OpenSea, one of the most widely recognized NFT markets in the cryptocurrency world, has slammed into a wall of absence. Namely, the absence of volume: the decentralized marketplace has seen a 99% drop on NFT trading volume in merely 90 days. From its high of $405.75 million on May 1, transactions on Non- Fungible Tokens have petered out to just $5 million throughout the entire month of August.

Reduced volume connects to reduced demand, which has in turn led to reducing floor prices (the lowest available price for a given NFT) for even the most recognized collections: the cheapest Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT can now be had for 72.5 ETH ($104,634 at time of writing). That's a 53% reduction in its ETH price (153.7 ETH) from May 1st. But the drop is even more massive when one takes into account the devaluation of Ethereum itself: On May 1st, the 153.7 ETH asking price for the NFT equaled $434,048 (price has thus tumbled by 76% on a dollar basis). CryptoPunks, another popular Ethereum-based NFT collection, has seen its floor price decline by a less drastic 20%.The fallen prices and lowered volume in NFT sales likely reflects the current bearish outlook for cryptocurrencies in general (which, to be fair, isn't all that different from the macroeconomic outlook itself). Even the impending upgrade to Ethereum's network, dubbed The Merge, hasn't done much more than add blips of value throughout the last weeks.

With increased inflation levels and cost of living, citizens are being forced to review their investment and expense strategies. Perhaps NFTs themselves aren't being seen as such critical investments - at least, not for the time being.