The transaction volume has nearly doubled, reaching $1.58 billion. The number of transactions has reached 18.1 million, setting a new record, and this growth is no longer associated with expensive avatars or digital art. Utility assets became the main driver of growth. Sports NFTs, loyalty programs, and tickets to various events led the market. The sports segment alone grew by 337 percent in a month.
Technical improvements played a key role in the market’s growth. The Dencun update to Ethereum has dramatically reduced fees on L2 networks, which now cost only a few cents. This has allowed platforms like Base to become venues for the mass issuance and distribution of tokens. Solana is not far behind and is gaining momentum thanks to NFT compression technology, which makes the issuance of millions of tokens almost free.
Royalties no longer provide a stable income for creators, as most marketplaces have made them optional. Instead, brands and large projects are moving to closed platforms with mandatory deductions to protect their assets.
Coinbase and Phantom wallets simplify entry and cover expenses, allowing beginners to enter the market without knowing the intricacies of commissions and gas costs.
Experts expect that if market conditions are favorable, the total turnover of these digital assets could grow to $14 billion, but even in this case, NFTs will not return to the era of the speculative JPEG boom. Now their future lies in real functions, not in collecting.
The NFT market is undergoing a transformation. It has become cheaper, more practical, and closer to the mass user. The main trends today are low costs and integration into everyday services.
