market sizes have been on the rise and Opensea is the largest.
NBA Top Shot has a total trading volume of over $600 million.
However, current trade values between OpenSea and Atomic Market are close to each other at just under $90 million every 30 days compared to ABC’s value of around a quarter billion dollars monthly.
The number for all-time traders is also neck-and-neck when looking at 440 thousand versus 400 thousand respectively; however, there has recently been an increase in 150k new trades within the last month from both platforms, making them more competitive than ever before.
The Most Expensive NFT Sold for $532 Million
CryptoPunk is an NFT that sold for $532 million in 2021. Of course, this kind of number raised a few eyebrows, including the fact that the person that bought this NFT bought it for personal reasons.
However, on Discord and Twitter, people speculated that the whole sale was simply a publicity stunt, in order to inflate the price of NFTs.
In technical terms, this is called a wash trade, which is a kind of market manipulation to create activity that is misleading.
The NFT in question is one of more than 3000 female punks. What makes this example even more interesting is that she is currently for sale once more.
The True Most Valuable NFT Sold for nearly $92 Million
The Merge is the most expensive NFT ever sold, which was sold for $91.8 million. The sale was a lot less shady than the sale of crypto punk, but people aren’t sure whether they can count this as a singular artwork, or a series of artworks.
Instead of it being sold to a single buyer, multiple purchasers had the opportunity to buy any number of tokens. The price per token began at $575 and increased by $25 every two hours.
At the end of the sale, it was sold to almost 30,000 buyers for $91.8 million.
What’s really interesting is this wasn’t the only big sale in 2021 when it came to NFTs, The Fungible was sold by Sotheby’s for $17 million.
Beeple Sold his First Physical Work for $30 Million
Beeple is a virtual artist that has previously held the record for the most expensive NFT, and sold his first physical artwork for $28.9 million at Christie’s. What’s amazing about this is that it was only valued at $15 million.
Trading Volume of NFTs Added Almost $11 Billion in Q3
In 2021, the third quarter was a huge quarter for NFT trading. According to statistics, the trading volume for this specific period reached over $10 billion.
This means that it increased by more than 700% from the previous quarter. The trading volume in August alone surged to more than $5 billion making it a record-breaking month.
People Who are Most Interested in NFTs are From Singapore and China
According to NFT statistics, people from Singapore and China are currently the most interested in selling and trading NFTs. In third spot is Venezuela, and what’s really interesting is that America isn’t even in the top ten.
The Most Expensive NFT Video was $7 Million
Beeple has created three of the 10 most valuable NFTs ever sold. A short 10-second video that he created sold for $6.6 million at the beginning of 2021.
The Most Expensive NFT Meme Was $4 Million
Doge, which is a specific breed of hunting dog from Japan, is one of the most well-known memes. It is also the most valuable NFT meme, after it was sold for more than $4 million.
Most NFTs Sell for Less than $200
At this point, you might have stars in your eyes reading NFT statistics like this, but the reality is that when it comes to the world of NFTs, it’s harder to make money from your artwork then you might think.
Yes, there are a number of NFTs out there that have sold for millions of dollars, but the reality is that the average selling price is a lot less. 33.6% of NFTs that were sold in March 2021 sold for less than $200.
This definitely doesn’t mean that you can’t do well when it comes to your NFTs, but you also have to be a little bit realistic.
1000s of NFT Sales are Made Every Day
According to NFT statistics, there are between 15,000 and 50,000 NFT sales a week. There was a big boom towards the end of 2017, but before this, there were only 100 sales a week.
This figure alone shows how quickly the NFT market has grown in just a few years.
NFT Sales Account for Millions a Week
Despite the fact that the majority of NFTs out there only sell for $200, the number of NFTs being sold every week amounts to between $10 million and $20 million in value.
Of course there are some crazy weeks where the value comes to more than $170 million.
In March 2021 There Were 40,000 Unique Buyers
According to NFT statistics, March 2021 was a popular month for NFTs, with almost 40,000 unique buyers. Compared to 2020, this is a big boost.
