NFT Market Slides to $98 Million — but Bored Ape Yacht Club Roars Back
Weekly NFT sales have slipped sharply, dropping 28.4% to $98.18 million, according to CryptoSlam data tracked by crypto.news. On the surface, that looks like yet another step down in a market that has been normalizing ever since the 2021–2022 boom. But inside the numbers, one collection moved in the opposite direction: Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) sales jumped more than 100% on the week, topping $5.2 million and pushing the blue-chip profile-picture series back into the upper tier of NFT performers. In other words, the market got smaller, but attention got tighter.
The headline decline was broad-based. Marketplace turnover cooled, several gaming-linked collections like DMarket and DX Terminal saw volume fall, and the overall value transacted was simply lower than the prior week. Yet participation went the other way: the number of buyers climbed 22.86% to more than 626,000, and the number of sellers rose 13.5% to roughly 469,000. That combination—more wallets active, less money changing hands—paints a picture of a market that still interests people but at smaller ticket sizes. Traders are sampling, not speculating aggressively. It is a common pattern in late-cycle NFT phases, where discoverability and culture keep people coming back, but high-priced mints and six-figure grails no longer dominate.
That’s what makes BAYC’s move so notable. While much of the sector was leaning lower, Yuga Labs’ flagship collection effectively doubled its sales, reclaiming a top-three spot for the week and reminding the market that deep liquidity still exists for recognizable, status-bearing assets. BAYC has had to fight through falling floor prices, legal distractions, and the general comedown of the NFT era, but a 108%+ weekly pop in sales to $5.22 million shows there is still a buyer base willing to pay up for premium IP when conditions line up. In a thinning market, brand matters even more, and BAYC still has one of the loudest brands in the space.
Ethereum kept its crown as the chain of choice for NFTs, logging about $41–42 million in volume and even managing a roughly 20% increase week-on-week, according to similar tallies. That detail is easy to miss, but it matters: it suggests the weakness was not just “NFTs are dying,” but rather that activity rotated and fragmented across chains and collections. Ethereum blue-chips and better-known drops held up; more speculative, game-heavy, or niche collections saw thinner flows. For builders and marketplaces, that underscores the importance of curation and IP partnerships: in 2025, users still come for the names they recognize.
At the same time, the broader context for NFTs hasn’t magically improved. Even at $98 million, we are far below the euphoric peaks of 2021, and industry veterans know that wash trading crackdowns, shifting royalty models, and a cooler macro backdrop have all taken oxygen out of the room. Collections like CryptoPunks and other once-unassailable sets have also seen lower volumes over 2025, reinforcing the sense that the market has settled into a smaller, more selective phase. In that environment, a BAYC spike looks less like the start of a new bull wave and more like a reminder that high-profile IP can still command attention even when the tide is going out.
If there is a positive read, it lies in participation. More buyers and more sellers tell us the funnel isn’t broken; people are still willing to interact with NFT rails. What they are not doing—at least not this week—is deploying capital at the same intensity. That gives marketplaces and issuers a clear challenge: lower the barrier to entry, emphasize utility and social identity, and keep the blue-chips visible. BAYC just proved that when a collection has enough cultural weight, it can outgrow the market for a week. The question for November and December will be whether any other collections can do the same, or whether 2025 will end as it has mostly run so far: thin at the top, busy at the edges. crypto.news
Sources: crypto.news report on weekly NFT sales; CryptoSlam weekly NFT market data