Immutable X and zkEVM NFT Sales Surge 55% in Q4 2024, But Market Participation Declines

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the total NFT sales volume across Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM increased by 55.3% quarter-over-quarter.

Messari’s latest analysis revealed that the figure rose from $51.2 million to $79.5 million.

Market Participation Plummets

Despite this growth, both the average daily sellers and buyers declined significantly, with daily sellers dropping 43.0% from approximately 1,500 to 880, and daily buyers falling 38.1% from about 1,300 to 800. This suggests a shift toward higher average transaction values amid fewer market participants.

The sales surge was primarily driven by strong demand for Guild of Guardians Heroes and Avatars NFTs, which accounted for more than 99% of the total NFT trading volume in the quarter. Most of the sales occurred on Immutable zkEVM, where Guild of Guardians NFTs are traded. Immutable zkEVM also saw a substantial 73.3% rise in average daily NFT sales volume, growing from around $484,000 in Q3 to $839,000 in Q4, boosting its share of total sales volume to over 97% across both chains.

During the same period, Immutable zkEVM saw a decline in user engagement following record highs in Q3. In fact, average daily transactions decreased by 21.1% quarter-over-quarter, from approximately 595,000 in Q3 to around 469,000 in Q4. Similarly, average daily active addresses dropped 23.8%, from about 267,000 to 204,000, and average daily new addresses fell 29.8% to roughly 32,000 by the end of the quarter.

This decline in activity mirrored broader trends in the GameFi market, which according to Messari, likely reflects a cooldown after the surge in Q3 driven by popular game releases like Guild of Guardians, Immortal Rising 2, and Illuvium.

Throughout last year, Immutable progressively expanded developer access to zkEVM. In October, the platform removed its deployer allowlist which allowed for permissionless deployment of smart contracts and applications. This move lowers entry barriers for developers, positioning Immutable zkEVM for increased developer activity in the coming months.

In Q4 2024, average daily transaction fees on Immutable zkEVM fell by 17.0% quarter-over-quarter, from approximately 574 IMX to 477 IMX. Messari attributed this decline to reduced network congestion, which was a result of lower transaction activity during the period. To improve the user experience, Immutable has implemented a policy where it covers all gas fees for Immutable Passport holders, removing the need for players to pay gas fees and thereby reducing friction in the transaction process.

By the end of 2024, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) on Immutable decreased to $13.8 million. This decline was likely due to a quarter-over-quarter drop in the price of the IMX token, which reduced the USD value of locked assets.

However, TVL measured in IMX showed a positive trend, increasing by almost 17% quarter-over-quarter to 10.33 million IMX, which suggests that the rise could have been driven by capital inflows despite the decrease in USD value.

Immutable’s SEC Trouble

On November 1, 2024, Immutable announced that it had received a Wells notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – an enforcement action concerning its 2021 IMX token sales. Immutable expressed concerns over the notice and released a statement saying that it was issued with limited prior communication and minimal details.

The company had then highlighted that the notice was delivered shortly after its first direct interaction with the securities regulators which raised questions about the timing and transparency of the process.

Fast forward to 2025, the SEC has closed several of its crypto investigations, with no enforcement charges resulting from probes into OpenSea, Gemini, Robinhood Crypto, and Uniswap. However, investigations into Immutable, and other platforms such as Crypto.com, and Unicoin are still ongoing.