SuperRare NFT Marketplace Sees Continuous Decline in Traffic as CEO Defends Industry’s Longevity

SuperRare Sees 45% Drop in Monthly Traffic Year-Over-Year

SuperRare, a leading digital art marketplace, has experienced a notable 45% year-over-year decline in monthly visits, according to Statista.

This downturn mirrors the broader trend of decreasing NFT sales and waning interest in digital art.

While 2024 began on a positive note for SuperRare, with a 29% increase in January visits compared to December 2023, the momentum was short-lived.

By February, visits had dropped to 240,000, and by June 2024, they had further declined to 180,000—the lowest level since 2021.

Estimated total number of visits to the digital art market website superrare.com Source: Statista

This June figure represents a 45% decrease from June 2023 and a 10% drop from May.

Geographically, the United States (US) accounted for approximately 20% of June’s visits, followed by Spain and South Korea with 17% and 13%, respectively.

France and Russia contributed 8% and 6% of the total visits.

NFT Value Collapse: End of Q2 Sees NFT Sales Plummet Over 45%

SuperRare’s decline in monthly visits is part of a broader trend reflecting the overall downturn in the NFT market.

In Q4 2021, NFT marketplaces were booming, with nearly 2 million active wallets—five times the number in the most recent quarter.

However, this momentum has steadily waned, with only 1 million active wallets by the end of 2022.

The decline accelerated in 2023, with a more than 25% drop in active wallets between Q2 and Q3 alone.

Initially fuelled by art projects and collectible images, the NFT market has seen a sharp decrease in monthly sales within the art sector throughout 2023.

Notably, while legacy projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) remain in the top 50 by market cap, the landscape has shifted towards gaming-related NFTs, which offer in-game rewards tradable for cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, tokenised virtual land in metaverses like The Sandbox and Decentraland has seen a comparative decline in interest.

By the end of 2023, the number of active wallets had dropped to 213,000, and Q1 2024 saw a further 7% decline to 197,000.

Over the past two and a half years, NFTs have lost over 1.75 million users—a 90% drop from the market's 2021 peak.

This decline in activity is also reflected in the market dynamics, with more sellers than buyers by June 2024, leading to an oversupply and further depreciation in NFT values.

The average NFT price dropped by nearly 60% in June compared to March.

Despite a brief upward trend in Q1, NFT sales volume plunged by over 45% quarter-over-quarter by the end of Q2, as collectors opted to hold onto their assets in the face of unfavourable market conditions.

CryptoSlam data also showed that NFTs had a rough second quarter this year.

At the time of writing, August records an abysmal $211,662,224.43 in sales, a significant plummet compared to the other months.

SuperRare $RARE Token Surge Despite Low Sales: Signs of Market Manipulations or Binance Listing?

SuperRare ($RARE) token, launched in August 2021, has experienced a remarkable surge, rising over 70% in just the past two days and an astonishing 250% over the past week.

This rapid price increase has drawn attention to the digital art marketplace, signalling growing interest.

However, despite the impressive price action, the platform recorded only 35 sales totalling around $24K in the past week, raising concerns about potential market manipulation.

Moreover, the broader NFT market remains under pressure, with overall sales significantly declining since their peak in December 2023.

While RARE's surge is a positive development, it is important to approach this rally with caution.

Users also warn others to be cautious when trading RARE, stating that the "funding fee is -2%, which indicates that people are heavily shorting it.”

The limited trading activity and challenging market conditions suggest that the sustainability of this price increase is uncertain.

The recent price jump may also be influenced by Binance Futures' announcement on 15 August to list RARE for futures trading.

RARE is trading at $0.2702 at the time of writing, almost 26% increase in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

Whether this surge marks the beginning of a long-term trend or is merely a short-lived pump remains to be seen.

It is crucial for investors to conduct thorough research (DYOR) and exercise caution before making any decisions.

Web3 Professionals Optimistic About NFT Turnaround; SuperRare CEO Adamant NFT is Not Dead

Despite the current decline in trading volumes, optimism remains strong within the Web3 community regarding the potential resurgence of NFTs.

