Millions of digital collectibles exist on NFT blockchains in 2025. All of these NFT projects rely on the possibilities of blockchain technology to remain functional.
Despite the potential of blockchain, this beginner’s guide to NFTs wants to alert you that not all blockchain technologies allow users to create non-fungible tokens.
There are blockchains tailored specifically for NFTs.
After going through more than a thousand blockchains, we concluded that Ethereum, Solana, Immutable X, Flow, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Tezos, Panini, Avalanche, WAX, Arbitrum, Cardano, Palm, Ronin, Algorand, Cronos, Fantom, Waves, and OEC are the biggest NFT blockchains by all-time sales volume.
Among these blockchains, Ethereum is the most widely used for creating NFTs because it was the first network to implement smart contracts.
NFT Global Sales Volume Surpasses $70 Billion
Ethereum is the biggest NFT blockchain by sales volume
While Ethereum has many projects within its ecosystem, let us take a brief look at the history of Ethereum NFTs.
Terra Nullius, a project launched in 2015 designed to allow users to stake a claim on the Ethereum blockchain, is known as the first NFT on Ethereum, according to research conducted by Adam McBride.
Rare Pepe, which launched in October 2016 and started trading on Ethereum in 2017, came next. More than a thousand NFTs have been issued since then.
Out of the twenty (20) highest-selling NFT collections by all-time sales volume, eighteen (18) are on Ethereum. Prominent NFT projects include Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Art Blocks, and many others, leading the NFT space.
As of May 2025, Ethereum NFT blockchain sales had surpassed $45 billion. This statistic was arrived at due to the trading activities of more than 3.5 million buyers involved in over 54 million transactions. The lowest monthly sales volume generated by Ethereum NFTs was $3,041.35 in October 2017, and the highest monthly sales volume was approximately $4 billion in January 2022.
Ethereum’s success also stems from its interoperable platform compatibility with various other networks and cryptocurrencies.
Aside from using ether (ETH), the native asset of Ethereum’s ecosystem, collectors can use stablecoins (crypto assets pegged to commodities and fiat currencies such as GBP), DAI, United States Dollar Coin (USDC), United States Dollar Tether (USDT), and Binance Coin (BNB) to buy NFTs.
Ronin is among the pioneer NFT blockchains
Ronin came into existence in 2020 after Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular play-to-earn (P22) game and NFT Axie Infinity, realised that Ethereum was too slow to handle the large transactions that were needed to power the game.
Ethereum’s reliance on the Proof-of-Work algorithm limited its capacity, processing under 50 transactions per second due to this. In September 2022, Ethereum had a successful transition where it moved from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network, which has made it highly scalable.
While Ronin claims to support many artists, its total NFT sales have come from a single project, and that is Axie Infinity.
As of May 2025, Ronin’s all-time NFT sales volume was more than $4.2 billion. This was made possible by the trading patterns of 3.7 million people who were involved in over 24 million transactions. The least monthly sales volume came in November 2022, with about $78,064 generated within the period. The highest monthly sales came in August 2021, when Ronin generated more than $848 million from in-game NFTs in Axie Infinity.
You can use Axie Infinity Shard (AXS), Wrapped Ether (WETH), USDC, and Smooth Love Potion (SLP) to interact with NFTs and other decentralised applications (dApps) on the Ronin blockchain.
Solana NFTs have made it one of the biggest NFT blockchains within the space
According to public records, Kreechures was the first Solana-based NFT project released in March 2021. Kreechures is a role-playing video game (RPG) where gamers collect, level up, and grow their respective characters.
Since the launch of this project, more than a hundred more have been launched on Solana. Some of the top NFT projects on Solana are DeGods, Solana Monkey Business, Degenerate Ape Academy, Aurory, and Okay Bears. The projects fall under the top 100 NFTs in terms of all-time sales volume. As of May 2025, Solana NFTs have generated more than $6.3 billion from more than six million buyers involved in over 64 million transactions.
The smallest monthly sales volume generated by Solana NFTs was $64 million in July 2022, and the biggest was $311 million in April 2022.
