NFTs are the most popular asset on Ethereum, but WBTC's growth is stalling

The transfer volume of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum has surpassed that of stablecoins and altcoins, while the supply of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) has remained relatively stagnant since late last year.

These are two key findings from the latest State of the Network report published by Coin Metrics. It details how ERC-721 transfers on ethereum outpaced stablecoins and altcoins starting last July, and the difference between them has continued to increase since then. ERC-721 is the standard for NFT tokens on the Ethereum network.

Starting in late July, NFT transfer volume averaged 50,000 per day and has never dropped below that level since. The average daily NFT transfer volume now exceeds 300,000, an all-time high and a 600% increase since July.

Conversely, transfer volumes of ERC-20 tokens, including altcoins and stablecoins, have steadily declined since late July. Altcoin transfers fell from 42,000 to about 30,000 per day, a drop of 39%. Stablecoin transfers fell 25% from 24,000 in July to 18,000 today.

These numbers make it clear: NFTs are more popular than ever. According to DappRadar, demand for NFT transactions has never been higher.

OpenSea is currently the all-time leader in NFT transaction volume with $21.85 billion in transactions, but the LooksRare market poses a threat to OpenSea’s dominance. Over the past 30 days, LooksRare’s transaction volume was $11.6 billion, compared with $4.13 billion for OpenSea.

This level of popularity is fueled by the expansion of the professional sports and music industries into NFTs, as well as the growth of virtual real estate. On Jan. 19, NFL superstar Tom Brady raised $170 million to help expand his NFT marketplace, Autograph. On Feb. 3, recording artist John Legend launched an NFT platform for musicians to tokenize their work.

WBTC supply stagnant

WBTC, an ERC-20 token, has seen an increase in the total number of transactions since July. After hitting a low of 110,000 on July 9, transfer volume peaked at 557,700 on November 3. There are currently about 232,000 transfers per day, according to CoinMetrics.

WBTC is like a stablecoin, pegged 1:1 to the value of Bitcoin and can be exchanged for real BTC at any time.

While the total supply of WBTC on ethereum is near an all-time high of 271,000, equivalent to about 1.4% of the total bitcoin supply, data from CoinMetrics shows that the rate at which tokens are being minted has leveled off since early February .

However, the total number of Ethereum addresses currently holding WBTC is 43,290, an all-time high, according to CoinMetrics.

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