Although the year is far from over, there has been quite a bit of momentum in the NFT world in 2022. As Non-fungible tokens or NFTs become more popular with mainstream audiences, the value and demand for NFTs continue to increase significantly, especially as major brands are beginning to get behind them in a race to stay on top of this new and emerging Web3 technology.

NFTs have been around since 2014, they are still a relatively new concept for general audiences and we still have not witnessed their full potential.

In this article, I am going to highlight 22 interesting NFT facts to provide some background on the technology and also shed some light on some of its recent milestones.

1. It is estimated that over 70% of Americans still don’t know what an NFT is.

Recent statistics show that most adults in the US are still not familiar with NFTs. These figures are even higher in Japan and Germany, where 90% and 82.6% of the adult populations haven’t heard of them. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, only 55.3% of people don’t know what an NFT is.

2. Millennials are 3 times as likely as Gen Z to buy NFTs.

According to research from the Morning Consult, millennials are the demographic most likely to get involved with NFTs. In fact, Millennials are three times more likely to buy and sell these assets than their Gen Z counterparts.

3. Men are three times more likely than women to collect or trade NFTs.

The same survey reveals that differences between men and women extend to their collection habits. Men are three times more likely to identify as collectors than their female counterparts.

4. People who earn less than $25,000 per year invest in NFTs at a similar rate as those earning over $150,000.

Both lower- and upper-income persons share a passion for buying NFTs. However, those who fall within the intermediate income bracket (between $25,000 and $150,000 per year) appear to be considerably less excited, with 94% saying that they have no interest in NFTs at all.

5. In 2022, 50% of all NFT sales are below $200.

Not all NFTs bring in millions of dollars. More than half the recorded sales didn’t even hit the $200 mark. An analysis of NFT trends reveals that most primary sales went for $100 or less.

6. NFT trading volume increased by 704.2% between Q2 2021 and Q3 2021.

The NFT boom reached new heights throughout 2021 as the value of all global NFT transactions in the third quarter hit $10.7 billion.

7. Close to $41 billion in crypto was spent on the NFT marketplaces in 2021. 

According to NFT stats compiled by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis Inc., the NFT marketplace grew to almost $41 billion in 2021, closing in on conventional art sales. In 2020, conventional art and antique sales amounted to $50 billion. The closing gap can be explained by the growing popularity of NFTs and auction house closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

8. NFT prices can vary in price tremendously, up to six times more on different marketplaces.

On Valuable, average NFT prices are just $150, while on OpenSea, they are $500, and on Mintable, they are $900. Top-selling NFTs, however, sell for millions.

9. OpenSea is the most popular NFT marketplace with an estimated 250,000 NFT trades each month.

OpenSea sits at the top of the world’s biggest NFT markets at the moment and has an NFT price tracker. Estimates suggest that around a quarter of a million people actively trade NFTs every month on the platform. CoinBase has a waiting list of 2 million users for its upcoming NFT marketplace, due to launch in 2022.

10. California leads the United States in NFT sales.

San Francisco and Los Angeles top the list of cities buying NFTs. They’re followed by two other California cities San Jose, San Diego, as well as Austin in Texas. When it comes to states, Hawaii is in second place, followed by Nevada.

11. China leads the world in NFT adoption and ownership.

According to research into the number of searches for the term “NFT” in Google, found that China is the country most interested in NFT, followed by Singapore, Venezuela, and Hong Kong.

12. The top five NFT economies in the world are in Asia.

A poll involving 28,000 people in 20 countries found that the Philippines has the highest number of NFT owners (32%).  The country with the second-highest NFT adoption rate is Thailand (27%), followed by Malaysia (24%), the UAE (23%), and Vietnam (17%).

13. Nigeria is forecasted to experience the biggest growth in 2022 (21.7%) in NFT adoption.

The number of Nigerians who own NFTs is expected to grow from 13.7% to 35.3%. Notable increases in NFT adoption rates are also forecast for Peru (14.5%), Venezuela (13.5%), and Colombia (11.9%). In the US and UK expected growth rate is 3.9% and 3.3%, respectively.

14. The First NFT ever Minted In 2014 sold for $1.4 million

The first NFT “Quantum” was created by Kevin McCoy in May of 2014, and sold for $1.4 million at a Sotheby auction in November 2021.

15. The most expensive NFT this far sold for $91.8 million.

Digital artist Pak’s creation, The Merge, fetched US$91.8 million on Nifty Gateway, with 28,983 collectors snapping up 312,686 total units of mass, or otherwise known as a nonfungible token (NFT).

16. Beeples The First 5000 Days sells for 69 million.

The First 5000 Days is one of artist Beeples high grossing NFT projects. It is a collage of 5000 individual NFTs that Beeples created for his Everyday’s series. It sold for an astonishing $69 million (42.329 ETH) in 2021 at the Christies Auction house.

17. Clock NFT becomes the 3rd most expensive NFT ever.

The third most expensive NFT ever sold was created to raise funds for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s defence after he was controversially imprisoned in May 2019. Assange is currently imprisoned on charges of espionage against the US Government, mainly through association with the Website he founded, WikiLeaks. The NFT itself is simply a clock depicting the number of days since Assange has been imprisoned.

18. The Cryptopunks collection holds 5 of the top NFT sales of all time.

Larvalabs creation, CryptoPunks, which operates on the Ethereum network hold the record of 5 of the most expensive sales in NFTs of all time. The NFT CryptoPunk #7523, sold for approximately $11.8 million, while CryptoPunk #3100 sold for $7.7 million.

19. The Nyan Cat Meme was minted as an NFT GIF and sold for $590,000 in crypto in 2021.

The infamous Nyan Cat GIF, which celebrated 10 years since its inception in February 2021, sold for more than $590,000. It dethroned cotton candy cat, Dragon, as the most valuable kitty NFT to date.

20. It is estimated that minting an NFT has the same carbon footprint created by more than a month of electricity usage by a US citizen. 

The amount of energy required to create, distribute and transfer ownership of an average NFTs is believed to be around 10 times higher than on the Ethereum blockchain. The average NFT transaction produces around 48 kg of CO2.

21. Tezos, Symbol, and Polygon emit less than 1% of the CO2 generated by Ethereum.

Most NFTs are on the Ethereum network, and NFT industry stats show that the token was using an estimated 103.17 TWh per year at the end of 2021. By contrast, proof of stake networks, such as Tezos, only consumes around 0.00006 TWh per year.

22. Music NFTs will change the music industry.

DJ and music producer 3LAU made $11.6 million selling music NFTs in only 24 hours. Just a few days later, Canadian musician Grimes made $5.8 million in 20 minutes. DJ Steve Aoki made $4.2 million in the first week of March, while Post Malone auctioned off an NFT to play beer bong against him. Those types of paydays might’ve normally taken the artists years to collect, but NFTs have created a new model for artists to reach consumers by avoiding middlemen in distribution.

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