The primary cryptocurrency used to buy Solana digital collectibles is SOL, the native asset of the entire Solana ecosystem.
Solana NFT Sales Surpass $6 Billion: Is SOL A Game-Changer for Digital Collectibles?
Flow is one of the sleeper-hit NFT blockchains within the market
Flow focuses exclusively on NFTs, while Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and Ronin diversify into NFTs, DeFi, and other blockchain uses.
Dapper Labs launched the blockchain in 2019. Dapper Labs launched CryptoKitties, a blockchain-based video game that provided in-game NFTs on the Ethereum network. Due to Ethereum’s scalability problems with its old proof-of-work (POW) network, Flow transitioned away from Ethereum, leading other NFT projects like NBA Top Shots, which features unique moments in the National Basketball Association, to follow suit.
Overall, Top Shots is Flow’s highest-selling NFT. Other notable platforms like NFL ALL DAY, capturing iconic NFL moments, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strike, and Gala Marketplace, also lead the market.
BALLERZ, Matrix World, Evolution, Flunks, Chainmonsters, Sturdy Exchange, Flovatar, RCRDSHP, Hoodlums, Meta Panda Club, San Francisco 49ers NFTs, and Vault by CNN are also among the highest-selling digital collections.
As of May 2025, Flow had surpassed $1.5 billion in sales volume, with sales coming from over 880,000 buyers who contributed to more than 44 million transactions. The minimum monthly sales were $8,352 in July 2020, and the largest monthly sales were $224 million, which came through in February 2021. To buy Flow NFTs, you need to have its native asset, FLOW, in your cryptocurrency wallet.
Cardano has moved up the ranks in NFT blockchain standings
Cardano remains one of the oldest crypto projects, with few real-world use cases, especially in the decentralised finance sector. With that said, Cardano has been an active participant in the NFT sector. Cardano-based NFTs launched in March 2021.
Charles Hoskinson keeps stakeholders informed about upgrades needed for the blockchain to rival Ethereum, its main competitor, and reach full functionality.
Top Cardano NFT collections include SpaceBudz, Gods Unchained, Chilled Kongs, and others, showcasing the platform’s diverse NFT ecosystem strongly.
As of May 2025, Cardano-based NFTs had total sales of about $650 million from more than 5.8 million transactions and over 1.3 million buyers. The blockchain generated the least monthly NFT sales of $1.6 million in July 2021 and the biggest monthly sales of $62.6 million in April 2022.
WAX continues to dazzle collectors as an NFT blockchain
WAX powers a modern Web3 ecosystem, specifically building a blockchain for NFTs and gaming that delivers high performance and usability.
Some of the top games on WAX include Alien Worlds, Mining Network, Wombat Dungeon Master, Prospectors, Taco, R-Planet, Blockchain Brawlers, Millions on Mars, Dragons Valley, DC x Funko, and TokenLands.
AtomicHub, NeftyBlocks, NFT Hive, and Simple Market are among the top WAX NFT marketplaces, offering users a range of options.
WAX, though lesser-known to NFT beginners, ranks sixth among NFT blockchains by all-time sales volume, surprisingly strong performance.
As of May 2025, WAX had surpassed $560 million in all-time sales. Around 780,000 buyers made over 30 million transactions, driving a significant portion of total sales on the platform successfully.
WAX NFTs saw huge sales swings, from a low of $5.57 in March 2020 to $140.9 million in November 2021 peak.
Buy WAX NFTs using WAX’s native asset, WASP, which supports NFTs and other decentralised applications seamlessly always.
Avalanche to become a major NFT blockchain with FIFA partnership
Avalanche continues to use its blockchain technology to help the NFT sector. Some of the top digital collectibles on Avalanche are AvaxApes, ParticleCollection, Chikn, CryptoSeals, AVAXPunks, AVAXLion, Party Animals, Louverture, and Chiknfarm.
You can find Avalanche NFTs on platforms like Joepegs, Kalao, and NFTrade, popular marketplaces for NFT enthusiasts and collectors.
As the seventh-largest NFT blockchain by all-time sales volume, Avalanche has surpassed other mainstream chains and could go up further due to the launch of OpenSea on its blockchain.
