The market for nonfungible tokens — such as artwork of bored apes — has been spiraling downward after sales sank sharply and the prices of popular NFTs plummeted over the last few weeks.

The crypto niche is on course to record its first month with under $1 billion in sales since June 2021, according to data tracker DappRadar. On the world's biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, sales volume has fallen 75 per cent since May, and looks set to scrape the lowest levels since July 2021, Dune data shows.

Prices of top-selling NFTs have also slipped. Some Otherdeed NFTs, which were in such high demand at their May launch that they clogged up the Ethereum network, have seen their price floors fall by about 30 per cent in the last 30 days.

Even high-profile acquisitions of NFT platforms — such as eBay's deal to buy NFT marketplace KnownOrigin and Uniswap Labs' purchase of NFT marketplace aggregator Genie — and recent events like the NFT.NYC conference and Bored Apes' ApeFest 2022 in New York, have failed to revive investors' enthusiasm.