Where will BAYC and MAYC end up as traders look at NFTs with ‘real utility’

by James · February 16, 2023

New entrants to the NFT market seem to prefer collections with real-world use cases.
The sandbox topped many Ethereum NFTs including BAYC and MAYC in terms of sales figures due to its utility.

When the NFT buzz was rampant in 2021, not many traders thought of utility. But the bearish market in 2022 seemed to have opened the eyes of many, and may now affect the volume of some blue-chip collections.

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According to a DappRadar and Alsomine report, released on February 15, many traders were unaware of the potential benefit of NFTs.

This is perhaps not surprising, especially as collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC] and Mutant Ape Yacht Club [MAYC] were only seen as speculative assets during the 2021 to early 2022 market boom.

The narrative seems to change as…

Surprisingly, the report showed that the trading volume generated in 2022 was not extremely lower than the bullish market in 2021. While the volume was $25.1 billion in 2021, 2022 recorded $24.7 billion in organic sales.

This means that the market managed to attract new players despite the massive downturn. It seemed, however, that the new players invested more in education than the old guards.

This was because the survey conducted by both platforms showed that 92% valued the utility of the NFTs rather than just bragging rights.

Source: DappRadar

Despite the preference, the survey confirmed that 60% of respondents had no idea that NFTs could have real-world use cases. However, with the information at hand, they rated earnings, ownership and membership as some of the top use cases that would lead them to purchase an NFT.

Raoul Pal, who is a well-known NFT investor and CEO of Global Macro Investors shared the same feeling. Recently, the investor, while advocating “real utility”, believed

“One thing I do know is that ‘utility’ based ecosystems can’t just be more drops and a discord. It must actually be a membership in a community with deep real, meaningful, measurable benefits.”

With this sentiment, BAYC, MAYC and some other popular collections may have work on their hands. In terms of utility, The Sandbox [SAND] ranks higher than others. This is because of the decentralized virtual land supply and the return for SAND investment.

Meanwhile, Parallel Alpha peaks higher than SAND, but both were still no match for BAYC, CryptoPunks, and MAYC which has done billions of dollars in volume.

But in terms of sales, The Sandbox and Parallel Alpha were the top two with 162,284 and 181,572 respectively.

Source: DappRadar

ETH NFTs are down, but what’s on the other side

The only reason they couldn’t beat others in terms of sales was the average value of each NFT and the blockchain they fall under. Of course, Parallel Alpha operates on Ethereum [ETH] blockchain. But a 60% year-over-year (YoY) drop in volume affected Ethereum’s entire NFT collections.

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However, the last quarter of 2022 saw an increase in the use of NFTs linked to benefits. During this period, Ethereum NFTs were still ahead of Polygon and the BNB chain in terms of average transactions.

But since then, more NFT collections seem to have focused on utility rather than just speculation.

Source: DappRadar

Still, Yuga Labs may need to do more to make BAYC and MAYC more attractive as this new narrative continues to spin.

Interestingly, its other collection Otherside ranks higher in terms of usefulness despite having a lower trade volume. At press time, the NFT market was green as most pools recorded an increase in transactions and sales.

In accordance CryptoSlam, both BAYC and MAYC were in the top five. Nevertheless, considering better use cases for their owners can be a somewhat good decision that is in line with society’s expectations.