NFT market cap drops by $1.2B as Ether rally loses steam

The non-fungible token (NFT) market lost more than $1.2 billion in value in less than a week as Ether’s rally slowed, according to sector data.

On Monday, NFT Price Floor data showed that the total valuations of NFT collections dropped to $8.1 billion, a 12% decline from last Wednesday’s NFT market cap of $9.3 billion, which had surged 40% since July.

NFTs wiping out $1.2 billion in valuation in less than a week coincides with a 9% drop in Ether (ETH) prices. At the time of writing, Cointelegraph data showed ETH traded at $4,260, dropping from a high of about $4,700 on Wednesday.

Many NFTs are minted on the Ethereum network. With valuations and sales denominated in ETH, bullish or bearish momentum in the crypto asset often translates into increased or decreased value in the NFT sector. As ETH went down 4% in the last 24 hours, a majority of the top 10 collections also showed a decline in value.

Top 10 NFTs by market capitalization. Source: NFT Price Floor

NFT market cap drops by over 12% as ETH declines

While it continues to be the top collection by market capitalization, CryptoPunks saw about $300 million wiped out from the collection’s value.

At the time of writing, the data shows it’s worth $2.1 billion, declining by 12% compared to its 2.4 billion market cap on Wednesday.

CryptoSlam data shows that the collection’s sales volume reached $12.7 million, a 34% drop in the last seven days. Total sales also only reached 51, down 28% in the last week.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which was ranked second in overall NFT market capitalization last Wednesday, dropped to third place on Monday, as the collection declined to $482.3 million.

This represents a nearly 20% drop compared to Wednesday’s $602 million.

Related: NFT sales surge to $574 million in July, second-highest in 2025

Penguins overtake Apes in market capitalization

Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins climbed to the second-highest valuation despite erasing around $100 million in overall value.

On Monday, the collection’s market cap reached $491 million, dropping 17% compared to Wednesday’s $591 million.

Last week, publicly-traded blockchain company BTCS Inc. announced that it added three Pudgy Penguins NFTs to its corporate digital asset treasury.

This shows that companies are beginning to recognize blue-chip NFT collections as legitimate assets for treasury diversification.

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