Floor sweep

Marketplace aggregators let buyers select dozens of the lowest-priced listings and purchase them in a single transaction. Large collectors, funds and project treasuries use sweeps to accumulate quickly, express confidence or support a collection whose floor is falling. Because the cheapest listings disappear, the next-lowest price becomes the new floor, often visibly higher.

Sweeps are watched closely by NFT traders as signals of whale interest, and social media accounts announce them in real time. Some projects have used treasury funds to sweep their own floor, and bidding wars between traders sometimes start when a sweep triggers fear of missing out. Professional traders also sweep to fill large orders or arbitrage between marketplaces.

A sweep can be a form of market manipulation when the buyer immediately lists the items at higher prices or coordinates with others to pump the floor and then sell. Thin collections are especially vulnerable, since a few purchases change the floor dramatically. A rising floor after a sweep says little about lasting demand.