JPMorgan: Tezos And WAX Challenge Ethereum’s NFT Dominance

According to a JPMorgan analyst Nikolas Panigirtzoglou, many Ethereum (ETH) rivals are gaining dominance in the non-fungible token (NFT) market.

Panigirtzoglou said that high gas fees on the Ethereum network are the main reason why many users in the NFT market are moving to cheaper alternatives, presenting a potential threat to ETH.

“It looks like, similar to DeFi apps, congestion and high gas fees have been inducing NFT applications to use other blockchains… if the loss of its NFT share starts looking more sustained in 2022, that would become a bigger problem for Ethereum’s valuation.”

The analyst mentioned Solana (SOL) in particular, but according to him, other networks are also attracting NFT developers with their lower transaction fees – for example Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX), a crypto ecosystem that includes an NFT marketplace.

In November, the WAX NFT marketplace briefly overtook Solana and Flow and processed the second-highest level in terms of volume.

WAX, the exchange’s native token, is trading at $0.39, down 2.5% in the 24-hour chart, at the time of writing.

In addtion, Panigirtzoglou mentioned open-source blockchain Tezos (XTZ) as a seriously taken rival to Ethereum in NFT space.

Just last week, clothing retails giant Gap launched its new NFT lineup on the Tezos blockchain, highlighting the project’s energy efficiency in the announcement.

“Tezos uses a more energy-efficient approach to secure its network, allowing it to operate with minimal energy consumption and a low carbon footprint.”

At time of writing, XTZ trades at $4.19, with 1% profits on the daily chart.