In May 2025, the global non-fungible token (NFT) market experienced a significant rebound, with total transactions reaching $468 million, a more than 20% increase from April, breaking the downward trend that had persisted for four months. This article will review the overall performance of the NFT market in May, focusing on on-chain transaction trends, popular projects, and industry outlook.
Overall Transaction Trend: Market Rebound Stops Decline
According to CryptoSlam.io data, since the beginning of 2025, the NFT market has experienced severe fluctuations:
January transactions were $679 million;
February plummeted to $478 million;
March further fell to $429 million;
April bottomed out at $373 million.
In May, the market finally stopped falling and rebounded, with total transactions rising to $468 million, marking the first significant growth month of the year.
On-Chain Performance: Ethereum Dominates, but New Chains Rise Rapidly
Ethereum remains the highest-volume blockchain platform, contributing over $142 million. However, it fell by 19% month-over-month, showing that the mainstream market is still weak.
Polygon ranked second with $74 million in transactions, driven by real-world asset (RWA) class NFTs, although it fell by a steep 45%.
Bitcoin network emerged as a strong contender, with NFT transactions reaching $73 million, up 16%, closely challenging Polygon for the second position.
Mythos Chain and Immutable ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with Immutable achieving a 44% growth, showing strong momentum.
Top NFT Series in May
Courtyard (Polygon): $60 million in transactions, down 8.08%, still in the lead.
DMarket: Covers popular games like Counter-Strike and Rust, with $40 million in transactions, a slight increase of 0.95%.
XSY Deposit (Avalanche): A new project in May, quickly attracting attention with $30 million in transactions.
Guardians Guild: Heroes: A mobile game NFT project, with $24 million in transactions, up 47%.
?? (BRC-20 protocol, Bitcoin): $22 million in transactions, up 65%.
CryptoPunks (Ethereum): $21 million in transactions, up 12%.
Guardians Guild Avatars (Immutable): $10 million in transactions, up 42%.
Doodles (Ethereum): Cartoon-style NFT, $8.7 million in transactions, a surge of 236%.
Pudgy Penguins (Ethereum): $8.4 million in transactions, up 8.8%.
Fx-wsteth-position (Ethereum): $7.7 million in transactions, down 4.3%.
High-Value Transactions
Strat Option #7: Sold for over $2.5 million, the highest in May.
XSY Deposit: Sold for $965,886, ranking second.
DNS #58 and gUSDC Lock #374 sold for nearly $960,000 and $830,000, ranking third and fourth, respectively.
Outlook: Early Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Growth Expected
Although the NFT market is still far from returning to the highs of 2021-2022, the market warming in May is considered one of the signals of a "bull market warm-up" by the industry. Many analysts believe that the NFT ecosystem will gradually move away from speculation-oriented to "practical assets" and "on-chain identity" directions. By 2030, the global NFT market size is expected to reach $2319.8 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of over 33% from 2025 to 2030.
