The non-fungible token (NFT) market started in 2025 facing the fallout of a big drop in trading volume and sales that began in late 2024.
The non-fungible token (NFT) market started in 2025 facing the fallout of a big drop in trading volume and sales that began in late 2024.
Even though there were early signs of recovery in the NFT space, things slowed way down at the start of the year. This happened at the same time as a wider downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
According to data from , NFT trading volumes hit their highest in December 2024, reaching $1.36 billion. This huge increase in trading happened because of growing excitement around AI-powered NFTs and new collection launches.
But this peak didn’t last long. January 2025 saw a sharp 26% decrease, pulling trading volumes down to $997 million.
The downturn got worse in February 2025. NFT trading volumes fell off a cliff, plunging by 50% to $498 million. That’s a big difference from the December highs.
It’s a similar story for the total number of NFT sales. The market saw 4.1 million sales in August 2024, but by February 2025, sales had dropped to just 2.7 million. That’s a consistent decline over several months.
The fall in NFT valuations is mostly because of the general slump in cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high of $109,000 on January 20, 2025, after its previous peak in December.
However, things went south for the crypto market in February. It took some big hits due to worries over United States trade tariffs under the Trump administration. With more and more macroeconomic uncertainty, investor mood cooled down. This hurt both digital collectibles and the wider decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
To make matters worse, decentralized app (dApp) activity also went down in February. The total number of daily unique active wallets dropped by 8% to 24 million. This decrease in overall blockchain activity further weakened NFT demand.
Even though the market mostly went down, a few NFT collections managed to go against the flow. For example, Pudgy Penguins kept up strong trading activity.
Their sales actually went up by 25%, even with the overall dip in trading volume. Doodles also saw an uptick in trading volume after they announced their upcoming DOOD token launch on Solana.
On top of that, Kaito Genesis, an AI-driven NFT collection, skyrocketed in value. Its floor price climbed to 7.65 ETH in February.
This price jump was driven by strategic partnerships, especially its collaboration with the Azuki NFT team.