NFT Market Correction: Trading Volume Slows to $320M in November as Market Cap Falls to $3.06B from January’s $9.2B Peak
NFTs hit a valuation wall. The digital collectibles market, once the darling of crypto's speculative frenzy, shows clear signs of a major cooldown.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Monthly trading activity has decelerated sharply, settling at a fraction of its former velocity. The total market valuation has undergone a dramatic contraction since the start of the year, shedding billions in perceived value. This pullback from January's lofty heights signals a market searching for a new equilibrium beyond hype-driven peaks.
Beyond the Hype Cycle
The data cuts through the noise of influencer shills and roadmap promises. It points to a sector maturing—or perhaps confronting the harsh reality of utility. Projects that bypassed substance for speculative momentum are now feeling the pinch as liquidity thins and collector patience wears.
A Market in Transition
This isn't necessarily a death knell, but a stress test. The downturn separates fleeting JPEG trends from protocols building lasting utility and community. For every fund that poured millions into a cartoon ape hoping for a quick flip, there's a builder quietly working on the next use case that might actually stick.
The correction serves a cynical purpose: reminding everyone that in crypto, as in traditional finance, the 'greater fool' theory has a sell-by date. The real value accrues to what remains when the easy money walks out.
NFT sales hit softest week of 2025
Data shows that the slowdown has carried into December. In the first seven days of the month, NFT collections recorded only $62 million in sales. This has been the softest weekly reading of 2025. It is an early sign that buyers remain cautious heading into year-end. Meanwhile, CryptoSlam data shows that NFT sales volume jumped by 41% in the last 24 hours to hit $9.63 million.
This comes in as NFT valuations continue to reset across nearly every major collection. CoinGecko data puts the sector’s current market cap around $3.06 billion. It’s down sharply from the $9.2 billion posted in January.
Data shows that CryptoPunks has slipped 12% over the past month. Bored APE Yacht Club is down 8.5%, while Pudgy Penguins dropped 10.6%.
🚨 NFT sales just hit their lowest monthly level of the year.
November recorded $320M in volume, down from $629M in October and more than 66% below January’s market cap peak.
It is the weakest month since September 2024, when sales reached $312M. pic.twitter.com/Lz65viyBUM
— Satoshi Club (@esatoshiclub) December 9, 2025
Art-focused blue chips didn’t perform any better. Chromie Squiggle is down 5.6%, Fidenza 14.6%, Moonbirds nearly 18%, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club 10% over the last month. Hypurr posted the steepest fall among the top collections. It shed almost half its value to trade around $12,626.
fwogs NFT explodes with 1,337% sales surge
Amid the losses, some winners performed well under pressure. Infinex Patrons climbed 10% over the past 30 days, while Autoglyphs surged 20.9%. It was the strongest performance among the top-10 collections. This suggests that liquidity isn’t disappearing uniformly, but consolidating around specific narratives.
CryptoSlam data shows that fwogs NFT collection, running on Ether, recorded a spike of 1,337% in sales over the last 24 hours. Its transactions surged by 1,733% to hit 2,072 with 667 buyers. CryptoPunks, too, saw a spike of 618% in sales as its transactions pumped 600%.
The slowdown in NFTs mirrors the broader fatigue that swept the crypto markets. Bitcoin is on track for its first negative year since 2022. BTC is running down by 4% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. It is trading at an average price of $90,510 at press time.
The bearish sentiments got triggered by rate-cut uncertainty and trade tensions. However, the historic liquidation event in October that erased more than $19 billion in Leveraged positions played a crucial role in the scenario.
Bitcoin had surged above $126,000 in early October. It was riding the rally triggered by the election of President Donald TRUMP just only to collapse days later after the administration unveiled new tariffs on Chinese imports.
Since then, BTC has struggled to regain momentum. The token was down more than 20% in November, its worst monthly performance in over three years.
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