A 132% jump in trading volume for Cardano-based NFTs sees the protocol become the third-largest NFT chain, behind Ethereum and Solana. This is according to data shared by Stocktwits, a community, data, and discovery platform for NFTs. A deeper look at the numbers shows the spike can be attributed to demand for NFTs for The Ape Society, Spacebudz, Clay Nation, and Derp Birds, which jumped 341%, 1066%, 318%, and 368%, respectively.

Cardano NFTs Volume Lags Behind Ethereum And Solana

Additionally, the traded volume over the period was $32,000 short of $1 million, which is impressive given that the Cardano DeFi space is yet to take off. However, the figure pales compared to Ethereum and Solana, which are 12x and 3x more, respectively.

Cardano’s gains seem to be Solana’s loss, as most of that volume can be attributed to NFT traders dumping their SOL NFTs in favor of Cardano NFTs. At least that is the opinion of one @IcedKnife, a self-proclaimed "Solana NFT degenerate" with quite an influence within the community.

As a result, the number of NFT trades and NFTs sold on Cardano rose by 40%. Additional data from OpenCNFT shows that the floor prices of top NFT projects on the protocol also rose between 40% and 140% within the period. On the other hand, Solana's 24-hour NFT volume sank 30%.

Things Will Get Better For The 3rd Largest NFT Chain

The volume spike has created optimism among proponents of Cardano NFTs. One such individual is Sooraj, a technical writer for the Orbis Project. He believes that as impressive as the NFT volume on Cardano is right now, it will explode once most of the DeFi protocols building on the platform go live. That said, he foresees a rise in the Cardano DeFi space despite the dismal market conditions.

Can Cardano NFTs overtake Solana and Ethereum? This remains to be seen, but anything is possible based on their performance in the past 24 hours.