Vesting NFTs Overtake CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins in Daily Sales

Vesting NFTs surged to the top of CryptoSlam’s daily sales volume rankings on Friday, generating more than $12.4 million on BNB Chain. The sudden spike pushed the niche product ahead of well-known digital art collections like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins, highlighting growing investor interest in new forms of liquidity for vested tokens.

The momentum also propelled BNB Chain to the number one spot among NFT blockchains for daily sales, recording nearly $14 million — almost double Ethereum’s $7 million. According to CryptoSlam, the Vesting NFTs are operated by UNCX Network, a decentralized service provider that enables users to wrap vested tokens and mint tradable NFT vouchers.

Unlocking Liquidity from Token Lockups

Vesting has long been a cornerstone of tokenomics, designed to prevent early investors and team members from selling large portions of tokens too quickly. Traditionally, locked tokens are inaccessible until their release date. Vesting NFTs provide a workaround: holders can trade NFT vouchers that represent their locked tokens, giving them access to liquidity without breaching vesting schedules.

While daily trading volumes remain in the millions, the market for vesting is far larger. Tokenomist data shows that about $15 billion worth of vested tokens were released in September, with another $10 billion set to unlock in the next two months. This positions Vesting NFTs as a potential billion-dollar use case within the broader crypto economy.

Utility-Based NFTs Gain Ground

Vesting NFTs aren’t the only utility-driven products attracting attention. Courtyard, a real-world asset tokenization platform that lets users use NFTs as vouchers for physical collectibles, ranked 10th in daily sales with nearly $500,000. Earlier this year, Courtyard generated $22.3 million in weekly sales on Polygon, briefly pushing the network to the top of global NFT charts.

DMarket also secured a spot among the day’s top performers. The platform specializes in interoperable gaming NFTs, allowing players to buy and trade cosmetics, outfits, and weapon skins as verifiable digital assets. Together, these projects suggest that utility-based NFTs are increasingly challenging traditional profile picture collections in market relevance.