NFT Market Cap Drops $1.8B as Ethereum Steadies; Pudgy Penguins Still Outshine Bored Apes

NFT values took a serious hit lately. ETH price swings are definitely part of the story. Top collections felt the pain. It's kind of fascinating how NFTs and Ethereum still dance to the same rhythm.

The NFT market just lost about 14% of its value. Ethereum's recent settling-down sparked some notable drops across premium collections.

NFTs shed over $1.8 billion in market cap this past week. Ethereum had just hit new all-time highs before stabilizing.

Looking at the latest numbers, NFT total market cap fell from $12.7 billion last Tuesday to roughly $10.9 billion today — that's a 14% drop. During this time, ETH prices bounced around a bit, moving between $4,950 and $4,700 — about a 5% swing.

ETH Price Still Driving NFT Values

Most fancy NFTs live on the Ethereum blockchain. Their prices seem almost magnetically connected to ETH movements. With ETH taking a breather lately, eight of the top 10 NFT collections took a hit.

CryptoPunks stayed on top but lost around $450 million. Their market cap tumbled from $3.2 billion to about $2.75 billion.

Trading slowed down too. CryptoPunks volume dropped by 22% to $15.3 million over the week. Fewer transactions overall.

Pudgy Penguins Keep Their Lead

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) continued sliding downhill. Their market cap shrank by nearly 15% — from $720 million to $612 million.

Meanwhile, those Pudgy Penguins are still waddling ahead of BAYC. Six weeks in a row now! They lost some value too — market cap went from $780 million to $695 million, an 11% dip. But they're firmly in second place overall.

Institutions Stepping In

Last month, Advanced Blockchain Technologies, a public blockchain company, bought five Pudgy Penguins NFTs for their corporate treasury. Not what you'd expect from traditional finance.

This move suggests big investors might be seeing blue-chip NFTs as actual investment assets. Something to mix into their portfolios. Seems like established collections are getting more respect, market wobbles or not.

The NFT market still jumps when Ethereum moves. But institutional interest in collections like Pudgy Penguins shows NFTs are reaching beyond just the early favorites like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes.

What happens next? Probably depends on where Ethereum goes. If ETH starts climbing again, NFTs might find their footing too.