For the majority of 2020 the number of unique buyers per month was less than 10,000. This means that there has been an increase of more than 450%.
The NFT Market Increased Almost Tenfold in Just Two Years
NFT statistics show that the market cap of NFTs experienced almost a tenfold increase between 2018, and 2020.
What’s crazy about this is that these numbers are seen as conservative, because it’s pretty difficult to collect information about such an unpredictable and new market.
Needless to say, it’s pretty obvious that the NFT market is growing really quickly.
NFT Sales Accounted for $2.4 Billion in first half of 2021
NFT statistics show that in the first half of 2021, sales went over $2.47 billion dollars. However, there are other statistics out there that estimate this number at $1.3 billion.
Whatever data you’re looking at, it’s obvious that this is a huge amount of money, and a massive increase from the same time the year before.
Trading Volume of OpenSea Increased 800%
OpenSea is one of the biggest digital marketplaces when it comes to NFTs and cryptocurrency collectibles, and in August of 2021, it did more than $3 billion in trading volume.
What’s impressive about this is that it is an increase of over 800%, compared to the last month.
Gaming NFTs Have Declined
Of course, while you might to be under the impression that every aspect of the NFT market is increasing, this isn’t the case.
In general, NFT sales increased in 2021, but when it came to the value of NFTs for gaming, this decreased. This means that the value of NFTS for art increased.
Kings of Leon Produced an NFT Album
There are a lot of NFT milestones that have been achieved in March of 2021. The first was when Kings of Leon produced their brand-new album, as an NFT, making them the first band to ever do this. As a result, they generated more than $2 million in NFT sales.
Taco Bell Produced 25 NFTs
Of course, if bands can produce NFTs, then fast food chains can as well. Taco Bell became the first fast food restaurant to sell NFTs.
The 25 pieces of digital art that Taco Bell came up with sold in less than 30 minutes. The NFTs that had the most value were sold for $3500.
Over a Third of E-sports Fans Have an Interest in NFTs
NFT statistics show that 35% of E-sports fans say that they are interested in NFTs.
Men are More Likely to Purchase NFTs
What’s really interesting when it comes to NFTs is that men are actually more likely to want to purchase and collect an NFT than women.
15% of male respondents in a survey indicated that they collected NFTs. This is compared to just 4% of female respondents.
$41 Billion of Cryptocurrency was Spent on NFTs in 2021
We keep talking about how 2021 was a big year when it came to the NFT market, and we aren’t wrong. According to this NFT statistic, $41 billion worth of cryptocurrency was spent on NFTs.
It’s clear to say that there is a direct correlation between cryptocurrencies, and NFTs.
The First NFT Came onto the Scene in 2014
You’re probably someone who has only known about NFTs for a couple of years. However, what might be really interesting to know is that the first NFT actually came out in 2014.
This was five years after Bitcoin was introduced, and it was sold for $1.4 million at Sotheby’s.
The Average Price of an NFT Varies a Lot Depending on the Platform
As we have mentioned already, the majority of NFTs are just $200, but on some platforms, they are lower than this, sitting at $150, while on other platforms, the average is $500.
The Nyan Cat GIF Sold for $590,000 in Cryptocurrency in 2021
The Nyan Cat GIF, which has been around for ten years at this point, sold for over $590,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
OpenSea Sees 250,000 People Trading NFTs Each Month
NFTs are big business and one of the most popular trading platforms sees more than 250,000 people trading NFTs every month.
23% of Millennials in America Collect NFTs
It looks like NFTs are becoming more and more popular, especially in the younger generations, as you can see from this NFT statistic.
A recent survey found that one in three adults in America collect some kind of physical item as either a hobby or an investment.
Nigeria is Predicted to Have the Biggest NFT Growth
This NFT statistic probably comes as a surprise to you, but Nigeria seems to be the country that is expected to grow the fastest when it comes to their adoption of NFTs. They are expected to grow from 13.7% to 35.3%.
