Sales dynamics and market capitalization of the most famous NFT collections

After the overall correction of the crypto market, the capitalization and trading volumes of even the most popular NFT collections dropped significantly, while lesser-known projects were almost completely forgotten.

CryptoPunks (sales volume — over $3 billion)

CryptoPunks is a set of 10,000 pixelated punk images randomly generated based on a specific algorithm. Initially, any user could get a CryptoPunk NFT for free, but now the price of some pieces exceeds $10 million.

For example, CryptoPunk #5822 sold for $23.7 million at auction and entered the top five most expensive NFTs ever sold.

CryptoPunks is the first and, to date, the most expensive NFT collection. As of May 2025, this legendary NFT collection remains a leader. Essentially, CryptoPunks are the Bitcoin of the NFT market. There is even a Punk Dominance index, which, according to CoinGecko, stands at 27.1%.

At the peak of CryptoPunks' popularity, its trading volume reached and sometimes exceeded 5,000 ETH, which at the current rate is over $12.8 million.

However, CryptoPunks' trading volume is now about $280,000. This drop in trading volume can be linked to the emergence of new popular collections, some of which already surpass CryptoPunks in this metric.

For example, the Pudgy Penguins collection, launched in August 2021, ranks first among NFT collections by daily trading volume, exceeding $1 million, as of May 2025. However, in terms of minimum NFT price (floor), Pudgy Penguins significantly lags behind CryptoPunks — 9.6 ETH versus 46.6 ETH.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) (sales volume — over $2.5 billion)

The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, launched in April 2021 by the well-known Yuga Labs studio, holds a strong second place in popularity among all NFT collections. BAYC also consists of 10,000 images but features "bored" cartoon apes.

However, by market capitalization, which as of May 2025 stands at about $328 million, Bored Ape Yacht Club is behind the new NFT collection Infinex Patron (released in October 2024), ranking third overall.

By minimum NFT price of 12.8 ETH, BAYC ranks fourth after Autoglyphs, CryptoPunks, and Fidenza. At its peak, BAYC's trading volume exceeded 7,000 ETH ($18 million at the current rate), but as of May 2025, this figure is almost 99 ETH ($255,000), meaning it has decreased more than 70 times since 2022.

Art Blocks (sales volume — over $1.5 billion)

Art Blocks, now known as Chromie Squiggle and released in April 2023, is the newest NFT collection on this list but ranks among the top six by market capitalization, which as of May 2025 is $129.2 million.

The Chromie Squiggle collection consists of 10,000 unique images generated via an Ethereum smart contract and represents so-called "generative art" (art created by an algorithm rather than by artists).

According to CoinGecko data for the same period, the minimum price of a Chromie Squiggle NFT is 5 ETH ($12,900), which is 64% lower than its all-time high recorded in May 2023 at 14 ETH ($34,800). Since its trading volume peaked at 23 ETH ($57,200), it has decreased by almost 80% to 5 ETH ($13,000).

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) (sales volume — over $1.2 billion)

Like Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collection was created by Yuga Labs amid the popularity of the original. The concept of MAYC differs little from BAYC, except that the apes are depicted as mutants.

The Mutant Ape Yacht Club has also gained worldwide fame and remains in the NFT top tier: as of May 2025, MAYC ranks 7th by market capitalization at $111 million.

However, its minimum NFT price lags significantly behind BAYC — 2.21 ETH versus 12.8 ETH. The historical maximum floor price for MAYC was recorded in May 2022 at 40 ETH, nearly $100,000 at the current rate, 18 times higher than the current value.

The trading volume of MAYC has dropped almost 100 times from its peak of 6,392 ETH ($15.9 million) to 62.6 ETH ($161,000), the worst decline among the NFT collections listed here.

Azuki (sales volume — over $1 billion)

The Azuki NFT collection, launched in 2022, features anime-style images. The most expensive item in this collection sold at auction for $1.4 million.

As of May 2025, Azuki ranks 12th among NFT collections by market capitalization, which is $62.5 million, and the minimum price of one NFT exceeds 2.42 ETH ($6,000).

However, at its peak in April 2022, the floor price of Azuki NFTs was 31.8 ETH (almost $80,000 at the current altcoin rate), and over three years, this has decreased more than 13 times. The trading volume has dropped significantly, from $2.5 million to $114,000, nearly 22 times.