The cryptocurrency boom over the past few years has helped propel a newer market to record heights: digital collectibles known as NFTs.
In fact, total NFT sales volume hit $23 billion over the past year as artists, investors, and entrepreneurs descend upon the nascent Web3 space.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique, irreplaceable, mostly digital items that users buy and sell online.
NFTs use blockchain technology to keep a digital record of ownership, similar to cryptocurrencies. They were first launched on ethereum, the same blockchain that supports the cryptocurrency ether, and most NFTs can still only be purchased using ether.
Despite the ongoing sell-off in cryptocurrencies, NFT sales have held up relatively well. In the past week alone, sales hit $237 million, according to data from NonFungible.com. But that's not as high as last week's NFT sales, having fallen about 29% from $335 million.
With NFT sales soaring, these were the five best-selling collections over the past week, according to NonFungible.
- Cool Cats
7-Day Sales Volume: $5.4 million
Number of Sales: 264
Highest Sale Price: $64,952
Explainer: "Cool Cats are a collection of programmatically, randomly generated NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. The 1st generation consists of 10,000 randomly assembled cats from over 300k total options. Cool Cats that have a variety of outfits, faces and colors – all cats are cool, but completed outfit cats are the coolest."
- The Sandbox
6-Day Sales Volume: $7.9 million
Number of Sales: 606
Highest Sale Price: $29,638
Explainer: "The Sandbox is a community-driven UGC-voxel platform where users own their LAND and host their creative magic."
- Doodles
5-Day Sales Volume: $8.2 million
Number of Sales: 260
Highest Sale Price: $64,952
Explainer: "Doodles come in a joyful range of colors, traits, and sizes with a collection size of 10,000. Doodles are a funky bunch that like to role play or transmogrify themselves into delicious treats. Holding a Doodle allows you to participate in coordinating the Doodles Community Treasury."
- CryptoPunks
7-Day Sales Volume: $37.0 million
Number of Sales: 57
Highest Sale Price: $607,676
Explainer: "10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement."
- Bored Ape Yacht Club
3-Day Sales Volume: $39.8 million
Number of Sales: 549
Highest Sale Price: $1.5 million
Explainer: "BAYC is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs -- unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain. Your Bored Ape doubles as your Yacht Club membership card, and grants access to members-only benefits."