Polygon NFT sales surpass Ethereum, driven by RWA-based Courtyard

The NFT landscape is undergoing a notable shift, with sales on Polygon outpacing Ethereum for the first time.

According to data from CryptoSlam, NFT sales on Polygon (POL) reached $22.1 million in the seven days leading up to Aprill 22, surpassing Ethereum (ETH), which came in second with $21.8 million in weekly sales.

In addition to total sales, Polygon also outpaced Ethereum in the number of individual buyers. Over the past week, 39,027 buyers purchased NFTs on Polygon—a jump of 81.61%. In comparison, Ethereum recorded 36,544 individual buyers.

RWA project Courtyard fuels Polygon’s growth

The primary driver behind Polygon’s rise is Courtyard, a real-world asset (RWA) project that integrates NFTs. Courtyard accounted for $20 million in sales over the past seven days, making up the bulk of Polygon’s NFT volume. On April 22 alone, the project recorded $2.746 million in NFT sales.

Courtyard sells physical trading cards, with each corresponding to an NFT on the Polygon network. These include rare baseball, basketball, and Pokémon cards, which Courtyard keeps in a vault. The project also features a virtual vending machine that gives users random cards to start collecting.

The rise of Polygon-based Courtyard parallels the trend of layer 2 networks eating into Ethereum’s traffic and dominance. This has prompted criticism among ETH holders, which believe that Ethereum is allowing layer-2 networks to capture too much value from the ecosystem.

Still, Polygon remains deeply connected to Ethereum’s broader network. It benefits from Ethereum’s decentralization and security, and its EVM-compatibility ensures interoperability with Ethereum base layers and other L2s.