Solana strengthens NFT market with peak trading for the second half of 2024

Solana ended the year with a peak month of NFT activity. Solana NFT sales peaked above $102M in December, as the Pudgy Penguins collection reached record activity levels.

Solana reached peak NFT activity in December, with more than $102M in digital items sold. The main driver of the NFT expansion was the Magic Eden airdrop, which boosted activity in the hope of gaining more ME tokens.

Most of December saw Solana’s daily active addresses in the 5M to 6M range, further boosting all types of activities.

In the short term, the new ME token was pressured by selling and sank from its peak above $3.02 down to $2.76. ME, however, is not the perfect proxy for NFT, as collections had their own paths of success.

Magic Eden, however, revealed that Solana dominated in terms of NFT sales, though at a slightly lower value than Bitcoin or Ethereum-based NFT. Solana was also the most accessible chain with the largest number of buyers.

Additional hype came from the Pudgy Penguins collection, which was not directly responsible, but affected the Solana market. Pudgy Penguins is Ethereum-based, but its PENGU token chose Solana and lined up as one of the top meme tokens.

December’s NFT results shower more buyers, higher average item price

In December, Solana-based NFT sales had a brief spike, reaching the levels from the March-April bull market. Solana arrived relatively late to the NFT space after most of the top collections were launched on Ethereum. However, the lower fees and the more accessible collections helped to drive adoption.

The Solana blue chip NFT index started recovering from its local lows in November 2024. The rise of SOL valuations also helped to boost the index in dollar terms. The average sale of top collections recovered from 7 SOL to 10 SOL at the beginning of 2025.

The Solana blue chip index expanded in December, to over 10 SOL on average for the sales of top NFT collections. | Source: Step Analytics

Solana’s NFT trading also shows a more limited share of wash trading than Ethereum. On the Ethereum chain, more than 43% of all trades showed signs of wash transactions, while for Solana, the share was 0.20% daily based on Cryptoslam data.

In December, Solana carried fewer buyers but achieved higher NFT valuations. April showed peak NFT buyer interest, with 487,046 wallets accumulating the digital items. Over the past 12 months, buyers exceeded sellers, leading to a robust $3.4M in daily volumes.

The average sale in December was $79.93 per item, the highest level for the second half of 2024. NFTs have varying price ranges, though Solana has chosen the path of more accessible collectibles rather than high-priced collections.

Solana still has its share of blue-chip NFT items, though starting at a lower entry point compared to Ethereum. Most of the top Solana collections are native, and not copies of the leading Ethereum items – Punks, Pudgy Penguins, and Bored Apes.

Will Solana NFT grow in 2025?

Solana has proven to be a hot network for the creation of communities. Meme tokens took up the role of NFT for community formation, mostly due to their lower barrier to entry.

One of the potential vectors of recovery is the re-buying of former top collections. Some of the earlier NFTs, which sold for hundreds of SOL, may regain popularity.

As of January, Solana’s top NFT collection was Mad Lads, with a floor price of 78.24 SOL. The collection has been recovering for the past three months, though still far from its peak floor price of 186 SOL.

Top collections are also trying to use the brand of some of the more successful Solana cults. The Retardio Cousins collection is awaiting recovery with a price floor of 13.15 SOL. Other NFT collections follow the AI agent trend, with NFT for Tensorians, AI16Z Partners, and Zereborn.

Solana NFT features meme-based art with a simpler aesthetic and commands a different set of communities compared to Ethereum. However, the crossover into memes and AI agents may boost participation and turnover. The AI narrative is putting pressure on all other activities, as the NFT market struggles to adapt and choose between recovering old collections or launching new AI-themed NFT.

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