The cryptocurrency boom over the past few years has helped propel a newer market to record heights: digital collectibles known as NFTs.
The craze has pushed total NFT sales volume to $29 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.
A months-long sell-off in cryptocurrencies and the implosion of TerraUSD has taken a bite out of NFT sales more recently. Weekly NFT sales had been more than cut in half from its early January peak of nearly $1 billion, according to data from NonFungible.com.
The past week has seen weekly NFT sales plunge 50% to $255 million from $505 million in the prior week, as familiar NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club reclaimed its top spot from newer entrants like Azuki and Otherside.
These were the five best-selling collections over the past week, according to NonFungible.
5. CryptoPunks
7-Day Sales Volume: $12.5 million
Number of 7-Day Sales: 138
Highest Sale Price: $386,000
Explainer: "10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement."
4. Meebits
7-Day Sales Volume: $28.0 million
Number of Sales: 363
Highest Sale Price: $221,000
Explainer: "From the creators of CryptoPunks, presenting Meebits. The next-gen "OG", 3D voxel avatars ready for any metaverse applications. Building upon the success of CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs to supply provably scarce and fairly distributed 3D character avatars."
3. Azuki
7-Day Sales Volume: $35.5 million
Number of Sales: 3,563
Highest Sale Price: $520,000
Explainer: "Azuki is a collection of 10,000 avatars that grant membership access to The Garden. The Garden is a corner of the internet where art, community, and culture fuse to create magic. The lines between physical and digital worlds are blurring and the rules are being rewritten."
2. Otherside
7-Day Sales Volume: $40.5 million
Number of Sales: 2,941
Highest Sale Price: $327,000
Explainer: "Otherside is a gamified, interoperable metaverse currently under development by Yuga Labs. Players will own the world, NFTs can become playable characters, and thousands will be able to play together in real time."
1. Bored Ape Yacht Club
7-Day Sales Volume: $46.3 million
Number of Sales: 806
Highest Sale Price: $403,000
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."
