NFT Market Shows Mixed Signals as December Sales Drop 60% Despite Record Bitcoin Transaction

December Decline Marks Significant NFT Market Contraction

The global non-fungible token market experienced a significant downturn in December 2025, with total trading sales volume falling to $300 million, representing a 60% decrease from November ^[3]. This decline marks a continuation of reduced activity in the NFT sector, with the number of unique NFT buyers and sellers declining significantly throughout the year, and unique sellers falling below 100,000 for the first time in December ^[3].

Despite the overall decline, market data indicates a shift towards utility-focused applications rather than pure speculation, with NFTs finding real-world applications in areas like gaming, real estate, and event ticketing ^[3].

Record Bitcoin NFT Sale Drives Temporary Surge

Amid the broader market downturn, a single transaction temporarily revitalized daily trading activity. An investor purchased a $X@AI BRC-20 NFT collection for 195 BTC, equivalent to $17 million ^[1]. This transaction, which was made directly without NFT market platforms involved, drove the total NFT market sales volume to $31 million in a single day, representing a 180% increase from the previous day ^[1].

The sale propelled Bitcoin to become the leading blockchain network for NFT trading, dethroning Ethereum. In the 24-hour period following the transaction, Bitcoin-based NFT collections amassed a trading sales volume of $22 million, while Ethereum recorded just $3.9 million ^[1]. According to data from Cryptoslam.io, Ethereum was down 6.6% during this period ^[1].

Blockchain Network Performance in December

Over the full month of December, Ethereum remained the most traded blockchain network in the global NFT market, with Ethereum-based NFT collections attracting a trading sales volume of over $97 million ^[3]. However, this represented a 54% decrease compared to the previous month ^[3].

Bitcoin emerged as the second most-traded blockchain network in December, with Bitcoin-based NFT series raising a trading sales volume of $58 million, a 51% increase compared to the previous week ^[3]. BNB Chain ranked third with over $36 million in trading volume, though this represented a 74% decline from the previous month ^[3].

Mythos Chain and Polygon rounded out the top five blockchain networks, generating $24 million and $19 million in sales volume respectively, with both experiencing declines of 21% and 78% ^[3].

Top Performing NFT Collections

The $X@AI BRC-20 NFT collection, created exclusively on the Bitcoin blockchain using the BRC-20 protocol, was the most-selling NFT collection in December with $24 million in sales volume, representing a 1,000% surge ^[3]. DMarket, featuring in-game virtual items from games like Counter-Strike, Rust, and Dota 2, ranked second with over $23 million in trading sales volume, down 21% from the previous month ^[3].

Traditional blue-chip collections showed mixed results. CryptoPunks generated $8.4 million in trading volume, a 20% decrease from the previous month ^[3], while Pudgy Penguins recorded $7 million in sales, down 43% from the previous week ^[3].

Moonbirds Experiences Revival

In a notable exception to the broader market downturn, the Moonbirds NFT collection saw its trading sales volume surge by 445% in a 24-hour period, raising 31 ETH ^[2]. The surge was attributed to the launch of Moonbirds Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) in late 2025, which are non-transferable digital badges for Moonbirds, Mythics, and Oddities NFT collection holders ^[2]. Minting for these tokens began and is scheduled to run until January 3, 2026 ^[2].

Market Outlook

The global NFT market in January 2026 is predicted to continue its shift from pure speculation to utility-focused applications within a growing overall market value ^[3]. The broader NFT ecosystem is expected to see growth driven by institutional investment, integration with AI and gaming, and increasing regulatory clarity ^[3].