NFT sales hit $319 million over the past week. These were the 5 best-selling digital collections.

• NFT sales have had a breakthrough year, with total sales volume surging to $14 billion in 2021.
• The NFT market is dominated by a handful of standout leaders due to their popularity and rarity.
• These are the five best-selling digital collectibles that helped drive $319 million in NFT sales over the past week.

The cryptocurrency boom over the past two years has helped propel a newer market to record heights: digital collectibles known as NFTs.

In fact, 2021 has been a breakthrough year for NFTs, with total sales volume hitting more than $14 billion as both 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.

In the past week alone, sales of NFTs hit $319 million, according to data from NonFungible.com.

With NFT sales soaring, these are the five best-selling NFT collections over the past week, according to NonFungible.

5. Cool Cats

7-Day Sales Volume: $7.2 million
Number Sales: 212
Highest Sale Price: $146,089

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."

4. The Sandbox

7-Day Sales Volume: $17.7 million
Number of Sales: 1,238
Highest Sale Price: $245,031

Explainer: "The Sandbox is a community-driven UGC-voxel platform where users own their LAND and host their creative magic."

3. Art Blocks

7-Day Sales Volume: $21.6 million
Number of Sales: 7,522
Highest Sale Price: $1.1 million

Explainer: "A storefront for genuinely programmable and on-demand generative artwork that is stored directly on the Ethereum blockchain."

2. CryptoPunks

7-Day Sales Volume: $49.6 million
Number of Sales: 164
Highest Sale Price: $1.2 million

Explainer: "10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement."

1. Bored Ape Yacht Club

7-Day Sales Volume: $104.3 million
Number of Sales: 2,111
Highest Sale Price: $1.6 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."