As of May 2025, Avalanche NFTs had been involved in 2.4 million transactions from more than 309,000 buyers and had an all-time sales volume of more than $600 million.
Avalanche NFTs saw a huge swing, from $19,112 in July 2021 to $151 million in January 2022 in sales.
Avalanche’s partnership with FIFA could lead to a substantial rise in its NFT volume due to football’s huge fan base.
Polygon is among the most scalable NFT blockchains
As a layer 2 scaling solution, Polygon massively supports DeFi, securing its spot among the top crypto finance chains currently.
Polygon NFTs have achieved enormous sales volume and significant trading activity with over a million active wallet addresses participating.
Polygon’s popular NFTs include The Martians Metaverse, ZED Run, and PolygonPunks, showcasing the platform’s diverse NFT ecosystem and offerings.
They actively feature Crypto Unicorns, Chicken Derby, Aavegotchi, My World NFT, Hailary Arts NFT, Galactic Society NFT, and more.
One World Nation, Killer Cat Bengal Club, Cross the Ages, and Genesis Curry Flow have performed well within its ecosystem.
Like Avalanche NFTs, Polygon NFTs have generated over $2 billion in total sales as of May 2025. The difference between the two chains lies in the number of buyers (3 million) and transactions (47 million).
The statistics indicate a relatively higher number of both transactions and buyers for Polygon-based NFTs. Polygon generated its lowest NFT monthly sales at the beginning of the buzz in March 2021, with $853,299.
As months passed, they boosted monthly sales from $9 million to $50 million, peaking at $58 million in February 2022.
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) continues to evolve as an NFT blockchain
Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017, building a robust cryptocurrency exchange to support the rapidly growing crypto economy’s needs.
Justin Sun and Changpeng Zhao both moved away from Ethereum due to its scalability issues affecting their platforms heavily.
Binance’s own blockchain enabled it to rival Ethereum and other networks, competing for a share of the DeFi market aggressively.
Ethereum’s first-mover advantage in smart contracts, led by Vitalik Buterin, made it the top network for NFT creators worldwide instantly.
Binance launched its NFT marketplace in June 2021, calling it groundbreaking, to expand its dominance in the crypto space further.
The new platform has brought crypto enthusiasts, creators, and artists together. Binance’s Proof-of-Stake algorithm enables low transaction fees and high scalability, processing thousands of transactions per second efficiently.
Top NFT projects on Binance Smart Chain include PancakeSwap Squad, Cake Monster, MetaWars, and others, driving BSC’s NFT ecosystem forward.
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CR7 NFT launch
In November 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo launched his first NFT collection. The platform he chose for this project was Binance.
Analysts predict a significant surge in Binance NFT sales volume when the market recovers and bulls return strong.
As of May 2025, Binance had surpassed $500 million in all-time NFT sales after being involved in 9.5 million transactions resulting from the buying activities of 1.5 million people.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Binance NFT partnership drove record growth, with 76,167 unique buyers on the platform in November 2022 alone.
July 2021 recorded the lowest sales volume of $20,370, while May 2022 recorded the highest sales volume of $93 million.
10 Comments
Interesting to see the sales volume comparison. Wonder how these numbers will change in the next year.
Great list! Solana’s been making big moves. Will it challenge Ethereum’s dominance in the NFT space though?
Cardano’s growing NFT ecosystem is a good sign for its future prospects. More development needed, though.
Would love to see more analysis, a different article, on the types of NFTs driving sales on each blockchain. Art, collectibles, or something else?
Ronin’s success with Axie Infinity is proof that gaming NFTs can drive massive adoption.
Wasn’t aware of some of the blockchains. Thanks for the info! Might need to explore further.
Loved the breakdown of some of the best NFT blockchain platforms out there.
Polygon’s low fees definitely give it an edge. More artists and collectors are taking advantage of it.
Love seeing the numbers! Flow’s inclusion was no surprise for me. Their popularity with mainstream brands like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) is a big deal. Can’t wait for more adoption.
Ethereum’s dominance is not surprising, but Solana’s growth is impressive. Wonder what other chains will challenge Ethereum’s status in the future.