NFT stats

All the statistics, trends and market data you need on NFTs.

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Finder’s NFT Adoption Index measures the growth of NFTs worldwide through an ongoing survey of internet users in 26 countries. You can also check out our guides to the best crypto exchanges in the UK and Ireland.

British NFT ownership

819.4K Brits own an NFT.

Gender split

British men are 2.3x more likely to own NFT.
Men 2%
Women 1%

NFT adoption statistics in the UK

In the UK, 2% said they own an NFT when we polled in September 2022.

This is lower than the global average of 3% who say they own an NFT.India leads the way at 7%, with Germany at the other end of the spectrum with 1%.

Men in the UK more likely than women to own an NFT

In the UK aproximately 2% of men say they own an NFT compared to 1% of women.

There is a wide gap in adoption of NFTs between men and women. On average roughly 2% of women say they own an NFT globally, compared to 4% of men. India has the highest adoption of NFTs for men, with 8% of men saying they have bought the asset compared to Japan which has the lowest uptake among men at 1%. Vietnam has the most women who said they own an NFT, with 5% saying they’ve bought an NFT, compared to just 1% in Germany who said the same.

The gap in ownership between men and women is at its widest in United States, where 4% of men say they own NFTs, compared to 1% of women. The smallest gap in adoption of NFTs is in Japan, where 2% of women say they have an NFT compared to 1% of men.

Those aged 18-34 in the UK lead the way in terms of the NFT ownership, with 3% saying they have one or more NFTs. Those aged 55+ are the group least likely to own NFTs, making up just 1% owning an NFT.

Largest NFT marketplaces

OpenSea is by far the largest NFT marketplace with over US$10 billion in all-time sales (as of November 2021), which is over US$3.5 billion more in all-time sales than the rest of the top 10 marketplaces combined. Axie Infinity is second with US$3 billion sold, with CryptoPunks with US$1.6 billion.

After the top 3, the remaining marketplaces are all under US$1 billion. NBA Top Shot has sales of US$700 million, Solanart (US$500 million), Rarible (US$264 million), AtomicMarket (US$208 million), Superare.co (US$178 million), Foundation (US$104 million) and DigitalEyes Market (US$101 million) complete the top 10 marketplaces for NFTs.

Made with Flourish
Largest NFT Market places All time sales volume ($ million)
OpenSea 10,390
Axie Infinity 3,140
CryptoPunks 1,610
NBA Top Shot 728
Solanart 521
Rarible 264
AtomicMarket 208
SuperRare.co 178
Foundation 104
DigitalEyes Market 101

Most expensive NFT pieces ever sold

NFTs are bought using cryptocurrency and the CryptoPunk collection has 5 of the top 10 most expensive NFTs, bought using Ethereum. As of November 2021, the cheapest CryptoPunk sold in the 10,000 collection cost around 100 Ethereum (£334,000). “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” was bought in March 2021 and at the time was the most expensive NFT ever bought (US$69.3 million). This figure was “smashed” by CryptoPunk #9998 sale in October 2021 by over 667% (US$532 million).

“This Changed Everything WWW”, an artistic representation of the world wide web source code, was bought for US$5.43 million, making it the most expensive historical artifact sold by an NFT. Other charitable NFTs include “Save a Thousand Lives” which sold for US$5.23 million and Edward Snowden’s Stay Free document, which sold for US$5.4 million.

Scroll right on the timeline image below to see the most expensive NFTs of 2021.

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NFTs sold each month

The amount of NFTs sold a month on OpenSea has grown significantly in the second half of 2021, with sales in August alone being more than the first 7 months. Highlighting how popular NFTs became in 2021, there was an 18,148% increase in NFT sales from the first half of 2020 to the first half of 2021. Since January 2020, there has been an increase of over 7,300% in NFTs sold each month.

Made with Flourish
Month NFT sales per month
Jan 2020 19,152
Feb 2020 17,757
March 2020 16,802
April 2020 14,248
May 2020 10,294
June 2020 6,808
July 2020 7,260
August 2020 3,590
September 2020 8,782
October 2020 20,304
November 2020 15,781
December 2020 12,605
Jan 2021 11,208
Feb 2021 41,040
March 2021 142,075
April 2021 74,239
May 2021 74,279
June 2021 211,469
July 2021 458,052
August 2021 1,627,229
September 2021 1,711,942
October 2021 1,434,912

NFT types by market distribution

Collectibles are the most popular form of NFTs with 76% of Q3 2021 sales, growing 10% from Q2. With collectibles such as CryptoPunk and Bored Yacht Ape being extremely popular, these forms of assets dominate the marketplace. Art-related NFTs are second at 9%, with Gaming (4%) and Utilities (4%), Metaverse (2%) and Sports (1%) completing the market.

