Solana NFT sales pass $1.6B, wash trading on LooksRare and more

The Solana layer-1 blockchain network has risen to third place all-time in total NFT sales and now sits just behind Ronin and Ethereum, each of which have a commanding lead. The Solana network is gaining traction among nonfungible token (NFT) traders as total sales have surged past $1.6 billion, making it the third most active blockchain by NFT sales volume. Data from NFT transaction tracker CryptoSlam confirm that total sales on Solana has reached the milestone. Solana’s visibility among traders is clear as it has also ranked second behind Ethereum (ETH) in total sales over the last 30 days.

The Ronin sidechain to Ethereum for the Axie Infinity game is still firmly in second place in the all-time figures with $4 billion in total sales, but the recent Ronin bridge hack stunted weekly and monthly numbers for the network. 

Although Ethereum is still the leader by a vast margin with $21 billion in total sales, Solana is closing in on second place while creating greater distance from its own competitors. Solana transaction volume is expected to rise after the NFT marketplace OpenSea integrates Solana onto its platform this month.

Looks like wash trading

The second biggest NFT marketplace by transaction volume, LooksRare, looks as if its still generating most of its volume through wash trading. Bloomberg reported on April 5 that NFT tracker CryptoSlam data shows that about $18 billion, or 95% of the total trading volume on the platform is from wash trading.

Wash trading is when the operators or users of a trading platform create a series of back-and-forth trades in order to inflate seemingly organic trading volume. In the case of LooksRare, traders are incentivized to wash trade due to the platform’s rewards structure.

Investors who stake tokens on LooksRare are rewarded with LOOKS tokens and Wrapped Ether (WETH) proportional to the amount of transaction volume in the marketplace. The high volume of wash trading appears to be masking a drop off in the overall NFT market, with Dune Analytics data shows that leading NFT marketplace OpenSea’s volume has been dropping every month since January. DappRader senior analyst Pedro Herrera said that organic trading was slowly starting to rise on LooksRare however.

Ja Rule sells Fyre art

Rapper Ja Rule has sold an NFT of a painting from the infamous Fyre festival. The NFT, which depicts the Fyre festival’s logo and the word fyre across it, sold for $122,000 on the Flipkick NFT auction platform. The purchaser will receive the NFT and the physical painting. Ja Rule has four other NFTs of Fyre festival artwork for auction on Flipkick, including one starting at $600,000.

In 2017, producer Billy McFarland decided to promote a party on a tropical island. He hired several influencers and artists, including Ja Rule, to make promotional content for it. However, the festival did not live up to the hype — or even meet basic promises to provide adequate facilities —  and McFarland was forced to pay millions of dollars in fines for defrauding ticket buyers.

The world’s most expensive NFT

Metaverse yacht company Cyber Yachts hopes to sell the most expensive NFT ever, consisting of a virtual 120 meter mega yacht named "Indah" going on sale for the princely sum of $400,000,000. The NFT isn't providing all the value however as the purchaser al gets a real-world 394 foot mega yacht based on the same design, built by a respected luxury yacht shipbuilders.

The Indah NFT yacht on sale for $400,000,000.

The NFT yacht will be an exact virtual replica of the physical yacht deployed on Monsoon Blockchain Corporation's NFT platform. 

Ledger is now partnered with Metaverse platform and NFT game The Sandbox to promote education for the virtual world. Ledger’s chief experience officer Ian Rodgers said that the partnership is expected to bring more security to The Sandbox, as well.

Corporate NFT creator Skey Network has begun a strategic investment round worth $5 million to develop the Go2NFT platform. This platform will provide NFT solutions to corporations looking to protect their products from counterfeiting, which accounts for 2.5% of world trade.