People Who Earn Less Than $25,000 a Year Invest as Much into NFTs as Those Earning More than $150,000
This is another statistic that shows how popular NFTs are, because both lower- and upper-income people have a shared passion for purchasing NFTs.
People in California Buy NFTs More Than Any Other State
Los Angeles and San Francisco are the top cities when it comes to buying NFTs. Following this is San Diego, San Jose, and then Austin in Texas.
More Women than Men in Thailand Own NFTs
According to the NFT statistics above, on average there are more men that purchase NFTs than women but this isn’t the case in Thailand.
As you can see from this statistic, 30% of women in Thailand own NFTs, compared to only 23% of men.
Over 70% of Americans Still Don’t Know what an NFT is
The latest NFT statistics show that the majority of adults in America don’t know what an NFT is.
These figures are even higher in Germany and Japan, where 82.6% and 90% of the adult population haven’t heard of NFTs.
The Power Consumption of Ethereum is Similar to That of Qatar and Hungary
Something that you’ve got to think about when it comes to cryptocurrency and NFTs is that they consume a lot of electrical energy.
In fact, Ethereum’s power consumption alone is comparable to that of Qatar and Hungary. It is also releasing a huge amount of carbon dioxide each year, almost 22 metric tons.
Ethereum 2.0 Says That it can Reduce Energy Usage by Over 99%
When it comes to the environment, it isn’t all doom and gloom as far as cryptocurrency is concerned, and if Ethereum is successful in moving their 2.0 technology from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, they could be reducing the energy consumption by 99%. They also say that this could happen in the future, even this year.
The Average NFT Has the Same Carbon Footprint as a Month’s Worth of Electricity for One Person in Europe
You might like the idea of NFTs, but the amount of energy that is required to create, transfer, and distribute the ownership of the average NFT is considered roughly 10 times higher than Ethereum.
The Average NFT has a Carbon Footprint Similar to Mailing a Physical Piece of Art
You’re probably getting a clearer picture at this point according to these NFT statistics of the environmental impact of NFTs, and how they aren’t always necessarily more environmentally friendly than physically sending a piece of art.
A LeBron James NFT Sold for Over $21.6 Million
LeBron James is a pretty popular NFT developer, with a statue of the basketball star selling for more than $21.6 million.
Eminem Sold His First Collection of NFTs for $1.78 Million
Eminem is also getting into the NFT business and sold his first collection of NFTs for $1.78 million.
Grimes Has Sold Thousands of NFTs Worth More Than $7 Million
Grimes is known for one of the best-selling NFTs in history. She sold thousands of copies of her album for over $7500 each.
Sales on Nifty Gateway Went Over $250 Million in 2021
What’s amazing about this NFT statistic is that back in 2020, Nifty Gateway were selling less than half a million dollars’ worth of NFTs every month.
What NFT Song Is The Most Expensive?
In late March 2021, a song was sold for $1.33 million to the person who would name it Gunky’s Uprising – what is currently considered the most expensive NFT ever created and bought on any decentralized marketplace or auction center since its inception in early 2020.
The buyer, SlimeSunday of 3LAU fame, made this purchase to show off their wealth and give others an opportunity that they never had.
What NFT Top Shot Is Deemed As The Most Expensive Ever Sold?
Who knew that a digital card could cost so much? One of the most expensive NBA top shots sold was number 29 in Cosmic Series 1 on February 22, 2021.
The $208,000 price tag made it one of the rarest cards to date, which only hit over $100,000 before this latest purchase.
Which NFT Tweet Is The Most Expensive?
What is the most expensive tweet in history?
In March of 2021, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever Tweet for $2.9 million!
This 15-year-old tweet said, “just setting up my Twitter,” and was bought by a private collector as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token).
So while random tweets from regular people probably won’t make any money, this could be just what some celebrities need to sell their viral Tweets or other content that might have been very popular with fans who want to own them too.
Which NFT Virtual Land Is The All-time Most Expensive Sold?
The world record price for an NFT virtual land sale is Axie Infinity’s nine adjacent genesis blocks.