Mohsin Waqar, CEO of Web3 gaming platform Senet, expressed confidence that NFTs will rise again as more industries discover ways to integrate the technology.

Waqar emphasized that making NFTs more user-friendly could spark renewed and sustained interest:

“Yes, I believe interest in NFTs can peak again, particularly as the technology and its applications continue to evolve. The initial hype phase was driven by curiosity and speculation, but the next peak will likely be driven by genuine utility and mainstream adoption.”

Anoir Houmou, CEO of the Sui-backed video engagement platform RECRD, shared a similar sentiment, noting that NFTs are already experiencing "healthy adoption rates," particularly in gaming.

Houmou suggested that integrating NFT minting and tradeability into loyalty programmes could further open the ecosystem to brands and advertisers:

“For example, driving endorsements and collaborations with brands can significantly boost the visibility and credibility of NFTs, attracting a broader audience and enabling a more transparent environment for valuation and trading.”

Jonathan Perkins, co-founder and CPO of SuperRare, likened the NFT space to the early days of the internet.

He recalled how many initially dismissed the internet as a "toy for nerds" or a platform for "scams and porn."

However, he pointed out that the internet has become so deeply integrated into daily life that it is now indispensable, and he believes NFTs could follow a similar trajectory:

“NFTs are an extremely powerful token standard, and nothing has fundamentally changed about their utility or value. I believe we'll see trillions of dollars of value represented in NFTs over the next ten years.”

John Crain, SuperRare's co-founder and CEO, addressed the negativity surrounding NFTs, urging a broader perspective. He acknowledged the ongoing challenges but expressed confidence that the NFT business model will continue to evolve.

Meanwhile, Dave Catudal, co-founder of social monetisation platform Lyvely, recognised that the valuation of NFTs as collectibles may face resistance for some time.

He stressed that NFTs must demonstrate their value to be taken seriously by a wider audience, yet he remains optimistic about the long-term growth of the technology and its utility.

What is SuperRare?

SuperRare is a marketplace designed for collecting and trading unique, single-edition digital artworks.

Built on Ethereum, a blockchain platform that enables secure verification of art creation and ownership, SuperRare ensures that each artwork is minted directly by the original artist from their unique wallet address.

Every bid, sale, and collector is permanently recorded in the token's history on the blockchain, providing a transparent and immutable record of provenance.

When an artwork is added to SuperRare, it is tokenised, meaning a unique non-fungible token (NFT) is generated by the artist, which collectors can purchase.

This NFT serves as a permanent record of ownership and provenance, linking the token to the artwork.

In August 2021, the SuperRare Labs team launched SuperRare 2.0, introducing new features such as SuperRare Spaces, the SuperRare DAO, custom 'series' smart contracts, and the $RARE curation token.

These advancements aim to expand the platform's functionality and further empower the community.

SuperRare's Background

From its inception, SuperRare has been driven by a small but passionate team, offering a sanctuary for digital artists in a world that often overlooked them.

Initially launched as an experiment—a proof of concept for NFT marketplaces—it quickly became evident that SuperRare would evolve into a digital art platform of far greater significance than anyone had anticipated.

In 2018, when the value of ETH was much lower than it is today, the first artists to mint on SuperRare, now considered cryptoart legends or "OGs" (using community terminology), such as Coldie, XCOPY, Upheaver, Hackatao, and Killer Acid, exchanged artworks among themselves at modest prices.

During those early days, SuperRare was not exclusively a 1/1 marketplace; artists could mint multiple editions of their artworks, many of which did.

Despite not being 1/1s, these early editions hold significant scarcity and historical value, often counted among the first 100 tokens minted on the platform.

John said:

“We had a dream and a hope that NFTs and digital art would go somewhere. Personally, I was always into generative art and following digital artists. I thought it would be so cool if you could collect somebody’s Processing work and wondered what that would look like.”

When John, his brother Charles (now SuperRare's CTO), and Jonathan Perkins first encountered NFTs, they recognised the potential for these digital assets to revolutionise the art market.

They launched SuperRare without any external investment or backers, working nights and weekends with the vision of creating a marketplace where buyers could confidently find authentic NFTs.