Made with Flourish
Type of NFT Market percentage (Q3) Market percentage (Q2)
Collectibles 76% 66%
Art 9% 14%
Sports 1% 7%
Metaverse 2% 7%
Gaming 7% 5%
Utilities 4% 1%

NFT networks are powered by blockchains and their (cryptocurrency) tokens are available to trade. As of 21 December 2021, Decentraland – a 3D virtual reality platform – tops the list of NFT crypto tokens, ranked by market capitalisation. The self-claimed one-stop shop for the very best digital assets has a token named MANA which has a market cap of 5.92 billion.

This is slightly higher than the market cap of the AXS token belonging to the well-known NFT-based online video game Axie Infinity. The Sandbox (SAND), THETA (THETA) and Tezos (XTZ) round up the top 5 NFT tokens ranked by the markets they belong to.

See a live chart of the tokens’ prices, market caps and fluctuations in value.

Name Price 24hr change 24hr volume Market cap
Decentraland $3.28 +4.86% $1.06 B $5.92 B
Axie Infinity $97.28 +4.88% $311.65 M $5.87 B
The Sandbox $5.12 +5.47% $835.53 M $4.67 B
THETA $4.13 +5.15% $105.86 M $4.11 B
Tezos $4.22 +5.74% $142.85 M $3.65 B
Gala $0.45 +5.77% $461.45 M $3.08 B
Flow $8.41 +3.19% $55.89 M $2.64 B
Enjin Coin $2.43 +8.63% $224.98 M $2.03 B
Chiliz $0.28 +8.23% $191.99 M $1.63 B
Oasis Network $0.26 +5.33% $98.37 M $903.51 M
WAX $0.46 +3.33% $35.05 M $844.14 M
Immutable X $4.38 +5.18% $43.02 M $806.02 M
APENFT $0.00 +4.93% $268.64 M $740.74 M
SushiSwap $5.47 +4.09% $146.29 M $691.01 M
DigiByte $0.04 +7.74% $15.77 M $520.21 M
Syscoin $0.71 +3.14% $13.89 M $447.51 M
Ultra $1.46 +7.07% $7.75 M $413.76 M
Fetch.ai $0.55 +23.78% $93.34 M $407.51 M
CEEK VR $0.56 +17.06% $28.35 M $415.14 M
MyNeighborAlice $12.56 +8.96% $128.40 M $379.85 M
Chromia $0.65 +18.34% $79.12 M $363.51 M
Dvision Network $1.10 +2.76% $5.24 M $306.69 M
Origin Protocol $0.62 +4.86% $31.69 M $240.14 M
Phantasma $2.24 +7.26% $3.61 M $230.69 M
WEMIX $9.10 +12.84% $63.74 M $1.12 B
ECOMI $0.01 +3.70% $6.53 M $1.05 B
Illuvium $1,120.54 +2.58% $35.65 M $712.06 M
UFO Gaming $0.00 +17.14% $22.48 M $653.68 M
SuperFarm $1.26 +12.92% $65.31 M $501.97 M
Radio Caca $0.00 +17.53% $61.76 M $409.22 M
MOBOX $5.09 +5.99% $76.65 M $406.53 M
YooShi $0.00 +7.25% $7.27 M $379.30 M
RMRK $38.72 +17.79% $11.92 M $367.81 M
Yield Guild Games $5.25 +4.84% $52.76 M $358.94 M
Vulcan Forged PYR $17.13 +1.54% $47.33 M $337.41 M
Wilder World $3.58 +9.40% $12.30 M $299.27 M
inSure DeFi $0.01 +27.71% $2.50 M $286.90 M
Mines of Dalarnia $2.25 +0.32% $111.06 M $274.83 M
LUKSO $16.38 +9.43% $2.77 M $247.76 M
Star Atlas $0.10 +5.26% $26.46 M $210.90 M
BakeryToken $1.07 +4.91% $23.74 M $204.74 M
Alien Worlds $0.21 +9.05% $109.60 M $190.57 M
BabySwap $1.41 +1.95% $9.65 M $180.96 M
Telos $0.65 +6.77% $1.40 M $175.30 M
Aavegotchi $2.41 +1.43% $31.27 M $163.47 M
Proton $0.02 +5.60% $4.52 M $159.52 M
Circuits of Value $0.16 +53.70% $93.10 M $155.96 M
Splintershards $0.65 +12.79% $6.85 M $165.82 M
Efinity Token $0.91 +6.44% $8.74 M $153.12 M
Verasity $0.03 +10.97% $37.12 M $153.62 M

*Cryptocurrencies aren't regulated in the UK and there's no protection from the Financial Ombudsman or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Your capital is at risk. Capital gains tax on profits may apply.

Cryptocurrencies are speculative and investing in them involves significant risks - they're highly volatile, vulnerable to hacking and sensitive to secondary activity. The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This content shouldn't be interpreted as a recommendation to invest. Before you invest, you should get advice and decide whether the potential return outweighs the risks. Finder, or the author, may have holdings in the cryptocurrencies discussed.

Image: Getty

Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact:

Matt Mckenna
UK Communications Manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
matt.mckenna@finder.com@MichHutchison/in/matthewmckenna2
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Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based lead editor & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU). See full bio

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