In a surprising turn of events on Friday, Vesting NFTs surged to the forefront of daily sales volume rankings on data aggregator CryptoSlam, generating over $12.4 million on the BNB Chain. This dramatic increase overshadowed established digital art collections like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins, highlighting a growing interest from investors in innovative liquidity solutions for vested tokens. The spike in activity positioned BNB Chain as the leading network for daily NFT sales, amassing approximately $14 million, nearly doubling Ethereum’s reported sales of $7 million for the same day.
According to CryptoSlam data, the driving force behind the rise of Vesting NFTs is the UNCX Network, a decentralized service provider. This project enables users to wrap their vested tokens and mint a tradable NFT voucher, effectively unlocking new liquidity avenues. Typically, vesting is employed to deter early investors and team members from selling their tokens prematurely, thereby preventing a hasty exit from the project. In this context, vesting serves to lock tokens and restrict holders from initiating sales.
However, the innovation of Vesting NFTs allows individuals with locked tokens to access liquidity by selling these NFTs. Each Vesting NFT encapsulates token lockups into tradable tokens that function as vouchers. Ownership of these NFTs grants holders rights to claim the vested tokens according to a predefined timeline, thereby allowing users to trade liquidity without violating their original vesting agreements.
While current volume figures for Vesting NFTs are still in the millions, the concept of crypto vesting is entrenched within the broader ecosystem. Recent data from Tokenomist revealed that in September alone, the crypto market unlocked approximately $15 billion in vested tokens, with an estimated $10 billion set to be released in the following months.
Notably, alongside Vesting NFTs, several utility-based NFTs have also claimed significant spots in the daily sales charts. The RWA tokenization platform Courtyard ranked 10th for the day with nearly $500,000 in sales, providing users with the option to utilize NFTs as vouchers for real-world collectibles. During a surge in sales in April, Courtyard NFTs contributed to Polygon topping the weekly NFT sales leaderboard with a remarkable $22.3 million in volume over just seven days.
Additionally, DMarket, a platform dedicated to the buying and selling of interoperable gaming NFTs, also made headlines by allowing gamers to acquire NFTs that serve as unique digital certificates of ownership for gaming cosmetics, character outfits, and weapon designs.
As the landscape of NFTs continues to evolve, the emergence of Vesting NFTs and the increasing popularity of utility-based tokens demonstrate a significant shift in investor sentiment and market dynamics, hinting at a burgeoning billion-dollar use case within the crypto space.
