Introduction

Nansen has labels for over 250 million addresses across more than 10 chains that highlight unique behaviors on-chain. Many of these labels can be further segmented into different sectors covering things such as NFT traders to expert liquidity providers (LPs). Users can explore addresses that are catered to their needs - funds, smart money tracking, whales, corporations, notable public figures and much more. See this page for definitions of Nansen Wallet labels guide and potential use cases.

Among all of Nansen's labels, Smart Money wallet labels are one of the most popular. They consist of addresses that have made good investments in the past, which can be used as an indicator when evaluating on-chain data and various quantitative metrics. In fact, we previously released a report that provides a structured workflow for analyzing Smart Money data and activity for NFT projects. While these Smart Money addresses have been successful and active in the NFT space historically, they tend to focus on past events, rather than future ones. Thus, they may contain a bit of noise when utilized as a sole indicator for benchmarking future trading behavior such as profitability.

To enhance the signal for NFT traders, we focus this report on addresses that are actively trading and consistently making profits in the NFT market. We are then left with an all-inclusive NFT Wallet Leaderboard that assesses “trending” elements through high-level macro trends and indicators. This report gives a detailed walkthrough of the dashboard and pro-tips on how best to identify a set of high-signal NFT trader wallets and actively track their activities. The Leaderboard also provides a step-by-step guide and template on setting up smart alerts to receive notifications on their NFT trading activities.

Methodology

We look at many factors to find addresses that are both active and consistently making money from NFT trades. These factors show how active a wallet is in the NFT world, both short-term and long-term, and how good it is at making profits.

• Weekly Realized PnL from projects bought/sold in the last 60 days

  • We'll focus on profits made from NFTs bought in the last 60 days and sold this week. Each week, we'll reset the PnL to 0 to track the latest weekly profits. If a wallet was active before but now only sells old NFTs for profit, it's likely outdated and not worth tracking.
  • Recent PnL is important for judging profitability. A wallet might have many trades or collections, but still lose money. Even if a wallet made profits in the past, it doesn't mean it's consistently making money now.
• No. of NFT trades in the last 1, 7, 14, 30, and 90 days
  • The number of NFT trades measures the market pulse by reflecting the general level of interest in the NFT market.
• No. of collections bought and sold in the last 1, 7, 14, 30, and 90 days
  • The number of collections a wallet has bought and sold also shows how active it is in the NFT world, just like the number of trades.
• Gas consumed in the last 1, 7, 14, 30, and 90 days
  • Although gas consumed and gas price are highly correlated, if a wallet uses a lot of gas during a bull market with high gas prices, it still shows the wallet's dedication to trading NFTs.
• No. of Blue Chip airdrops collections received up to date
  • Wallets that received many Blue Chip airdrops show they were early adopters in the NFT space. This may give more long-term confidence when they invest in new NFT projects. It also shows the wallet's variety in NFT trading. Ten Blue Chip airdrops, like BAYC, Alienfrenz, Azuki, Deadfellaz, Doodles, Karafuru, Proof Collective, CloneX, Onchain Monkey, and RTFK, were considered.

After calculating the mentioned factors for all addresses, we'll show the top-ranked ones from the Nansen Query Dashboard. This way, we can focus on active wallets and avoid outdated or inactive ones.

NFT Wallet Leaderboard

Realized PnL in ETH

The leaderboard ranked the wallets based on their total realized PnL based on profits made in the most recent week. As of April 23, 2023, the week this report was written, the top of the rankings were @punksOTC and this Medium Dex Trader. While @punksOTC has the highest Profit at 31.84 ETH, its total spending for the week was much higher compared to the other wallet. The wallet spent 1977.13 ETH compared to the other wallet’ expenditures of 1.52 ETH. This puts its ROI at only 1.61%, indicating that it makes large amounts of money by spending a lot in ETH. In addition, its rolling 4-week average profit is 65.68 ETH, and its rolling 4-week average spend is 4,662.69 ETH, which shows that this type of trading strategy may not be suitable for regular traders without sufficient funds. In terms of collections bought and sold this week, @punkOTC purchased Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club, with floor prices of 3.88 ETH and 51.45 ETH, respectively.

However, the second most profitable trader, this Medium Dex Trader, made a substantial profit of 23.48 ETH by investing only 1.52 ETH this week, resulting in an impressive ROI of 1547.64%. Its focus was exclusively on Checks - VV Originals. This may indicate that Checks - VV Originals is a promising collection that deserves further investigation. Furthermore, Medium Dex Trader was only active in 2 out of the past 4 weeks but was still able to generate significant profit. Individuals with a smaller investment portfolio may find it more convenient to follow this specific wallet and continue to monitor for this type of trader that is surfaced on the dashboard.

Besides the top profitable traders, many other successful NFT traders this week are trading collections like Otherside Koda, Otherside Vessels, Otherdeed Expanded, Otherdeed for Otherside, CaptainZ, HV-MTL, and Nakamigos. It could be helpful to look into these collections and keep an eye on these traders' activities using Nansen smart alerts.