Perkins noted:

“It was slow and steady growth for the first two years. The fall of 2020 was when you started to see numbers ticking up and new collectors entering the space who we didn't personally know.”

As sales surged in 2021, they took steps to democratise both the business model and the curation process, distinguishing SuperRare in an increasingly crowded market.

Also in August 2021, SuperRare transitioned into a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) and introduced its own governance token, $RARE.

This allowed community members to buy into the company, gain voting rights on operational decisions, and share in the platform's profits.

As SuperRare gained traction in the cryptoart space, its founders brought on expert curators, solidifying its reputation as a marketplace for the highest quality digital art.

Being whitelisted to mint on SuperRare became a coveted status for artists, symbolising blue-chip legitimacy within the cryptoart community.

John Crain, Co-Founder & CEO

John Crain, the Co-Founder and CEO of SuperRare, is at the forefront of revolutionising art collecting in the digital age.

A staunch advocate of CryptoArt, John’s expertise as a coder was honed during his time at ConsenSys, a leading Ethereum software company.

He is also a founding member of BlockApps.

The management team at SuperRare benefits from a deep level of trust, strengthened by the fact that John and his brother Charles, who plays a key role in the company, work closely together.

His socials: X and LinkedIn

Jonathan Perkins, Co-Founder & CPO

Perkins is a seasoned software engineer and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in web application development.

Currently, he serves as the co-founder and CPO at SuperRare.

His career began in the Bay Area, where he spent 10 years as a software engineer and start-up founder.

He later moved to New York City, where he focused on holistic product design, working with notable clients like HBO and Viacom.

Perkins also co-founded Kickback Tickets and CrewSpark, an NYC-based data science startup, where he played a key role in product strategy, development, and front-end engineering.

Additionally, he served as a Software Developer at Reaktor and was pivotal in managing Wells Fargo's Community Mural Program, which oversaw the creation and installation of hundreds of murals across the USA each year.

His socials: X and LinkedIn

Charles Crain, Co-Founder & CTO

Charles is a co-founder and the CTO at SuperRare, bringing a wealth of experience as a software engineer and entrepreneur.

Before joining SuperRare, he worked as a Blockchain Engineer at BlockApps.

Charles holds a degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Software Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His expertise spans web application development, with a strong focus on JavaScript, Node, React, as well as product and business development.

His socials: X and LinkedIn

SuperRare's Socials

Website

X

Telegram

Discord

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

NFTs Need Real World Value or Risk Dying Out

SuperRare aims to evolve into a fully community-driven platform for artistic expression, with governance and curation shaped directly by the $RARE token.

From its inception, SuperRare's success has been anchored in creating a space for authentic, high-quality art and thoughtful curation.

The team has always believed that curated art deserves its own dedicated space on the internet, and this belief has only strengthened over time.

However, recognising that art and curation are inherently subjective, SuperRare 2.0 is poised to transition from a single curated platform to a broader ecosystem where diverse forms of curation can thrive.

This shift towards decentralisation will empower the community, aligning incentives to support a more expansive and varied art ecosystem.

Yet, with the NFT market currently in a downturn, the challenge lies in imagining a revival of the artistic NFT bull market.

It seems more likely that the NFT market will evolve, adapting to new sectors.

NFTs themselves are not assets but rather tools to record ownership and authenticity on the blockchain.

Their true value lies in their ability to certify ownership, enable secure transfers, and ensure interoperability, not in the tokens themselves.

The notion that purchasing an NFT equates to acquiring an asset that will appreciate over time is built on shaky foundations.

While the future of the NFT market remains uncertain, there is potential for a resurgence if it evolves to meet the needs and desires of investors.

Coinlive believes that SuperRare's vision of defining the future of artistic expression on the web and building a brighter future for creatives is still within reach, as evidenced by their earlier successes.

However, in a market far from its peak, SuperRare must distinguish itself to make a lasting impact.

NFTs need to transcend their role as mere certificates of ownership and offer real-world utility.

The question now is whether SuperRare can lead a future where blockchain and digital art converge to redefine creativity and ownership.