October 9, 2024

CryptoTrues

Our blog is dedicated to bringing you the latest news, trends, and insights from the cryptocurrency realm

Which Country Buys the Most NFTs? Stats for the Top 10 Countries

NFT


Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seen a prominent decline since their peak in 2021. The digital assets seem to have struggled to hold on to momentum and cryptocurrencies have taken over the market. But, does this mean that NFTs are dead? And if not, which country buys the most NFTs?

Our team used Google trends and data from 2022 to draw a conclusion about which countries hold the most NFTs and in which countries NFTs are still a popular topic. 

According to CryptoSlam, the NFT market is worth $61.44 billion. The marker has seen a significant decline in 2024, with global sales volume dropping by over 36% in the last 30 days.

Bankless Times wanted to investigate where in the world interest in the NFT market is highest, and how it compares to interest in popular cryptocurrencies.

But first, in brief…

What Is an NFT?

“Non-fungible” simply means something that’s unique and cannot be replaced. A commonly-cited example is that a $10 note is fungible, whereas the Mona Lisa is non-fungible.

The “token” refers to a line of code on a blockchain – usually Ethereum – which states who owns a digital asset, just like ownership of a unit of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin is also proven by code on a blockchain.

The digital asset could be an artwork, a video, a song, a meme – and we may still be at the tip of the iceberg.

Depending on the asset, it may be possible for others to view it freely online. This aspect can be compared to viewing the Mona Lisa in an art gallery, but the token proves its ownership.

To learn more about NFTs, check out our in-depth guide explaining what are NFTs.

According to Khashayar Abbasi, Bankless Times contributor and founder of analysis newsletter Crypto With Kash, their appeal is four-fold.

“And finally, they have become a status item. Before, wealthy people would buy expensive watches to show off their wealth and only those who met them in real life would see what they were wearing. Now, you can buy an NFT, post it on social media and everyone around the world can verify 100% that it’s yours. I think we’ve just discovered the tip of the iceberg when it comes to use cases of NFTs.”

Which Country Buys the Most NFTs?

(data from 2022)

The above data is based on research by Statista from 2022. However, it is difficult to know exactly where investors buy NFTs from because transactions are anonymous. 

To understand more recent NFT trends, our team used Google Trends data to look at where the topic “non-fungible token” – which includes variations in language/characters and different search terms related to the topic – was most popular.

This can provide a good overview of which countries have the most demand for NFTs.

Google makes a worldwide comparison for these searches by ranking them on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 representing the highest interest in relation to all other searches on the platform.

So which country has the most interest in NFTs? Interestingly, coming out on top was St Helena – a tropical island located west of mainland Africa.

The next four spots in the top 10 NFT countries were Nigeria, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Kenya. The United Kingdom ranked 7th and Singapore ranked 10th.

Abbasi commented: “Asian and African countries are typically more used to cashless and digitised systems than Western ones, so this could be why their adoption of NFTs has been so widespread.”

Interestingly, the US ranked in 15th place and China came in at position 64. This is probably due to the fact that Google is not used in mainland China.

These findings are based on Google Trends’ data that spans the last 90 days of searches. This data changes every day and we last updated this article on the 5th of August 2024.

Top 5 Best-Selling NFT Artists

Could NFTs Grow to Become More Popular Than Cryptocurrencies?

The market for cryptocurrencies currently dwarfs that of NFTs (their global market cap is estimated to be ​​$1.8 trillion).

While they are intended to serve different purposes, one being a digital unit of currency and one being a digital asset, they also have much in common. They are blockchain-based, being used as an investment tool by many, and are both booming.

Bankless Times wanted to compare searches for ‘NFT’ with searches for ‘cryptocurrency’ to see how they have changed over the last year.

Japan, which has a notable NFT art market but also a highly advanced cryptocurrency market, had swung to the highest ratio of NFT searches over cryptocurrencies, as the newer market apparently surges in popularity, showing an increasing NFT interest rate.

The US, meanwhile, leads in cryptocurrency adoption but does not lead in NFT interest (according to the data that we pulled from Google). It seems like the NFT craze reached its peak in 2021 and has since dipped in Western countries. 

Digital currencies have surged in popularity in some developing countries where fiat currencies are weaker, and are sometimes used in places where overseas workers send remittances home.

On the future and the state of NFTs, Abbasi notes: “There is definitely a lot of froth in the NFT market, as many new projects are coming out on a daily basis. Many will go to 0, but blue chips like Cryptopunks will likely retain their value and even continue going higher.”

More on NFTs


#Country #Buys #NFTs #Stats #Top #Countries

Want to see more news about NFT?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please enter CoinGecko Free Api Key to get this plugin works.