According to NFT statistics, the price equals $1.5 million, which, considering there are only 220 pieces of this land in total, will probably rise even higher as more players join the game over time.
NFT Firsts
When Was the First NFT Minted?
In May of 2014, Kevin McCoy created what many consider a groundbreaking piece.
The art he made began with him using “quantum” to demonstrate how people could sell digital artwork online and led to it being one of the earliest examples in history when someone had sold something intangible – like software or music- on blockchain technology.
What Was the First Million Dollar NFT?
A piece of art called the “Forever Rose” is worth a million dollars.
Of course, this was before NFTs experienced an increase in popularity, but when they did, this one-of-a-kind rose came with them to be sold for $1 million on February 14, 2018.
The sale that day split up ten buyers who each paid 100k for 1/10ths of an eternity rose and took home half ownership rights over it all.
When Was the First Day With Over 1,000 NFT Sales?
The first day with over 1,000 NFT sales was November 24, 2017.
However, the number would only grow from there as non-fungible’s website tracked 3,093 NFTs that day, and 16 days later, the site saw its highest recorded total for one single date at 52,020 transactions.
NFT Market Size 2024 & History
How Much is Spent on NFTs Each Week?
According to NFT statistics, the number of NFTs sold on the blockchain seems to be settling at around $10-20 million a week, and we’ve spent over $1 million in just one seven-day period.
This is quite impressive for such an early stage.
What Was the Total Value of NFT Sales In 2020?
The total value of all NFT sales in 2020 was $250 million, a whopping four times the size it had been just last year.
Compared to 2019, where there were only 62.9 million transactions traded on average per day, this shows that people are starting to see crypto as an opportunity not worth passing up!
Trading volume also reached an impressively high at almost half a billion dollars, with the market cap reaching over three hundred and thirty-eight million by December 31, 2020.
What Were NFT Sales Figures at the Start of 2021?
Nonfungible.com saw an enormous increase in sales for the first quarter of 2021, as they surpassed $2 billion total — a 131% increase from 2020’s figures.
And with more buyers attracted to purchase these non-traditional collectibles, it seems that their value is only going up, and there will be no stopping this new wave of collecting frenzy.
What NFT Market Segments Are the Fastest Growing?
It turns out that the collectibles market is proving to be a vital aspect of growth in NFTs.
One example is CryptoPunks, small pixel-art images generated algorithmically and sold through nonfungible.com for Ethereum’s Ether cryptocurrency.
Other examples include other crypto trading card games like NBA Top Shots which have seen similar rapid rates of return thanks to their inclusion on sites like eBay or Amazon, where people purchase cards by pack – not individual items.
NFT Trends 2024
Number of Sales Over Time
After a spike in December 2017, weekly NFT sales only grew to around 15,000.
But after the success of November 2019-April, 2020, weeks generally ranged between 30,000 and 80 000 with few exceptions for going as low as 10 thousand or below.
Value of Sales Over Time
NFT sales have been steadily increasing over the past year, doubling in value since September 2020.
A few months later, this increase started to plateau and decrease but has stayed above $10 million every week so far.
Increase in Active Wallets Over Time
At the 2017 peak, there were over 34,000 active wallets in a week.
This quickly dropped and settled into an average of 2-4 thousand each week, which slowly increased to 4k – 8k by late 2020.
By February 2021, there was an upsurge with weekly active wallets going above 10k for the first time since 2017.
This number doubled by March 2021 but has since stayed at the range of 8,000 and 12,000. Hovering around this range means weekly wallets will triple in four years.
What Are NTFs?
Aside from grappling with NFT statistics, let’s find out exactly what they are.
NFTs are a new way to approach the economy and more about your own.
Unlike fungible items, NFTs have no identical equivalent that can be exchanged with each other — so while two books may look similar in appearance but one is written by some famous historical figure or influential artist, they’re not interchangeable.
It’s not difficult to get a perfect copy of digital art, but the original is worth more. You can tell if something isn’t original by looking at it closely and knowing its creator’s style.
