NFT trading volume across the top 10 chains amounted to $11.8 billion in 2023. However, this figure is still less than half of the NFT trading volume in 2022, which reached $26.3 billion across the top 8 chains.
What is the Biggest NFT Blockchain?
Ethereum is the biggest non-fungible token (NFT) blockchain, with a market share of 72.3%, and a trading volume of $8.54 billion in 2023. However, compared to its dominance of over 90% in 2022, it has lost market share to Bitcoin and Solana.
The second biggest blockchain for NFTs is Bitcoin, capturing 12.9% market share and trading volume of $1.5 billion in 2023. Bitcoin has become one of the largest blockchain’s for NFT trading, after the introduction of Bitcoin Ordinals.
Ethereum and Bitcoin dominate the NFT space, collectively capturing a staggering 85.2% of all NFT trading volume. Solana ranks third with 7.4% of market share, followed by Immutable X (2.3%), Polygon (2.2%), BNB Chain (1.3%), Flow (0.8%), Arbitrum (0.4%), Avalanche (0.3%), and Ronin (0.2%).
Bitcoin Overtook Ethereum in December 2023
Bitcoin was the biggest NFT chain in December 2023, with $0.81 billion in trading volume, translating to a 42.1% dominance. This can be attributed to the Bitcoin Ordinals trading volume surge, particularly in November and December.
Bitcoin trading volume grew nearly 15x or 1,495% between 2023 Q3 and Q4, with volume rising from a mere $0.08 billion to $1.20 billion.
Ethereum’s Dominance Challenged?
Ethereum’s dominance as the go-to NFT chain was challenged by Bitcoin in December 2023. Ethereum managed to claim a 34.6% market share in December, with $1.41 billion in trading volume.
NFT trading volume on Ethereum was on the decline for most of 2023. It started the year with $0.94 billion in volume in January, which then fell to $0.67 billion in December. On average, monthly volume hovered around $0.71 billion in 2023.
Ethereum did see an increase of 33% in trading volume between 2023 Q3 and Q4, but it was outpaced by Bitcoin’s growth of 1,495% during the same period.
Solana Mounts a Comeback
Solana made an impressive comeback in 2023, with NFT trading volumes surging to $0.36 billion in December 2023, giving a market share of 18.7% for the month. This was the only month in 2023 when Solana had more than $0.10 billion in trading volume. The majority of trading volume can be attributed to the Mad Lads and Tensorians collections.
Solana NFT trading volume grew 541% between 2023 Q3 and Q4, from $0.07 billion to $0.45 billion. Only Avalanche and Bitcoin outperformed the QoQ growth of Solana, growing 1,508% and 1,495%, respectively.
Market Share of Top 10 NFT Blockchains in 2023
Top 10 NFT Blockchains based on trading volume, updated as of December 2023.
| Rank | Blockchain | Market Share (%) |
| 1 | Ethereum | 72.3 |
| 2 | Bitcoin | 12.9 |
| 3 | Solana | 7.4 |
| 4 | Immutable X | 2.3 |
| 5 | Polygon | 2.2 |
| 6 | BNB Chain | 1.3 |
| 7 | Flow | 0.8 |
| 8 | Arbitrum | 0.4 |
| 9 | Avalanche | 0.3 |
| 10 | Ronin | 0.2 |
Methodology
This study analyzed the top 10 blockchains by NFT trading volume from January to December 2023. The top 10 blockchains were Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, ImmutableX, Polygon, BNB Chain, Flow, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Ronin. Data excludes wash trading on LooksRare, X2Y2, and Blur. Data is sourced from Dune Analytics and CryptoSlam.
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Curious to know more about the state of crypto in 2023? Check out our comprehensive 2023 Annual Crypto Industry Report, which extensively covers everything from the crypto market landscape to analyzing Bitcoin and Ethereum, DeFi and NFT ecosystems, and more!
Nicholas is a Market Research Intern at CoinGecko. He can be seen crawling around the vast crypto space, be it NFTs, crypto or memecoins from time to time. People in web3 call him picnicmou. Follow the author on Twitter @picnicmou
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