NFT Marketplaces Shift Focus to Cryptocurrency Trading Amid 45% Volume Decline

Major NFT marketplaces are shifting their focus from digital art to cryptocurrency trading as the nonfungible token market experiences a significant decline. OpenSea and Magic Eden, two leading NFT platforms, are now generating a substantial portion of their revenue from users trading Bitcoin, Solana-linked memecoins, and other cryptocurrencies rather than digital collectibles.

In the second quarter, NFT trading volume decreased by 45% to $867 million, despite a 78% increase in sales to 14.9 million transactions. Magic Eden reports that up to 75% of its daily volume now comes from cryptocurrency trading rather than NFT sales. OpenSea has been testing cryptocurrency trading since February, with token trading volume growing 100% month-over-month.

The transformation reflects a dramatic shift in user behavior since NFTs peaked in January 2024. Magic Eden's daily volume now comes as much as 75% from users exchanging tokens like Bitcoin or Solana-linked memecoins. The platform has been helping users buy memecoins and making it easier to swap tokens for NFT purchases.

"There's a reality where companies that are NFT-focused are expanding to other asset types," said Chris Akhavan, Magic Eden's chief business officer. "That's a reflection of the market."

OpenSea, the Miami-based marketplace that helped turn NFTs into a pop-culture phenomenon, now allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly on its platform. The company announced July 9 it acquired startup Rally to boost its token-trading capabilities. Magic Eden made a similar acquisition in April to grow its cryptocurrency trading features.

Between 30% and 50% of Magic Eden's daily revenue in the last 30 days has come from cryptocurrency trading, according to Akhavan. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer described the platform as "the best place to trade anything on chain" and said the company is "tapping into a different audience."

The pivot has been aided by regulatory shifts. The Securities and Exchange Commission has largely halted enforcement around digital-asset trading and dropped an investigation into OpenSea earlier this year. This regulatory environment has allowed marketplaces to broaden their ambitions from NFTs to crypto trading and possibly into tokenized stocks and real-world assets.

NFT marketplaces are evolving into mainstream exchanges tailored for retail traders by necessity rather than design. The transformation comes as much of the crypto community has moved on to speculate on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and memecoins instead of digital art collectibles.

Research firm DappRadar reported that while NFT sales increased 78% to 14.9 million in the second quarter, the average price dropped sharply even as the number of traders increased 20%. The data "highlights a sharp drop in average price," the researcher noted.

The memecoin market remains highly volatile despite attracting NFT platform attention. After peaking at about $127 billion in December, the total memecoin market value has slid to $57 billion. However, monthly volume on Pump.fun, the leading website for creating memecoins, climbed in June from May.

Many memecoins have trended downward in recent months, but the trading activity continues to drive revenue for platforms adapting to market conditions. The shift represents a fundamental change in how these platforms view their role in the digital asset ecosystem.

The NFT marketplace transformation from digital art trading to cryptocurrency exchanges illustrates how quickly platforms must adapt to survive in the volatile crypto market. As million-dollar monkey portraits fade from relevance, memecoin trading has become the new frontier for platforms seeking to maintain user engagement and revenue growth.