Once you put your work on blockchain, however, there are no other pieces out there that truly match up with yours–it becomes unique in both form and content because nothing else matches up so perfectly as what came before it.
Due to its uniqueness, people usually purchase NFTs just like you would purchase an original artwork from an artist.
How Do NFTs Work?
It is pretty successful on NFT statistics, but what is NFT? The blockchain serves to authenticate and track owners so that no one can counterfeit it.
However, as all content is not saved on the blockchain network itself, owners rely on their server not shutting down or changing anything to maintain ownership and possession over their digital collectibles.
A Brief History of NFTs
Bitcoin has been around for a while now, and people are starting to test its limits.
One of these tests is by attaching real-world assets like stocks, houses, or even apples, eggs, or oranges (yes, those exist) as fractions of bitcoins with the goal that they would be able to if someone traded them transfer physical goods along with it.
However, one big problem arises when only one person doesn’t agree on how many units should be transferred over because then no trades can take place anymore, thus making this method unsuccessful.
In 2014, three blockchain developers made Counterparty to trade colored coins—this platform allowed for the trading of colored coins that were not limited by a blockchain like bitcoin.
The time it took to execute trades was quicker because transactions did not need verification from miners before being processed on this network.
In 2015 Ethereum had its initial release shortly after, which laid some foundations with a built-in way to trade unique assets called NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
From 2017 onwards, this ERC 721 standard started picking up in popularity, creating collectibles such as CryptoPunks and standards like them.
In late 2017, sales of NFTs boomed to the point that they could be found on average in 15,000-50,000 places per week.
Based on NFT statistics, sales saw a second spike two years later at 30,000-80K locations and have finally returned to their normal range between 15k – 50k spots per week.
Can Someone Hack NFTs?
Cryptocurrencies might be the most secure form of currency in existence, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to commit fraud.
Lately, it’s become common for a criminal who has stolen your login information to use this access and trade away NFTs you own at their leisure before anyone even knows they’re missing.
Luckily, people can decrease an account’s chances of being hacked by keeping passwords strong or adding two-factor authentication supported on a given platform.
Recently, a hacker found their way into Beeple’s account and used “sleepminting” to sell his piece for $69.4 million.
This exploit lets you sell an NFT under someone else’s name when they’re asleep, so it isn’t easy to know if the seller or artist ID has been hacked.
Ensure that your information matches what you are buying before handing over any money.
FAQs
What NFT Is the Most Expensive?
To this day, the most expensive Non-fungible Token (NFT) is “The Merge” which sold for $91.8 million.
How Many NFT Buyers Are There?
NFTs are becoming increasingly popular as more people realize the value of digital collectibles.
One company that specializes in non-fungible goods, NonFungible.com, has reported on a survey they conducted from March 1 to May 31, 2021, for NFT buyers between 20 and 40 thousand unique buyers within any 30 days.
What Is the Value of an NFT?
What is the Value of an NFT? Next, you may find yourself needing to decide how much your design or artwork is worth.
In general, most designs and artworks are valued at less than $200 per token – you might even make a loss if costs for minting it out exceed that amount.
How Big Is the NFT Industry?
The NFT industry was expected to be worth $2 billion by 2021, but it doesn’t stop there.
For example, the NBA Top Shots alone are valued at almost half a billion dollars, and those numbers don’t include the over one thousand digital games on nonfungible.com that have been downloaded so far.
Staggering figures like these make you wonder if we’re in for another dot-com bubble burst.
Conclusion on NFT Statistics
Buying digital artwork is becoming easier for a wider set of people.
Many bids and odd sales are going on, which you can get an edge on if you read our statistics on NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and blockchain.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the future of digital asset ownership. There are some brilliant NFTs to look out for that can be highly profitable.
As they become more popular, what will be your strategy to compete? The NFT statistics and market size facts for 2025 provide a glimpse into how big this trend is becoming for marketers.
This post outlines all you need to know about non-fungible token trends so that you can get ahead of them by incorporating them into your marketing plan today.
