NFT Report: September Edition

Our monthly NFT Report highlights key takeaways for September, highlighting NFT sentiment and emerging trends.

4 min readSep 29, 2023

General News and Sentiment

The NFT market continues to face low sentiment as sales volumes have dropped 29% in the last 30 days, and mainstream media is reporting NFTs as “worthless.” Covered by The Guardian, Cointelegraph, Yahoo, The Hindu Times, and more, a recent study conducted by dappGambl, which analyzed data from NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap, found that 95% of NFT collections, equivalent to 23 million individuals, hold NFTs with no market value — as 69,795 out of 73,257 collections have a market cap of 0 Ether. Even though many projects will need to find a new way to reinvent themselves or grapple with it being “the end of their project,” dappGambl states that despite market volatility, NFTs can thrive in the future by presenting particle use cases or as art.

Below are more top news stories shaping the NFT industry:

SEC targets Mila Kunis’ Stoner Cats NFT. The SEC charged “Stoner Cats 2” for an unregistered $8 million NFT offering. The show, funded by NFTs with celebrity voices, drew criticism from two SEC commissioners. “Stoner Cats 2” will pay a $1 million penalty and destroy their NFTs. Read more here.
Farmville raised $33 million to create Web3 games in a round co-led by a16z. Proof of Play has secured $33 million to develop fully on-chain games to deliver enjoyable gameplay experiences. The project relies on technological and product innovations to engage players in fun gameplay without prior blockchain knowledge. Read more here.

Lufthansa launches NFT loyalty program. Lufthansa’s NFT Loyalty program operates on the Polygon Labs Network. The Uptrip app allows passengers to turn boarding passes into NFT trading cards for unlocking rewards. Read more here.

Analytics Deep Dive

In the last week of September, NFT sales reached $78.88 million, showing a 3.2% decrease compared to the prior week. The monthly total is now $341.37 million, reflecting a substantial 34.08% drop from the previous month. Ethereum maintains its lead in NFT sales, with $177,743,112 generated in the past month. Low market sentiment is similarly reflected in the largest blue-chips in the market. Bored Ape Yacht Club’s floor price dropped 12% over the past month.

Similarly, Azuki and Mutant Ape Yacht Club have also seen drops of 7.41% and 12%, respectively. (Source Nansen)

The current NFT Market Cap is $2.81 billion; nevertheless, there was a 30.42% decrease in sales volume in the last 30 days. (Source CoinMarketCap). Ethereum still holds as the most prominent blockchain used for NFT projects but has similarly seen a significant decline in sales volume over the past 30 days, with a decrease of 42.1%.

Ethereum NFT Sales Volume (September 1st to September 25th) — Source CryptoSlam

*Ethereum NFT Sales Volume (July 1st to July 25th) — Source CryptoSlam*

Digital Art, Exhibitions, and Events

Murakami to step back from NFTs. Renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who entered the NFT market in late 2021, says he might create fewer NFTs. Murakami apologized to NFT buyers for slow sales after the launch, but the community was understanding — nonetheless, Murakami. Flowers has generated 26,713 ETH ($42.52 million) in secondary trading volume, with a current NFT floor price of 0.36 ETH ($573) on OpenSea. Read more here.

Christie’s turns Kieth Haring’s digital artwork into a physical patch to prove ownership. Christie’s and fashion brand MNTGE have collaborated to offer a physical patch inspired by one of Keith Haring’s NFTs, which is part of the ongoing auction “Keith Haring: Pixel Pioneer.” This auction features digital drawings created on a Commodore Amiga computer in 1987 and minted as Ethereum NFTs by the Keith Haring Foundation. Read more here.

Gucci premiers fashion week show in the Metaverse. Gucci launched three distinct virtual experiences on three major metaverse platforms, allowing them to realize their open-air event concept despite the real-world Fashion Week being moved indoors due to unexpected weather issues. Read more here.

About Morningstar Ventures

Morningstar Ventures is an investment firm backing ambitious ideas by early-stage founders. Based in Dubai, Morningstar Ventures focuses primarily on the blockchain and digital assets space and is led by CEO Danilo S. Carlucci. The firm is active in token and equity investments and has a particularly strong focus on the MultiversX ecosystem.