Level of Activeness in the NFT Market

Wallet Leaderboard for No. of NFT Trades

As of April 2023, the average number of NFT trades per wallet is 5, down from 7 in January 2023. The peak was 12 trades per wallet in August 2021. Compared to previous years, the average number of NFT trades per wallet dropped 13% YoY and 8% since 2021.

Alpha Generated

We'll demonstrate how the dashboard is useful by providing examples of NFT trading plans created during the week we wrote this report.

In April 26, 2023, the most active NFT traders was justaboredchad.eth with 168 trades. Within a day, justaboredchad.eth purchased 14 NFTs of a KID called BEAST on Blur, which experienced a 5.1% increase in floor price from 0.504 ETH to 0.530 ETH and a 72% surge in volume from 25.3 ETH to 43.7 ETH. Additionally, justaboredchad.eth bought 10 NFTs of Quirkies Originals, a newly created project with a 24-hour floor price increase of 31% from 0.67 ETH to 0.88 ETH and a volume surge of 592% from 11.8 ETH to 81.4 ETH. The wallet also acquired collections such as Pyramid of Incineartion, Quirklings, and Space Riders NFT, which all experienced a surge in volume and average price over the last 24 hours. The filter "Last Number of Days" can be adjusted to track the top NFT traders over longer timeframes such as past 7, 14, 30, and 90 days.

Number of NFT Collections Bought and Sold

Wallet Leaderboard for Projects Bought and Sold

As of April 2023, the average number of NFTs bought and sold per wallet has decreased to 2.7 and 0.9, respectively, which represents a decline from the local peak in January 2023 when it was at 3.9 projects bought and 1.4 projects sold. The highest peak was in August 2021. Comparing the current year of 2023 to 2022, the average number of NFT projects bought per wallet has decreased by 17% and the average number of NFT projects sold per wallet has decreased by 18%.

Regarding NFT traders, lumy.eth has accumulated the most as of April 26, 2023, having purchased 10 collections. It comes as no surprise that the aforementioned wallet, justaboredchad.eth, ranked in second place. The most frequently bought NFT collections by lumy.eth included Forgotten Runes Wizards Cult, Night Run by Matto & Thousand Ant, and Forgotten Runes Warriors Guild. Meanwhile, NFT leaderboarder has sold the most, having sold projects such as reepz and pepe pee-pee. It's worth noting that the reepz collection was deployed just 15 days ago and has seen a 145% increase in average price from 0.015 ETH to 0.037 ETH, as well as a surge in 24-hour volume of 171,766% from 0.09 ETH to 155 ETH.

Total Gas Spent

Wallet Leaderboard for Total Gas Spent

As of April 2023, the average amount of gas spent per wallet remained relatively low at 0.02 ETH compared to the same time last year, which was 0.06 ETH. In 2023, the average gas spent per wallet is much lower than in 2022 and 2021, down by 51% and 79%, respectively.

Apart from the wallet labeled High Gas Consumer, the three wallets that consumed the most gas over the past day were Blue Chip NFT Holder, Rare NFT Collector and justaboredchad.eth, which consumed 63.63 ETH, 54.12 ETH, and 28.20 ETH, respectively. These wallets are highly committed to the NFT space, as seen by their high gas consumption. Aside from justaboredchad.eth, Blue Chip NFT Holder and Rare NFT Collector both minted numerous XENFT by XEN CRYPTO projects, resulting in their high total gas fee.

Total NFT Airdrops Received

Out of all the wallets that received an NFT airdrop, 96% received only 1 or 2 airdrops, while only 4% received 3 or more airdrops. The wallets that received the largest number of airdrops are Arizona Iced Tea, which received 9 airdrops, followed by 🤓 Steve Aoki, 🦍🥃🦉🐺.eth, "0x38bC41" on OpenSea, and 2823.eth, each of which received 7 airdrops. These wallets have shown a remarkable ability to accumulate airdrops. By closely monitoring the behavior of these top airdrop recipients, investors can gain valuable insights and potentially identify new and profitable airdrop opportunities.

Risk-On/Off Activities Indicator Analysis

NFTs are often considered a risky and illiquid investment. To gauge whether investors were taking on more or less risk in the NFT market, analysts can evaluate lagging metrics such as the average number of projects bought over time, average number of NFT trades and gas spent. During risk-off periods, investors tend to become more risk-averse and may not trade NFTs profitably, leading to a decrease in overall trading activity. Conversely, during risk-on markets, investors may have a higher appetite for risk and invest more heavily in NFTs.

To gauge the market’s risk appetite, we compared the average PnL in ETH with the ETH price in USD.

If the ETH price increases while the average PnL decreases, it’s usually a risk-off period. For example, the NFT market was less active from January 2022 to March 2022 and January 2023 to April 2023 as the average number of projects bought decreased. On the other hand, if the ETH price decreases while the average PnL increases, it usually suggests a risk-on period. For example, from April 2021 to May 2021 and November 2021 to January 2022, the NFT market was more active as the average number of projects bought went up.

This indicator is helpful for investors predicting NFT market trends. But remember, it's based on past movements and can change due to factors like macro events and regulations.