More NFTs, less money: Supply rose to 1.3B as sales fell 37% in 2025
The non-fungible token (NFT) market expanded in total supply, but saw significantly lower sales in 2025 compared to the previous years.
CryptoSlam data shows that the total number of NFTs in circulation climbed to more than 1.34 billion this year, marking a 25% increase from the one billion supply in 2024. The increasing supply happened in parallel with falling NFT sales.
According to CryptoSlam data, NFT sales reached about $5.63 billion in 2025, down by about 37% from the $8.9 billion recorded last year. Average sale prices also declined year-on-year, slipping to $96 from $124.
The divergence highlights a market where supply growth outpaced demand. While creators continued minting new NFT pieces and platforms lowered entry barriers, buyer participation and spending failed to keep up, stretching liquidity across a much larger number of assets.
NFT sales, buyers, and sellers chart. Source: CryptoSlam
NFT supply expanded from 38 million to 1.3 billion in four years
The total number of NFTs minted and entered circulation grew steadily each year as minting tools became cheaper and easier to use across major blockchains.
CryptoSlam data shows that supply rose from 38 million NFTs in 2021 to over 106 million in 2022, before accelerating sharply in the following years as creators scaled up production. By 2023, total NFT supply had already surpassed 550 million tokens before almost doubling in 2024 to one billion.
At the time of writing, NFT supply stood at 1.34 billion tokens, representing a 35-fold increase, or about 3,400% growth, over the past four years.
While supply expanded quickly, the market’s ability to absorb new NFTs weakened. Total NFT sales peaked in 2022 and trended lower since.
NFT sales volume from 2021 to 2025. Source: CryptoSlam
Pricing data reinforced the shift. Average NFT sale value dropped below $100 in 2025, down from $124 in 2024. It's also far below the over $400 averages seen during the 2021 and 2022 boom.
The combination of rising supply, lower total sales, and shrinking ticket sizes suggests that NFTs are increasingly becoming a high-volume, low-price market, where competition for buyer attention will be more intense.
Related: NFTs shifted to utility and culture as price faded in 2025
NFT market capitalization continued to compress after its 2022 peak
The NFT sector’s total capitalization has steadily declined since reaching a peak of about $17 billion in April 2022, reflecting the unwinding of speculative excess from the previous cycle.
Total NFT market cap chart. Source: CoinGecko
After a partial recovery to roughly $10.8 billion in December 2024 and holding to about $9.2 billion in January 2025, market capitalization slid further throughout this year, closing 2025 at around $2.4 billion.
The downward trend highlights how lower prices and thinner liquidity persisted as overall NFT supply continues to expand.
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Bitwise files for 11 single‑token ‘strategy’ crypto ETFs with US SEC
Crypto fund manager Bitwise has filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch 11 new single‑token “strategy” crypto exchange‑traded funds (ETFs), extending the company’s crypto ETF footprint deeper into the altcoin market.
The proposed funds would offer targeted exposure to assets including Aave (AAVE), Uniswap (UNI), Zcash (ZEC), Bittensor (TAO), Sui (SUI), and Near (NEAR), among others, giving investors a regulated route into tokens that so far have mostly traded on crypto exchanges.
According to the filing, each product is designed as a “Strategy ETF” rather than a plain spot vehicle, following a rules‑based playbook for how it gets exposure to the underlying asset.
In broad terms, the funds would combine direct spot holdings in the relevant cryptocurrency with positions in exchange-traded products (ETPs) that also reference that asset, and could use derivatives to fine‑tune exposure.
As per the filing, the fund will derive its exposure “by investing up to 60% of its assets directly” in the token and “at least 40% of its assets” in securities issued by one or more exchange-traded products that invest directly in or provide exposure to the token.
Bitwise Crypto ETF Filings | Source: SEC
That makes these ETFs structurally different from Bitwise’s existing offerings, which are mostly diversified baskets of crypto equities (such as Coinbase), multi‑asset indexes, or futures‑based strategies.
Bitwise’s crypto offerings
Bitwise already runs a reasonably full US lineup. Its spot products include the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, and the Bitwise XRP ETF, which hold their respective assets directly.
On the equity and index side, Bitwise offers the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF, which holds listed crypto‑related companies, and the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF, which tracks a screened basket of the largest digital assets. The firm also operates futures‑based strategies built around CME futures.
The new single‑token strategy funds would sit alongside the existing shelf, but target a different type of risk. Instead of diversified baskets, each ETF concentrates on one coin and applies the same rules‑based framework across a family of altcoins spanning decentralized finance, artificial intelligence, and layer‑1 ecosystems.
If approved, they would give institutions and advisers an ETF‑native way to express views on names like TAO or SUI without directly holding the tokens.
A broader wave of crypto ETF/ETP filings
The move comes amid a broader wave of ETF and ETP activity, including Grayscale’s Dec. 30 application to convert its Bittensor trust into a spot ETF on NYSE Arca.
Over the past several months, issuers such as Bitwise, VanEck, and 21Shares have also been rolling out or seeking approval for spot and thematic products tied to altcoins like Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Avalanche (AVAX).
While other issuers are edging into single‑altcoin territory, launching or filing for one‑off spot products tied to individual tokens or AI or DeFi‑themed vehicles, Bitwise’s bid is more ambitious in scope: an 11‑fund suite built around a common strategy template to give US investors access to a long tail of altcoins through ETFs.
Ethereum L1 txs hit 2.2M in a day, and each one cost around 17 cents
The Ethereum mainnet clocked 2.2 million transactions in a single day in a new record this week, while fees have fallen to just 17 cents on average.
The layer-1 blockchain recorded its new transaction milestone on Tuseday, according to block explorer Etherscan. Transaction fees have also dropped considerably over time.
The highest transaction fees on Ethereum were recorded in May 2022, when users had to spend over $200 per transaction.
However, continued upgrades has dropped fees considerably, despite continued growth of the network’s usage.
Fees have also been on the decline since Oct.10, when they were around $8.48, during the significant liquidation event that saw the entire market bleed.
Ethereum transaction fees have dropped considerably over time. Source: Etherscan
Higher Ethereum fees have historically pushed users to cheaper alternatives such as layer 2s, but the growing transactions on the mainnet indicate a return to the layer 1 blockchain and rising usage among crypto users.
Meanwhile, developers are increasingly choosing Ethereum as a settlement layer, with data from Token Terminal showing the number of new smart contracts created and published on the Ethereum blockchain reached a high of 8.7 million in the fourth quarter.
Two major upgrades for Ethereum in 2025
The Ethereum blockchain underwent significant changes in 2025, with two upgrades that likely contributed to the spike in transactions and drop in fees.
Related: BitMine bags $98M in ETH as year-end selling caps gains: Tom Lee
Pectra in May focused on validator improvements, staking flexibility, and preparing Ethereum for future scalability features.
Fusaka increased the gas limit from 45 million to 60 million and was also designed to significantly boost scalability, data handling, and network efficiency. In February, over 50% of Ethereum validators signalled support for raising the network’s gas limit, increasing the maximum amount of gas that can be used for transactions in a single Ethereum block.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s staking queue flipped the exit line for the first time in six months on Monday, with almost twice as much ETH now lined up to be staked as ETH trying to leave the network.
Unstaking is often seen as a sign that validators are looking to free up Ether for sale, while staking is seen as a sign of confidence to lock it up for long-term holding.
Magazine: Pectra hard fork explained — Will it get Ethereum back on track?