With July now behind us, we have a full month of trading data from the NFT market to digest. The numbers are mixed. While there are some positive signals from the non-fungible token market that matter, others are decidedly negative. Trading continues, but at what appears to be a far slower pace.

For companies in the NFT space, the news is likely unwelcome. The larger blockchain world is in a period of correction, but to see key NFT market metrics fall as quickly as we have makes us wonder what could reignite demand. It seemed doubtful that the period of hype that gave us endless Bored Ape derivatives would last forever. But what’s next?

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Let’s peek at the July data and then dive into what could return NFTs to prominence. After all, NFT trading has risen a few times during the first decade-plus of the blockchain era — such as it is — so surely it can rise again?

To start, we’ll check in on the market-leading OpenSea, and then we’ll add in other NFT marketplaces to get a good vibe for the non-fungible token market. After that, we’ll theorize some ideas that could make NFTs less uncool again. To work!

A lackluster July

The overall direction of NFT trading volume has been negative for some time, as the following chart from The Block and CryptoSlam makes clear: