More individual NFTs were sold on Polygon than Ethereum via leading general marketplace OpenSea for the second month in a row, according to curated public blockchain data via Dune. board.
In January, OpenSea handled more than 1.5 million NFT sales on Ethereum’s Polygon sidechain, weather EtherealThe mainnet itself recorded just over 1.1 million sales through the same marketplace. That continues the trend from December, when 1.3 million NFTs were sold on Polygon via OpenSea compared to just under 1 million for Ethereum NFTs.
Ethereum has long been considered the main blockchain for NFTs, hosting the most high-value projects, even though it is sometimes high. gas rates. But as Polygon continues to forge big brand deals with big names like Goal, starbucksY RedditAnd as additional game projects take advantage of the scaling network, more and more assets are exchanged on the sidechain.
while the Ethereum merger— which was completed in September — reduced main grid power consumption by 99.998%, did not solve the problem of gas tariffs from the network, which can sometimes exceed the base price of the asset itself. A gas fee is a cost that the Ethereum network charges users to complete a transaction.
By contrast, Polygon and Ethereum tier 1 rivals like Solarium Y avalanche they offer exponentially lower fees for user transactions, and in turn have become increasingly known for hosting more affordable NFT collections.
According to OpenSea, the top Polygon NFT collection in January overall was the controversial Digital stickers of Donald Trumpwhich recorded nearly 5,500 sales across all Polygon markets, with a trading volume of 1,743 ETH (nearly $2.8 million).
But when it comes to Polygon collections with the highest number of sales in all markets beyond OpenSea, planet IX registered approximately 5 million sales in the last 30 days, while land of sunflowers recorded 1 million sales, mocaverse saw 42,000 sales, and Lympo Athletes accumulated some 37,000 sales in the last month.
It is worth noting that most of these sales are for low-cost assets that will be used in metaverse worlds or Web3 games. In some cases, such as with Sunflower Land and Planet IX, NFT assets are sold for pennies of ETH, significantly lowering the average sale price of Polygon-based NFTs in that span.
While Polygon surpassed Ethereum in the total number of sales, Ethereum continues to see substantially higher traded value overall. On OpenSea, Ethereum posted a total traded volume of approximately $446 million in January, while Polygon NFT sales accounted for just $15.4 million. With around 1.5 million NFT sales on Polygon, the average sale price is around $10.
Notably, this is not the first time that Polygon NFT’s total number of monthly sales has surpassed Ethereum. Dune shows a similar spike in late 2021 and early 2022, but then Polygon’s sales number fell sharply until the recent uptick.
The most expensive and desirable NFTs (such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club) still live on Ethereum, generating significantly higher trading volume than Polygon. But the sidechain network is seeing traction as a destination for low-cost NFT games and collectibles, which could help broader NFT adoption by reaching a much larger audience.
