Friend.tech had kept traders busy for the past two months, but now is struggling to keep their attention, with key trading volume falling off drastically ever since security concerns were reported by the community in early October. Once users had a reason to look elsewhere for their degen needs, they turned right back to NFTs and other SoFi platforms like Stars Arena and New Bitcoin City.

But NFT activity really started ramping back up on Oct. 9 when Blur announced Nov. 20 as the end of point rewards farming. The market got a few additional pumps from fake Bitcoin ETF approval news on Oct. 16, followed by tangible reports on Oct. 20 that ETF approvals are imminent.

NFTs move on news, and a steady stream of positive stories is giving the market some serious momentum.

In the past week, that momentum has driven multiple NFT collections like Michelin and Trip.com to sell out their primary sales, a nearly impossible feat in the bear market. Equally as impressive is Zynga’s SugarTown Oras, who maintained the value of their NFTs after their art was revealed. If you’re active in NFTs, you know just how rare of a feat this is.

That same momentum extended to the global NFT markets.

Last week was the second consecutive week of increased sales in NFTs, which is something we haven’t seen since the beginning of August. Sales are up 25% from the year’s low of US$55 million just two weeks ago, and nearly all metrics saw a similar increase. Wash sales even got in on the action with over US$33.5 million in sales, its highest weekly total since US$53.9 million on the week of August 14, and up 99% from US$16.9 million on the week of Oct 2.

Last week’s sales represent a five-week high for the NFT market and was capped off by Friday’s US$11.1 million in sales, the highest day of global NFT sales since Sept 20.

Some caution is warranted by NFT traders, though. If the NFT market is largely moving because of Bitcoin’s Uptober, you should be aware that four of the past five years saw the price of $BTC tumble in November.

Still, even if Bitcoin does falter, we’re primed for a big year in the blockchain in 2024, with traders who have shown us that they’re still very active, engaged, and ready to turn on the trading faucet at the drop of news.

NFTs are not back yet, but the hot crypto market will soon bring about a thaw.

Peep the charts

• DMarket again is the king of NFTs with over US$9.2 million in sales, primarily from Counterstrike gaming skins.

• Gods Unchained saw 46% increase in transactions, with hype building ahead of the highly anticipated Season 2 launch on Oct. 25.

• $SATS BRC-20s saw major sales this week, including Bitcoin’s top Ordinals sale this week, a US$47,000 bundle that sold on Oct. 20.

• Winds of Yawanawa continues to be a powerhouse art collection, and will see 10% of the week’s $2.2m in sales going to the Yawanawa tribe as royalty.

• The Captainz NFTs from 9gag are on fire this week, with sales up 230%, and transactions 186% as collectors want in on their upcoming $MEME coin action.

• Ethereum is green across the board and crossed the US$40 million threshold for the first time in five weeks.

• Mythos Chain is again seeing 99% of its volume coming from gaming skins on DMarket.

• Solana’s Solcasino gambling platform traded for over US$989,000, pushing its blockchain into the third spot, and well ahead of the rest.

• Bitcoin is perhaps primed to recover faster than other chains, with $BTC being the focus of investors around the world, and mass adoption of the blockchain likely coming through Bitcoin.

• Panini is in the top ten this week with sales volume up over 303%, thanks to red-hot NFL NFT trading action.