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Nike’s NFT Revenue Hits $185M, $92.21M in Just Royalties

Ruholamin Haqshanas

Published: August 23, 2022 7:41 pm

Sportswear giant Nike has garnered over $185 million in revenue from the sale of its NFTs, outperforming other fashion brands by a wide margin. The American shoe manufacturer made headlines last year with the acquisition of a company that made virtual sneakers.

Nike Generates $185M from NFT Sales

According to a Dune Analytics dashboard, which tracks the performance of large brands’ NFT projects, Nike has been the most successful company with its NFTs. The American shoemaker has raked in over $185 million from the sale of its NFTs.

The analysis further shows that Nike has received over $93 million in royalties, which are payments that compensate original NFT creators for the use of their virtual artworks in the secondary marketplaces. The company’s NFT collection has made $93 million in primary sales volume and $92 million in secondary sales to date.

In comparison, other companies have not been much successful. For instance, clothing brand Dolce & Gabbana, which is the second top company in terms of NFT revenues, has made around $25 million from the sale of its NFTs. Other major fashion brands like Tiffany, Gucci, and Adidas have each made between $11 to $13 million from their NFT sales.

As reported, Nike acquired RTFKT, a virtual sneakers company that creates NFTs and digital sneakers for the metaverse, in mid-December last year. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but RTFKT was last valued at $33.3 million, suggesting that Nike could have paid well over $30 million for the deal.

The RTFKT acquisition came after the footwear giant unveiled Nikeland, a 3D virtual space where fans can “connect, create, share experiences, and compete,” in November 2021. In fact, Nike’s interest in blockchain dates back to 2019, when the company started exploring blockchain technology to tokenize the ownership of exclusive shoes.

Earlier this year, Nike and RTFKT unveiled their first collection of virtual sneakers. Called CryptoKicks, it was a collection of 20,000 digital wearable items apparently designed for use in metaverse worlds.

NFT Market Slumps amid Lingering Crypto Winter

Amid prolonged crypto winter, the market for NFTs is also plunging. NFT sales volumes have fallen to the lowest levels in more than a year, and the floor price of blue-chip collections has also taken a hit.

According to NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume in terms of USD across the Ethereum blockchain has dropped to around $10 million in recent days, reaching late July 2021 levels, and down by nearly 98.5% compared to the all-time high of $628 million recorded on May 1, 2022.

Likewise, the floor price of blue-chip NFT collections has been hit hard. For instance, the floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club has recently fallen to 66.9 ETH, its lowest level in more than six months. The collection’s floor price has dropped by 13% over the past week and by 23% over the past month.

The continued growth of Nike NFTs even during the NFT market downturn could suggest that corporations and big companies can also benefit from this technology — especially if these companies incorporate use cases into their NFT projects.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist