The revenues accrued by the Ethereum network rose by 46% from $1.6 billion to $2.4 billion during the first quarter of 2022. Contributing to the growth in the network’s revenues were non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace sales, which rose by more than 19,000% during the period under review.
ETH inflation rate drops to 0.51%
Ethereum revenue grew 46% from $1.6 billion to $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022, according to a new report from Bankless. According to the report, approximately 87% or $2.1 billion of this revenue was withdrawn from the circulating supply of ETH through the burn mechanism.
The token burning mechanism was made possible by the network’s EIP-1559 upgrade that was carried out in August 2021. As a consequence of this token burning process, the ETH network’s inflation rate — a metric that measures the net change in the supply of ethereum tokens — dropped from 1.10% to 0.51% during Q1.
In terms of average daily active addresses, the report states that these increased from 507,662 to 529,018. On the other hand, the number of ETH staked increased from 5.2 million to 10.9 million, a 111% increase. Regarding this metric, the report states:
This represents the number of ETH staked on the Beacon Chain ahead of Ethereum’s transition from utilizing a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS). Approximately 9.2% of the total ETH supply is staked in anticipation of ‘The Merge.’
Rise in NFT volumes
Meanwhile, the Bankless report revealed that non-fungible token (NFT) market volumes increased an astronomical 19,290% from approximately $606.3 million to $116.4 billion. Only trading volumes from the “two largest generalized NFT marketplaces”, namely Opensea and Looksrare. During the reporting period, there were “226,176 unique wallets to buy or sell an NFT”.
With respect to the number of wallet addresses which held an ERC721 token — the token standard used to issue NFTs — the report said these rose 306% from 981,315 to 3.98 million. In terms of the floor price of Cryptopunks — a metric that tracks the lowest price at which the uniquely generated character is sold — the report revealed that this rose by 513% from 17.42 ETH to 106.87 ETH. Concerning the floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the report said:
“When launched in Q2 2021, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) floor price, the most expensive NFT collection of profile photos by this metric, ended the quarter at 108.93 ETH, which was worth approximately $351,000 based on prices at the time. ”
