The Ethereum (ETH) floor price of the five largest non-fungible token (NFT) collections has fallen over the past 30 days, according to data aggregator NFT Price Floor. The NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection were the hardest hit, with a 26.6% drop on the ETH price.
Pudgy Penguins, which dominated trading volume within the Top 5 Collections, fell 10.3% over the same period. Meanwhile, CryptoPunks was the most successful collection in terms of holding ground in ETH, limiting the pullback to less than 7%. Autoglyphs and Chromie Squiggle, the other two of the five largest NFT collections by market cap, fell 8% and 9.5% respectively.
The losses in the ETH-denominated price occurred at the same time that the traded volume of Ethereum-based NFT collections increased by more than 50% in traded volume, to $660 million.
Despite the drop in ETH value, the dollar price of all five collections increased. Nicolás Lallement, co-founder of NFT Price Floor, explains that this is a common market dynamic.
When it comes to NFT prices, investors usually debate the price of collections that are considered blue chips in ETH, and their correlation with the altcoin. “As some have suggested ‘1 ETH ≠ 1 ETH’ meaning the decision making process for investors is as follows: 1) Check the current ETH price of the NFT; 2) Check the current USD price of the NFT; 3) Check the NFT’s ETH/USD price history; 4) Decide based on the current price of the NFT in USD,” says Lallement.
Over the past 30 days, ETH has risen 62.6%, fueled by Bitcoin price growth and expectations of the approval of a spot ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US. Lallement emphasizes that the Dencun upgrade, which will take place on March 13 and promises to reduce gas costs for Ethereum layer-2 blockchains, also plays a major role in the ETH price rise.
“That means if ETH goes higher in USD terms, NFTs will also go higher in USD terms, and ETH-denominated prices will have to fall to reach equilibrium again. The NFT bull in ETH terms will have to wait in my opinion. We are still in a speculative phase where most of the attention is on low-value Solana-based NFTs and Ordinals,” Lallement concludes.