In the second quarter, NFT-related tokens recorded the most impressive performance, with an average increase of 55.4%, despite the dollar-denominated NFT trading volume dropping to its lowest level in years.
According to data from Artemis, the average return from these tokens far exceeds the second-best performer, Ethereum (ETH) with a 37.2% increase, a gap of nearly 50%.
Pudgy Penguins' PENGU token has made a significant contribution to the growth of the industry. Trading data shows that PENGU closed at $0.01476 on June 30, up from a daily low of $0.00387 on April 8. This growth corresponds to an increase of about 3.8 times in just 83 days.
Daily trading volume on Binance regularly exceeds $180 million in USDT, indicating that speculative demand is still being maintained. This increase has helped the basket of NFT applications surpass artificial intelligence tokens (35.6%) and Bitcoin (31.4%) during the same period, according to Artemis statistics.
When Bitcoin set a new all-time high above $118,000 on July 11, PENGU was priced at $0.229, with a 20% increase.
Trading volume decreased while the number of transactions increased
DappRadar's report on the "State of the Dapp Industry" indicates that NFT trading volume in the second quarter dropped to $823 million, down from $1.5 billion in the first quarter, corresponding to a 45% decrease. This decline is even more pronounced compared to the $4 billion trading volume a year ago, marking a 79% drop.
Although the number of transactions increased to 12.5 million from 7 million in the previous quarter, indicating that transactions with lower value are dominating.
DappRadar believes this difference reflects the market's shift towards affordable collectible items and the creation of tokens in a gamified manner, increasing the number of transactions without raising nominal value.
Market participants believe the disconnection between token price and market revenue is due to speculation shifting from non-fungible assets to governance or meme-related tokens.
Analysts from Artemis note that traders seeking leveraged exposure to NFT culture have shifted towards highly liquid tokens listed on exchanges, rather than illiquid JPEGs, a trend that became more apparent when the ETH funding rate turned negative in mid-May.
Data from broader sectors also reinforces this separation. The Bitcoin ecosystem increased by 6.2% and smart contract platforms rose by 16.2% in the quarter, while real asset tokens dropped by 50.6% and data capability projects decreased by 47.4%, according to Artemis.
Performance in the second quarter propelled PENGU to a market capitalization exceeding $1.4 billion and ranked 82nd by market cap.
The remarkable growth of this token, combined with declining market volume, illustrates the increasingly clear separation between the fungible representations of NFT brands and the non-fungible assets they reference.