The non-fungible token (NFT) project by former U.S. President Donald Trump has helped its host network, Polygon, outsell Ethereum on the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea for the second straight month, according to transaction data.
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Fast facts
- According to blockchain data aggregator Dune Analytics, there were 1.3 million Polygon NFTs sold in December and 1.5 million in January, while Ethereum’s numbers for those same months were 995,000 and 1.1 million.
- “Trump Digital Trading Cards” was Polygon’s top project by sales value, if not in individual sales, on OpenSea in January with 5,517 sales totaling 1,760 Eth (US$9.2 million).
- Trump’s collection was ridiculed by the right and left alike when it was released in mid-December for both its perceived poor timing in missing the height of the NFT market almost a year before, and for being out of touch with his voter base. The project quickly sold out regardless.
- Anndy Lian, author of the new book “NFT: From Zero to Hero,” told Forkast in an emailed statement that Polygon’s growth isn’t really about Trump. The main reason for Polygon’s gain is it has a vast support system with gas fees (costs for transacting on the network) that are much lower than on Ethereum.
- “The actual spike in popularity was with [collaboration with social media platform] Reddit in August 2022,” Lian said. “The collaboration with top brands such as Meta, Starbucks and Nike are also key indicators that they are on the right track and well accepted by mainstream audiences.”
- Lian added that Polygon is also host to a large percentage of projects with greater utility, such as Sandbox and PlanetIX, which were both top 10 ranked collections across all NFT marketplaces in January.
- “When there is demand, there is supply,” Lian said. “This is what we see in the case of Polygon.”
- OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace in the industry, and had 40% of the total NFT sales volume in January, according to DappRadar.
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