NFT flipping not so profitable for more than half of buyers: Survey

Though a majority are down on their NFT purchases, there are signs which point to a healthy and robust market in the long term.

With the surging popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), many have taken to “flipping” these assets as a trading strategy. Around 64% of people in a recent survey said their top reason for buying an NFT was “to make money.”

Blockchain monitoring software company DEXterlab polled more than 1,300 people on Twitter about their NFT buying habits from late May to early June. Despite a majority looking to gain from NFT trading, less than 42% have made a profit so far, according to the results.

Why do you buy NFTs?

— DEXterLab (@Dexterlabdata) May 27, 2022

The second most cited reason for buying an NFT saw around 15% respond that it was to be part of a community and “to flex.”

“People are highly social creatures, so the desire to be a part of a community and show off isn’t really surprising,” DEXterlab wrote.

The team highlighted the success of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which has celebrities among its ranks along with exclusive perks like access to holder-only events or new popular NFT drops.

Though some NFT collections, such as those of the BAYC, can often see floor prices in the tens or hundreds of thousands, almost half of respondents said they were only comfortable paying a modest price of between $50 to $500 for an NFT.

Surprisingly, the second most popular answer had a quarter of respondents saying they are ready to spend in the upper limits of the poll, more than $2,000 per NFT.

Over the past 30 days, some of the largest “blue chip” NFT collections such as CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), BAYC and Moonbirds have seen their floor prices or market caps halve. In spite of this, these collections have continued to top the charts for the top NFT sales over the same period.

How does your NFT journey going?

— DEXterLab (@Dexterlabdata) June 2, 2022

Though NFT prices have fallen across the board, there are still examples of NFTs that have defied the prevailing bear market.

Recently, a free-to-mint collection with no utility or roadmap called Goblintown topped the charts and has since remained in third place over 30 days seeing nearly $70 million in volume.

Currently, the collection has a floor price of 3 Ether (ETH), or around $4,000 at the time of writing, and the most expensive one sold netted 77.7 ETH on June 1, worth nearly $151,000 at the time.

Related: NFT holders can earn millions through IP rights, says Apocalyptic Apes founder

Other signs point to a healthy market for those still holding out to profit from their NFT buys. Sales volumes for NFTs came in at $3.7 billion last month despite the market conditions, according to a recent DappRadar report.

The report also revealed that Solana NFTs posted their best trading month in the network’s history, generating $335 million in volume across all marketplaces — a 13% growth from April.

NFTs continue to create a robust market for themselves and widespread mainstream adoption looms. According to a CoinGecko report, the NFT market is projected to transact more than $800 billion over the next two years, though hodlers will need to wait a little longer to realize their profits.