CryptoPunks Skyrocket as Courtyard Leads NFT Market Surge

• Courtyard and DMarket became the two most popular weekly NFT sales, while CryptoPunks rose 43.99% in value.
• One rare CryptoPunk sold for a $10 million loss due to the current low ETH prices.
• Top collections such as Bored Ape and Pudgy Penguins declined while other smaller projects like LilPudgys picked up.

Courtyard led in the NFT market this week with total NFT sales of $18.36 million, up from $15.874 million in the previous week, a 16.18% increase. There were 141,945 transactions recorded in the collection, with 8,712 buyers, making it the most sale-prone platform among all the others.

DMarket ranked right behind it with $9.95 million in sales and a 17.56% increase. Although the average transaction amount is much lower, the high transaction frequency of 268,895 means that many of the company’s consumers are active during the week, with 20,562 buyers at that.

CryptoPunks Explode Despite Low Buyer Count

CryptoPunks experienced a staggering growth in weekly sales by 143.99% up to $8.01 million. Or rather, the collection only had 13 buyers and 24 transactions, but it showed that specific players made huge high-value trades. Therefore, the increase in volume may be attributed to the return of high-net-worth individuals or institutional buyers in the market.

This news emerges as another CryptoPunk NFT titled #3100 was recently sold with a $10 million loss. The Alien Punk is one of the ten copies of the work currently in existence, and it was sold for 4,000 ETH (approximately $6.07 million) on April 10 in a private deal negotiated by Fountain, an art brokerage firm.

Arkham said that the seller bought the NFT for 4,500 ETH in March last year, which was valued at about $16 million at the time, and that ETH was trading at around $3,500. The 500 ETH was further reduced by a 56% decline in the value of Ethereum, which led to the total loss.

Guild of Guardians also recorded increased sales records to $1,728,357 which was 21.35% higher as compared previously. The company attracted 2,437 buyers for 4,255 transactions, thus indicating people’s interest in the community and the activity in the ecosystem.

Legacy Collections Face Downward Pressure

NFT collection Pudgy Penguins, which was previously among the most popular collections, experienced an 18,83% decline to $1 460 000 in weekly sales. It also achieved only 66 customers, indicating declining the final consumers’ interest. Bored Ape Yacht Club fell more sharply, decreasing by 28.41%, having fifty-six transactions and thirty-eight unique buyers realizing $1.37 million in volumes.

Taproot Wizard was among the worst performers, with its volume shrinking by 12.58%. There were 113 transactions and 61 buyers, yet sales were massive, with only $1.19 million. Mutant Ape Yacht Club performed much better and it rose by 9.13% to $1.12 million by 123 buyers.

Emerging Projects Gain Momentum

LilPudgys exhibited the most impressive growth rate except for CryptoPunks, which increased by 27.09% and reached $639.97K with 328 transactions. The relatively low volume still shows an increase in people getting interested in certain micro-cap NFT collections while seeking other opportunities.

Other collections, such as Sorare and Panini, were relatively down, dropping by 7.20% and 14.26% respectively. Sorare had a high participation rate, with 81,138 transactions and 13,587 unique buyers, suggesting it has an active user base. DogeZuki trading volume fell by 5.77% to $648.01, although it was active with 11,800+ buyers and transactions of 13,582.