• $2.95 million in NFTs were stolen in May, raising security concerns about the market.
• Despite overall declining volumes, Blue Chip NFTs have seen increased demand.
• Marketplaces like Blur and OpenSea are competing for dominance with Blur leading in terms of volume.
NFT Thefts Amounting to $2.95 Million
Recent data from PeckShield, a crypto cybersecurity firm, has revealed that in May, NFT thefts amounted to $2.95 million. This rise in stolen NFTs has raised concerns about potential repercussions for the market. Within a span of 130 minutes, half of the stolen NFTs were promptly sold on various marketplaces. The percentage of stolen NFTs initially sold on the Blur marketplace skyrocketed from 70% to 91%, compared to April 2023.
Decreasing Volumes But Increased Demand For Blue Chips
Despite the increase in thefts, the competition amongst marketplaces remained healthy. According to Dune Analytics, OpenSea represented 51% of all trades while Blur dominated in terms of volume, capturing 56.6% of the NFT trade volume. However, overall, NFT volumes have witnessed a significant decline over the past few months indicating a cooling down of the market following 2021’s rapid growth as well as general volatility in both cryptocurrencies and NFTS markets. Despite this decline Blue Chips such as BAYC and Azuki experienced a surge in demand and number of holders/traders over recent weeks according to data sources such as Dapp Radar and NFGO respectively .
Security Concerns
The rise and dominance of stolen NFTs on the Blur marketplace highlighted security concerns which could potentially have serious repercussions for the entire market if left unchecked or unaddressed by existing measures or authorities .
Conclusion
The theft amounting to almost 3 million dollars raised questions regarding security issues nonetheless due to an overall decreaseinvolumes , Blue chips continue experiencing high demand as evidenced by increasing numbers trading/holding them . Further steps need to be taken however ,to ensure that these issues do not hamper robust growth inthe future .
References
PeckShieldAlert (June 1st 2023). #PeckShieldAlert In May 2023 ~$ 2 95M worthof #NFts was Stolen… Retrieved from : https://twitter com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1401114345685467142?refsrc=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp| twgr^author
Crypto Quant (2022). Woominkyu Indicating Decrease In Market Trade Volume Since Its Peak In April 2022 Retrieved from :https://cryptoquantcom/woominkyu-indicating-decrease-in-market-trade-volume-since-its-peak-in-april_2022
Dune Analytics (2021). Overall Trading Volume Of All Marketplaces Retrieved from : https://duneanalytics com/johnnykoolish/nftgo–overall-tradingVolumeOfAllMarketplaces?_ga=3DGA1QJLWX9FZG8YGZ5V4Z4R9UAMB6NG&_gac=3DAOvVaw0KzcQ7EomKPGaA0yH6vfKPtF7uC8TmYOhIqfguiUGSfj5lzg