The non-fungible token (NFT) sector surged to a market capitalization of more than $9.3 billion as Ethereum-based collections surged alongside the price of Ether.
NFT data tracker NFT Price Floor showed on Wednesday that the overall market capitalization for NFT collections has hit $9.3 billion, a 40% uptick compared to its value in July. According to DappRadar data, NFTs had a market capitalization of $6.6 billion last month.
Ether (ETH), which recently pushed past the $4,000 milestone, has been a key driver behind the NFT market surge. At the time of writing, ETH trades above $4,600 and has a market capitalization of over $557 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Since many NFTs are based on the Ethereum mainnet, their sales and valuations are denominated in ETH. Because of this, bullish momentum in the crypto asset often translates into higher market values and increased activity in the NFT space. At the time of writing, the top ten NFT assets by market cap are Ethereum-based.
NFT market cap has surged 40% since July
CryptoPunks retains its spot as the top NFT collection by market capitalization. NFT Price Floor data shows that the collection is worth at least 526,900 ETH (about $2.4 billion).
In the last seven days, CryptoPunks had nearly 4,200 ETH in volume, worth almost $20 million. During the week, the collection had 90 total sales, averaging at $217,331 per NFT.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) follows CryptoPunks in the rankings with a valuation of $602 million, while Pudgy Penguins follows closely with $591 million.
Pudgy Penguins added to a crypto treasury
However, while BAYC leads in valuation, the Pudgy Penguins collection tops BAYC in terms of seven-day volume. DefiLlama data suggests that Pudgy Penguins had a volume of $8.7 million in the past week, while BAYC had $6.3 million.
In a Cointelegraph interview, Pudgy Penguins CEO and owner Luca Schnetzler (better known as Luca Netz) said the collection’s expansion into a physical toy brand saved the company from bankruptcy in 2022.
Since then, the collection has been a leading NFT brand, rivaling other blue-chip collections.
This week, blockchain company BTCS Inc. said it added three Pudgy Penguins to its corporate treasury.
Apart from the three collections, other top 10 NFT collections by market cap include Art Block’s Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro, Autoglyphs, Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs, Lil Pudgys, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Moonbirds and Milady Maker.
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