OpenSea NFT volumes surge as Bored Ape mania intensifies

In January, OpenSea’s NFT trading volumes soared as Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) kicked off another speculative frenzy.

According to the data released by "rchen8" on Dune Analytics, since the beginning of 2022, OpenSea has generated a transaction volume worth more than 700 million US dollars, of which January 3 is the biggest day of the year, with a 24-hour transaction volume of up to 255.8 million US dollars .

While popular onlookers like Wu Said Blockchain claim that Jan. 3 sales were an all-time high for OpenSea, data published by rchen8 on Dune Analytics shows an all-time high of $322 million on Aug. 29. In December, OpenSea’s monthly trading volume topped $3.24 billion, just 5.3 percent short of the platform’s August peak of $3.42 billion. With the NFT market already seeing more than $700 million worth of traded volume in the first four days of January, record highs could soon be broken if momentum continues throughout the month.

Bored Ape Mania

The recent buzz around BAYC and MAYC NFTs, along with a host of other projects from Yuga Labs, may have been a factor in OpenSea’s soaring sales.

According to data from CryptoSlam, MAYC is currently the No. 1 NFT project in the 7-day trading volume on the secondary market, with $93.2 million, followed by BAYC NFT with $88.4 million.

Over the past 30 days, the MAYC and BAYC projects have generated $189.7 million and $182.6 million respectively, making them the third and fourth-ranked NFT collectibles at the time of writing.

In terms of 24-hour trading volume, MAYC has captured $18.7 million worth of secondary trading volume, while BAYC has generated $14 million. According to OpenSea, the current base price of BAYC NFT is a high 67 Ethereum (ETH), worth about $250,000, while the current price of MAYC NFT is 15.87 ETH, or $59,300.

So far in January, pop culture icons such as rapper Eminem, musician Britney Spears and comedian Dave Chappelle have reportedly all BAYC NFTs were snapped up this month for six-figure prices.