​ NFT wash trading increases by 126% in February: Data The t | Crypto Insider

​ NFT wash trading increases by 126% in February: Data

The top six nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces saw a rise in wash trading for the fourth straight month, with a total volume of $580 million. According to a new report from CoinGecko, February 2023 witnessed a 126% increase from the previous month’s volume of $250 million. As for the reason for the jump, the report points to a correlation with the overall recovery of NFT marketplace. Wash trading refers to the manipulation of trading volume or price through repeated transactions. The six marketplaces included in the report are Magic Eden, OpenSea, Blur, X2Y2, CryptoPunks and LooksRare. X2Y2, Blur and LooksRare played the largest roles in February’s wash trading volume, with $280 million (49.7%), $150 million (27.7%) and $80 million (15.1%), respectively. The other two marketplaces, Magic Eden and OpenSea, reported $590,000 and $42.57 million in wash trading, respectively. CryptoPunks, on the other hand, didn’t see any NFT wash trading, according to the report. The marketplaces have previously incentivized users to increase trading volume.