NFT sales drop again to $168 million over the past week. These were the 5 best-selling digital collections.

• NFT sales had a breakthrough year in 2021, and over the past 12 months, volume has hit $23 billion.
• Sales in January topped $1 billion for a single week, but sales have dipped, with a 29% decline week-over-week.
• These were the five best-selling digital collectibles that helped drive $168 million in NFT sales over the past week.

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.

But the ongoing sell-off in cryptocurrencies is beginning to take its toll on NFT sales. In the past week alone, sales hit $168 million, according to data from NonFungible.com. But that's down from last week's NFT sales, falling about 29% from $237 million. In early January, weekly NFT sales peaked at nearly $1 billion.

These were the five best-selling collections over the past week, according to NonFungible.

5. Doodles

7-Day Sales Volume: $3.7 million
Number of Sales: 142
Highest Sale Price: $78,454

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."

4. VeeFriends

7-Day Sales Volume: $6.2 million
Number of Sales: 146
Highest Sale Price: $331,069

Explainer: "10,255 token NFT project consisting of 9400 admission tokens, 555 gift goats, and 300 access tokens; including many one-of-ones. The main ambition of this project is to create meaningful intellectual property and create an extraordinary community."

3. The Sandbox

7-Day Sales Volume: $7.7 million
Number of Sales: 858
Highest Sale Price: $43,848

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

2. CryptoPunks

7-Day Sales Volume: $9.0 million
Number of Sales: 50
Highest Sale Price: $290,645

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: $32.2 million
Number of Sales: 491
Highest Sale Price: $637,375

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."