OpenSea NFT trading volume surges as Bored Ape mania intensifies

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NFT trading volumes on OpenSea are surging in January amid a renewed speculative frenzy on Yuga Labsโ€™ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).

According to data posted by โ€œrchen8โ€ on Dune Analytics, OpenSea has generated more than $700 million worth of trading volume since the start of 2022, with Jan. 3 being the biggest day of the year with a whopping $255.8 million worth of 24-hour volume.

While popular onlookers as Wu Blockchain have asserted that the volume on Jan. 3 was a record high for OpenSea, previous data posted by rchen8 on Dune Analytics shows that Aug. 29 saw the all-time high (ATH) of $322 million.

In December, OpenSeaโ€™s monthly volume topped $3.24 billion and fell just 5.3% short of the platformโ€™s ATH in August of $3.42 billion. With the NFT marketplace already conducting more than $700 million worth of trading volume within the first four days of January, the record highs may soon be broken if the momentum continues throughout this month.

Bored Ape mania

A factor that may be contributing to OpenSeaโ€™s surging volumes, is the recent mania surrounding the BAYC and MAYC NFTs along with a basket of other projects from Yuga Labs.

Data from CryptoSlam shows that the MAYC is currently the top-ranked NFT project in terms of seven-day volume on secondary markets at $93.2 million, with the BAYC NFTs following closely behind at second with $88.4 million.

Related: Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs catch up to CryptoPunks, flips floor price

Over the past 30 days, the MAYC and BAYC projects have generated $189.7 million and $182.6 million apiece, making them the third and fourth highest ranked NFT collections at the time of writing.

In terms of 24-hour volume, MAYC has garnered $18.7 million worth of secondary volume, while the BAYC has generated $14 million. According to OpenSea, the current floor price for BAYC NFTs is a hefty 67 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $250,000, while the MAYC NFTs are currently going for 15.87 ETH, or $59,300.

In January so far, several Pop-culture icons such as rapper Eminem, musician Britney Spears, and comedian Dave Chappelle all reportedly snapping up BAYC NFTs for six-figure sums this month.