- NFT market valuation drops 72% to $2.5 billion in December from $9.2 billion in January.
- Unique buyers and sellers decline sharply, significantly impacting the overall market.
- Art-focused collectables like Autoglyphs and Fidenza buck the trend with modest gains.
In a dramatic reversal of fortune, the NFT market has experienced a significant decline towards the end of 2025. Its valuation dropped to $2.5 billion in December, a whopping 72% decline from its January high.
This decline has been accompanied by a sharp contraction in participation and sales activity, with buyer counts and transaction volumes both experiencing significant plummets. As the market navigates this challenging situation, questions abound about the future of non-fungible tokens and the factors that will drive their adoption in the coming years.
NFT Market in Turmoil: What’s Behind the Crash?
According to the CoinGecko data, the NFT market valuation plummeted to $2.5 billion in December 2025, its lowest point in the year. This marks a notable drop of 72% from the $9.2 billion peak in January.
Significantly, this downturn is attributed to a persistent decline in sales activity and market participation, with weekly sales struggling to exceed $70 million in December. This indicates that the NFT market is experiencing a much slower pace in December than in November.
Currently, the total market cap of the NFT market is recorded at $2.34 billion, with a 2% decline. The trading volume has plummeted by about 30%, reaching $2.3 million. In terms of market cap, top NFT collections include CryptoPunks, Infinex Patrons, BAYC, Pudgy Penguins, and Autoglyphs.
Reportedly, the number of unique buyers plummeted from 204,032 in the last week of November to 184,302 in the first week of December. Also, the buyer counts continued to decline throughout the month, ultimately reaching 135,120 in the third week.
In addition, the number of sellers also dropped significantly, decreasing by 35.6% over the same period and dropping to below 100,000 for the first time since April 2021. Also, total NFT transactions slumped to 800,000 in the third week of December, down from fewer than 1 million transactions in the month’s first week.
The NFT market faced significant challenges in 2025, with a substantial decline in transaction volumes despite a brief resurgence in interest in physical collectables like Labubu and Pokémon cards earlier this year. The first quarter saw a 63% year-over-year drop in transaction volumes, with $1.5 billion in sales compared to $4.1 billion in the same period in 2024.
Top NFT Collections Take a Hit
Notably, the weakness in the broader market was reflected in the floor prices of leading NFT collections. As per reports, the prices of the top 10 NFTs by market cap have experienced double-digit declines over the past 30 days.
Specifically, prominent collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Pudgy Penguins saw significant 30-day price drops ranging from 12% to 28%. This comes in contrast to the hype surrounding the NFT weekly sales of these tokens, as highlighted by Times of Blockchain last week. As per the previous, Courtyard, Pudgy Penguins, BAYC, and Moonbirds dominated the NFT space in weekly sales.
However, art-focused collections demonstrated relative resilience, with Autoglyphs, Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs, and Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro posting modest gains and defying the overall market trend.
Meanwhile, Sport Rollbots has made a splash in the NFT market, entering the top 10 collections by market cap with a floor price of $5,800 and a valuation exceeding $58 million. This newcomer has displaced Mutant Ape Yacht Club from the top 10 rankings, signalling a shift in the NFT space.
