Crypto Landscape Shifts as NFT Gas Usage Declines

NFT Use Declines as Ethereum Gas Consumption Drops

Since its peak in 2021, Ethereum gas consumption by nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has seen a significant decrease. Data from on-chain analytics platform Glassnode reveals that gas usage by NFT marketplaces is currently on a downward trend, which could mean that more users are choosing to hold onto their assets instead of trading them on marketplaces.

In 2021, Etherscan’s blockchain explorer showed that NFTs were leading the charts when it came to Ethereum gas usage. On Aug. 4, 2021, NFT gaming project Axie Infinity was in second place due to its Ronin bridge, which transfers assets from Ethereum to the Ronin blockchain, while NFT marketplace OpenSea was in fourth spot.

Fast forward to May 2023, and crypto analytics platform Nansen reported that NFT marketplaces only accounted for just over 3% of the entire gas consumption in a weekly period. This occurred alongside a surge in Ether (ETH) gas prices, leading some to speculate that NFTs were only a “product of excess liquidity” caused by money printing during the pandemic.

Today, the gas consumption of NFTs such as Blur, OpenSea, SuperRare, LooksRare and Rarible is continuing to decline, making up only 1.85% of the Ethereum network’s total gas consumption. c3.ai, Fetch.ai and Crypto.com have also dropped out of the top 50 gas users on Etherscan, while Blur is still visible around the top 30 spot.

However, the writing of AI articles and the development of Web 3.0 apps such as Fox Crypto and Floki Crypto are still in full swing.