Bored Apes lead blue-chip NFT rally to best week of 2026

The Bored Ape Yacht Club led a broad NFT rebound this week as blue-chip collections recorded their strongest weekly performance of 2026. BAYC rose about 22% to roughly 9.65 ETH, and CryptoPunks traded above 31 ETH. Nearly every major collection posted double-digit weekly gains.

CryptoPunks climbed about 16% on the week to trade above 31 ETH. Other notable weekly gains included Azuki up about 49%, BAKC up roughly 50%, Azuki Elementals up about 37.5%, Otherside Koda up 32.2%, Meebits up 29.3% and MAYC up 24.2%. Nouns recorded a 284.6% increase, but that occurred on 33 sales and about 51 ETH in volume. Hypurr declined about 6% in its HYPE-denominated market.

Several high-value transactions took place during the rally. Two Bored Apes sold in the past 24 hours: a Gold Fur ape for 121.9 ETH and a Trippy Fur ape for 49 ETH. Collectors recorded six-figure sales for an Ether Rock, a Lost Robbie and three Skulls of Luci. A lender issued a roughly $600,000 loan using an XCOPY ‘Last Selfie’ piece as collateral.

Market participants pointed to the winding down of large-scale marketplace incentive programs on platforms such as Blur, Magic Eden and OpenSea. Over the past three to four years, trading rewards and farming initiatives encouraged trading activity; with those programs ending, external incentives to trade are diminishing and market prices are responding more directly to collector demand and available supply.

Trading insiders cautioned that low sales counts and modest volume can produce large percentage moves that do not reflect broad demand. For example, Nouns’ percentage jump occurred on limited transactions. BAYC has risen about 100% over the past month; observers linked that run to recent leadership changes at the BAYC brand and renewed discussion of a physical clubhouse for holders.