Nansen to Track Solana NFT Data Amid Boom in Minting, Trading Activity

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On-chain analytics platform Nansen is adding to its toolkit of non-fungible token (NFT) analytics, announcing Thursday that its long-awaited Solana integration is live.

The data, which includes trade volumes, wallet analysis and minting dashboards, is sourced from the network’s two most popular marketplaces, Magic Eden and OpenSea, which collectively host more than 95% of all Solana NFT transactions.

The Ethereum-heavy platform has been eyeing Solana support for months, first integrating certain analytics from the blockchain back in April.

“We’ve been working on this most of the quarter as hard as we can, really,” Paul Harwood, head of product at Nansen, told CoinDesk in an interview. “It feels like we're quite far ahead from the rest of the ecosystem. I think we have scanned way more contracts than most people, and we're doing it all on-chain all in real time.”

While the world of Solana NFTs lacks the star power and attention brought by Ethereum’s blue-chip projects, its popularity among traders has never been better. The blockchains are now neck and neck in average daily transactions, with Solana’s edge coming from its significantly lower transaction costs.

Nansen wouldn’t disclose its active user numbers, but a representative told CoinDesk the platform’s suite of NFT services, dubbed “NFT Paradise,” has become increasingly popular in recent months.

While the NFT industry as a whole has grown beyond incipience, analytics platforms serving its enthusiasts remain a work in progress, with data from even the most popular sites, such as Dune Analytics and DappRadar, having a tendency to be inaccurate.

Nansen raised $75 million in a funding round in December led by Accel. The company made its first investment in an outside organization, gaming analytics firm ZeroDrop, in April.