Move over Ethereum and Solana, Cardano is capturing NFT market share at a blistering pace. NFT volume on the alternative Layer 1 blockchain hit $8.9m in the first week of May, already setting a new monthly record in the first week of the month. What is fueling this interest in Cardano NFTs?
Cardano NFTs are one of the fastest-growing sectors in Web3
Image Credit: Cardano Feed
What is Making Cardano NFTs so Popular?
Since Cardano’s launch in 2017, fans of the blockchain have applauded its low transaction costs, sustainability, and speed. These characteristics are a perfect combination for a flourishing NFT market. Buyers can buy and sell NFTs quickly and without exorbitant gas fees.
Ethereum is still the most popular blockchain for NFT trading. However, it’s struggling with scalability. During the recent meme coin bull market, gas fees have steadily cost between $50-$100 per transaction. These high costs are a major impediment for most market participants and have many people looking for an alternative.
Enter Cardano. Its first NFT project, CardanoKidz, struggled at first due to Cardano’s lack of functional smart contracts. Developers eventually figured out a solution, however, and the project successfully minted out using the ADA token. Since then, many new projects have successfully launched on Cardano.
Some other popular Cardano projects include SpaceBudz, Clay Nation, and The Ape Society. These collections have helped Cardano maintain a firm grip on sixth place for all-time NFT volume behind Ethereum, Ronin, and Solana, Flow, and Polygon. Much of this success also stems from Cardano’s recent Vasil upgrade.
The Vasil upgrade enhanced block latency speed and efficiency and helped catalyze a surge in Unique Active Wallets. The dominant NFT marketplace on Cardano JPG Store registered a 13.6% growth in active wallets over the last 30 days after the upgrade. During that time, the marketplace’s volume also increased by 40% to $11.2m.
CardanoKidz helped create a community around Cardano NFTs
Image Credit: CardanoKidz
What Makes Cardano NFTs Different?
Cardano NFTs have three unique features compared to NFTs on other blockchains.
First, Cardano NFTs can be created without smart contracts. This ability helps reduce potential minting errors and human error. As a result, creating NFTs on Cardano is safer and easier than creating NFTs on other chains.
Secondly, Cardano is separated into two layers, the settlement layer and the computational layer. This architecture frees up network congestion. Transaction fees are subsequently much less expensive compared to fees on other blockchains.
Lastly, developers built Cardano with the option to batch transfer assets to multiple destinations with just one transaction fee. Project creators can distribute assets to many different wallets without hundreds or thousands of individual fees. This feature greatly reduces project founders’ costs and has helped grow a vibrant NFT community.
What Does the Future Hold for Cardano?
Cardano remains one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in Web3. Even though it’s at an early stage in its development, Cardano has already created an atmosphere of innovation and excitement for developers, end users, and projects. It seems like a good bet that Cardano NFTs will continue to blossom along with the eco-friendly blockchain.
