In the third quarter of 2021, the volume of non-fungible tokens (NFT) sales increased to $10.7 billion. They were up more than eightfold from the previous quarter, indicating that the cryptocurrency craze has reached unprecedented heights.

NFTs were first brought to the market in 2017. While this sector has been trading since then, it wasn't until 2021 that the big figures started to roll in. NFT sales increased to Rs 79,000 crores in the third quarter of 2021, up from around Rs 9,600 crore in the second quarter and less than Rs 9,000 crore in the first quarter. In 2021, the total amount spent on NFTs will be Rs 98,435 crore.

NFTs are modern-day collectibles that can be purchased and sold online with digital proof of ownership for any goods included. The spike of NFTs has been unprecedented since the beginning of 2021. The monthly sale of NFT at OpenSea was little over $8 million in January, but it jumped to $95.2 million the following month.

The most expensive NFT to date is a digital collage that sold for $69.3 million in March at Christie's. No other NFT has come close to matching this price since then.

Despite rising sales and the involvement of celebrities and other investors, the number of NFT purchasers remains tiny.

In the third quarter, there were only roughly 265,000 active wallets dealing in NFTs on the Ethereum network.

When broken down further by price category, more than half of the NFTs sold in the third quarter were priced between $100 and $1,000. While 20% of individuals in the $1,000 to $10,000 range paid less than $100 for an NFT, around 17% paid less than $100.