Anime NFTs called Azukis are seeing $300 million in sales volume, overtaking Bored Apes and CryptoPunks

• Azuki, an NFT collection of anime avatars, topped Bored Apes and CryptoPunks in one-month sales.
• Azuki is now the eighth most-traded collection with more than $344 million in sales volume.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks are now contending with 10,000 anime-like characters for the top spot among NFT collections.

Azuki, an up-and-coming anime NFT collection, launched earlier this year and has notched more than $300 million in sales in the last 30 days alone, giving it the No. 1 spot in digital-collectible trading for the last month, according to OpenSea data first reported on by Forbes.

NFTs, which are digital pieces of art tied to the blockchain, have surged in popularity since early last year with more than $41 billion in sales in 2021 alone. The nascent market has been dominated by the iconic CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club collections, which both have at least a billion dollars worth of all-time trading volume and make up the top two spots in all-time trading volume.

Azuki — which calls itself the "skaters of the internet" — is catching up, though. According to OpenSea, it's now the eighth most-traded collection overall with sales topping $344 million worth of ether. A single Azuki goes for at least $43,000, with the most expensive ones selling for around $500,000, according to DappRadar.

The Los Angeles-based creators behind Azuki launched the collection on OpenSea on January 12. Just four minutes after trading went live, they tweeted that the collection was sold out. The blockbuster initial offering totaled $29 million, according to Forbes.

Forbes reported that the makers want Azuki to eventually have an animated series, games, and merchandise. Owning an Azuki gives a person membership access to exclusive drops and experiences as well as a metaverse called "The Garden."

"An Azuki is your identity in the metaverse — let's build together," the website says. The Azuki official Twitter account did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this story.