Top 8 NFT Blockchains Based on Trading Volume

What Is The Top NFT Blockchain?

Ethereum is the top non-fungible tokens (NFTs) blockchain with a market share of 84.0% and a trading volume of $0.84 billion in June 2023. However, there has been a decline in Ethereum's trading volume, a drop of 39.6% from $4.32 billion in 2023 Q1 to $2.61 billion in 2023 Q2.

The second top blockchain is Bitcoin, capturing 11.0% market share and trading volume of $0.11 billion in June 2023. Notably, Bitcoin showed the largest Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) gain among all chains, soaring an impressive 229.6%, from $0.10 billion in 2023 Q1 to $0.34 billion in 2023 Q2.

Ethereum and Bitcoin dominate the NFT space, collectively capturing a staggering 95.0% of all NFT trading volume. As of June 2023, ImmutableX ranks third with a commendable market share of 2.5%, followed by Polygon (1.0%), Solana (0.7%), Flow (0.4%), Arbitrum (0.2%), and BNB Chain (0.2%).

Ethereum Loses Dominance Slightly

Despite retaining its position as the dominant leader among NFT blockchains, Ethereum's market share slightly decreased to 83.0% of trading volume in 2023 Q2.

During this period, Ethereum played a significant role in the overall contraction of the NFT market across the top 8 chains, witnessing a decline of 35.0% from $4.84 billion in 2023 Q1 to $3.15 billion in 2023 Q2. Meanwhile, Ethereum's trading volume experienced a steeper drop of 39.6%, outpacing the overall market decline by 1.1%. The surge in Bitcoin trading volume primarily drove this decline.

In May 2023, Ethereum's dominance briefly dipped to 73.3%, marking the first time it had fallen below 85.0% since January 2023. This shift occurred as Bitcoin Ordinals gained traction in the market. However, Ethereum has since regained market share, capturing 84.0% of the market in June 2023.

The Rise of Bitcoin Ordinals

In 2023 Q2, Bitcoin surged to become the second-largest NFT chain, boasting a remarkable $0.34 billion in trading volume, which accounted for 10.8% of the total trading volume across the top 8 chains. This growth was a significant leap from its Q1 performance when it held only 2.1% of the total trading volume with $0.10 billion.

Bitcoin's ascent peaked in May 2023, claiming an impressive market share of 20.3% with $0.20 billion in trading volume. This surge represented a staggering 489.1% increase, from $0.03 billion in trading volume in April 2023. However, by June 2023, its dominance subsided to 11.0%, with a monthly trading volume of $0.11 billion.

The decline in Bitcoin's dominance in June 2023 might indicate exhaustion stemming from the BRC-20 token and memecoin craze experienced in May 2023. (Fun Fact: BRC-20 tokens are considered a subset of NFTs due to being text objects inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain)

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ImmutableX - Slowly But Surely

ImmutableX was consistent throughout 2023 Q2, capturing 2.4% of the market share with a trading volume of $0.08 billion. Despite maintaining similar trading volumes of $0.08 billion in 2023 Q1, ImmutableX's market share slightly increased from 1.6% in Q1 to 2.4% in Q2 of 2023.

By June 2023, ImmutableX further advanced, securing 2.5% of the market share with a trading volume of $0.02 billion. This positioned ImmutableX in the third spot, trailing behind Ethereum and Bitcoin concerning market share.

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Polygon’s Market Share Dips

Polygon experienced a significant decline in market share, dropping from 4.1% in February 2023 to 1.0% in June 2023, indicating a substantial reduction in its market presence. This decline was also evident in its trading volume, which plummeted sharply from $0.11 billion in 2023 Q1 to just $0.04 billion in 2023 Q2, marking a significant drop of 60.5%.

In February 2023, Polygon reached its highest market share of 4.1%, with $0.08 billion in trading volume. However, this positive trend reversed in March 2023, with its market share hitting a yearly low of 0.09%, while trading volume dwindled to $0.02 billion.

Despite a slight recovery in April 2023, where Polygon captured 1.8% of the market with $0.02 billion in trading volume, the platform has since been on a downtrend. This decline could be attributed to the fading hype following the migration of y00ts, a sister project of DeGods, from Solana to Polygon in late March 2023. In terms of all-time sales volume, y00ts has become one of Polygon's top 10 traded NFT collections.

As of June 2023, Polygon's market share further declined to 1.0%, with a modest trading volume of $0.01 billion.

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Solana Loses Market Share

Solana experienced a significant loss in market share, plummeting from 3.8% in Q1 2023 to 1.3% in Q2 2022. During this period, trading volume declined by 78.6% from $0.18 billion to $0.04 billion.

Solana achieved its highest market share of 9.6% in January 2023, during which its trading volume reached $0.10 billion, becoming the second-largest blockchain for NFTs. However, since then, it has been on a downtrend, hitting a low of 0.7% market share in June 2023, with less than $0.01 billion in trading volume.

Various factors may have contributed to this sharp decline, most notably the migration of significant NFT collections, such as DeGods and y00ts, to Ethereum and Polygon respectively.

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Flow, Arbitrum & BNB Chain Make Up 1% of Market

Flow, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain combined witnessed a notable increase in market share, rising from 0.09% in 2023 Q1 to 1.1% in 2023 Q2, with a total trading volume of approximately $0.04 billion across both quarters.

During this period, their combined market share peaked at 1.4% in April 2023, with a trading volume of $0.02 billion. This surge was primarily driven by a significant spike in Arbitrum trading volume after the ARB token airdrop. Arbitrum contributed 52.6% of the overall volume in that particular month.

However, since April 2023, the combined trading volume has steadily declined, dwindling to a mere 0.08% of the market share by June 2023, with a trading volume of only $0.01 billion.

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Market Share Of Top 8 NFT Blockchains

The top 8 NFT Blockchains based on trading volume, updated as of June 2023.

Methodology

This study analyzed the top 8 blockchains by NFT trading volume from January to June 2023. The top 8 blockchains were Ethereum, Bitcoin, ImmutableX, Polygon, Solana, Flow, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. Data excludes wash trading on LooksRare, X2Y2, and Blur, as well as irregular trading behavior on Cardano. Data is sourced from Footprint Analytics and CryptoSlam.

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proMatrix Capital

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