January witnessed growth, primarily in NFT collections, despite a modest ~2% increase in ETH value. Leading NFT collections like Nansen NFT-500 and Blue-Chip 10 experienced notable growth, with their values rising by 9.35% and 9.76%, respectively.

This uptrend is being viewed as a sign of the NFT market's maturation. Among the categories that saw positive gains in January were social NFTs, including PFP sets, with the Nansen Social-100 Index rising by 13%. However, other categories such as Game-50, Art-20, and Metaverse-20 experienced declines of -7%, -1%, and -11%, respectively. Additionally, the average price of NFTs dropped by 13% to $107.

ETH, on the other hand, experienced a slight decline of 1.09% in the last 24 hours, trading at $2,269.61. Over the past 7 days, it saw an increase of 1.55%, but over the last 30 days, it decreased by 1.38%. The market cap and 24-hour volume of ETH also declined by 1.02% and 8.05%, respectively.

Recent NFT collections have demonstrated significant value increases shortly after launch. For example, the Rubber collection by Crypto Pop Punk on Solana saw its mint price of $23 skyrocket to $2,103 for 23 SOL tokens within just 24 hours, with a trading volume reaching $1.3 million in SOL. Similarly, the Mad Lads Solana NFT collection quickly saw its floor price rise to over 200 SOL, showcasing remarkable growth.

The NFT market appears to be maturing, with investors seeking sustainable investments rather than being solely driven by hype. Meanwhile, the CEO of EA has hinted at the possibility of an EA Sports Unified Metaverse, catering to over 70 million EA players in a sports-themed virtual world. Further details are expected to be announced later.