According to the analysis of anonymous researcher hildobby, virtual transactions will account for more than half (58%) of the total NFT transaction volume on Ethereum in 2022. The strategy peaked in January, with virtual transactions accounting for more than 80% of total NFT transactions that month. The researchers used four filters to weed out odd trading behavior that most likely pointed to virtual trading.
First, they filtered out obvious NFT transactions between the same wallet address. Second, they studied back-and-forth transactions of the same NFT between two different wallet addresses, one of the most common virtual transaction strategies.
Third, if a wallet address purchases the same NFT three or more times, it is less likely to be flagged as a virtual transaction due to this situation.
Finally, if the wallets of buyers and sellers in an NFT transaction are originally funded by the same wallet, then it is clear that they are connected and thus marked as a virtual transaction. Hildobby attributes the increase in virtual trading activity to increased competition among NFT markets for market share in transaction volume.