Top NFT performers by weekly sales: Courtyard, ATMC BRC-20 NFTs, X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs, CryptoPunks lead collectibles market
CryptoSlam’s weekly NFT data for the week ending May 17, 2026 is messy. Sales fell 13.53% to $60.227 million, while buyers jumped 235.23% to 91,290. That is not exactly bullish. It is not cleanly bearish either. My take: the split is the story. Less money moved, but more wallets showed up across Polygon, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.
CryptoSlam, which tracks NFT sales across chains, reported weekly sales down from $69.65 million the previous week to $60.227 million. I would not call that a clear risk-on move. It looks more like a market testing the water. Fewer dollars. Many more buyers. Most NFT market recaps would call the buyer spike the bright spot. That is only half right, because smaller tickets can make activity look healthier than liquidity really is.
Courtyard led the table with $7.391 million in weekly sales on Polygon for the week ending May 17, 2026. $ATMC BRC-20 NFTs came next with $4.008 million in sales, 3,283 transactions, and 1,286 buyers on Bitcoin. $X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs took third with $3.922 million, 41 transactions, 13 buyers, and 15 sellers, also on Bitcoin. Why does this matter? Because the top 3 were not just Ethereum blue chips taking turns at the front.
CryptoPunks ranked fourth with $3.592 million on Ethereum, across 44 transactions, 29 buyers, and 35 sellers. $VRQQ BRC-20 NFTs ranked fifth with $3.304 million, 2,844 transactions, 1,173 buyers, and 306 sellers on Bitcoin. The obvious bit: Bitcoin-based BRC-20 NFTs took 3 of the top 5 spots. CryptoPunks still brought in serious money with a much smaller transaction count. That last part is easy to underweight. I would not.
The Bitcoin angle is hard to miss. BTC is already part of the spot ETF and reserve asset conversation. On May 17, 2026, Bitcoin also had $ATMC BRC-20 NFTs, $X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs, and $VRQQ BRC-20 NFTs in the top weekly NFT rankings. So no, this is not only a JPEG market read. Traders now have to watch BTC spot price, blockspace demand, speculative appetite, and whether users are actually showing up on-chain.
The details are uneven, though. $X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs did $3.922 million from only 41 transactions and 13 buyers. $VRQQ BRC-20 NFTs did $3.304 million from 2,844 transactions and 1,173 buyers. Those are not the same kind of market. One looks concentrated and expensive. The other looks busier and more widely distributed. If you trade BTC-linked NFTs, that difference matters more than the ranking. Skip the leaderboard worship.
The flow picture is less flattering. Sales fell 13.53%, from $69.65 million to $60.227 million, even as buyer count rose 235.23% to 91,290. In crypto terms, that looks like appetite without much size behind it. People want exposure, but they are still careful about putting real money into illiquid JPEGs, BRC-20 NFTs, or older Ethereum collections before BTC and ETH give them a stronger reason. Is that caution irrational? Not really, not when volume is moving the wrong way.
Polygon has something to point to as well, since Courtyard led all collections with $7.391 million in sales. Counter to the usual “NFTs follow Ethereum first” framing, the week’s biggest collection sat on Polygon. If Courtyard keeps showing up near the top, lower-cost chains still have a place in NFTs when users want cheap, quick transactions. For people watching the Polygon ecosystem, Courtyard’s May 17, 2026 result is worth tracking, even though the whole NFT market stayed below the previous week’s $69.65 million total.
Ethereum’s position is different. CryptoPunks did not win the week, but $3.592 million from 44 transactions is still real money. No shock there. CryptoPunks remains one of the clearest reads on premium NFT risk. My view: its volume says more about high-end collector nerve than broad retail excitement. It can show whether big collectors are coming back to Ethereum collectibles or just chasing faster Bitcoin and Polygon trades for now.
The source had no direct quotes and no named analyst beyond CryptoSlam’s data. That matters a bit. Without a stated view from CryptoSlam, the market has to read the tape on its own: lower sales, more buyers, strong Bitcoin-chain entries, a Polygon winner, CryptoPunks still hanging around. The headline is not “NFTs are back.” The cleaner read is that NFT demand is splitting across chains while traders test where liquidity still works. Yes, that sounds less exciting. It is also probably closer to the tape.
What this means
The May 17, 2026 data points to a market with more participants, but not necessarily more strength. NFT buyers rose 235.23% to 91,290, while weekly sales fell 13.53% to $60.227 million from $69.65 million. For BTC, BRC-20 NFT traction is the thing to watch: $ATMC BRC-20 NFTs, $X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs, and $VRQQ BRC-20 NFTs all landed in the top 5. For ETH, CryptoPunks’ $3.592 million keeps the premium collectible bid alive, but Ethereum does not own the weekly story by itself anymore. I’ll be honest: that is a real shift, even if one weekly ranking is not enough to call a regime change.
The next CryptoSlam weekly NFT ranking matters. Watch whether total sales climb back toward $69.65 million or sit near $60.227 million. Watch Courtyard above or below $7.391 million on Polygon. Watch whether Bitcoin-chain BRC-20 NFTs keep 3 of the top 5 spots. Watch whether CryptoPunks can move beyond 44 transactions. If buyer growth stays high while volume stalls, the NFT market may be adding users before it finds real conviction again.