NFT transaction volume hits record $6.86 billion in January

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) became popular in the last year but have reached huge proportions in 2022.

In this month of January alone, the volume of transactions with NFTs exceeded US$ 6.86 billion, according to data from The Block Data Dashboard. This is, according to the platform, a historic monthly record.

LookRare platform grows and threatens OpenSea

Compared to December 2021, when $2.67 billion was traded, the monthly volume growth is 129%.

In addition, the value traded in January corresponds to practically half of the value negotiated in the entire year of 2021, about US$ 14.2 billion.

According to The Block, the launch of a new NFT platform boosted the market in January:

“Much of the increase was due to the latest entrant on the NFT market scene called LookRare, which amassed nearly $2 billion in volume after its launch on January 10th,” reported The Block.

Despite this, the OpenSea platform remains dominant in the sector, accounting for 61.4% of the total value, or US$ 4.21 billion.

However, compared to the month of December, when OpenSea dominated more than 83% of transactions with NFTs, the drop is quite considerable.

For The Block’s analysts, the LooksRare platform poses a threat to OpenSea because of its LOOKS token.

“Users receive LOOKS when buying or selling NFTs on the platform. They can also earn more rewards by staking the token on the platform.”

Despite this advancement in the market since its launch, the LooksRare platform is not without its problems.

As Block Research has noted, a large part of LooksRare’s trading volume is due to wash trading, in which individuals exchange items with each other to artificially increase volume and prices.als BC